I was with you until the "The best programmers..." line. They are the best programmers for whatever reasons were important in whatever it was that they were doi

I was with you until the "The best programmers..." line. They are the best programmers for whatever reasons were important in whatever it was that they were doing. When I have asked interviewees to do anything on a whiteboard I've generally said 'pseudo-code is fine or whatever language your comfortable in or even diagram it'. What I'm looking for is an awareness of high-level concepts and ideas. People may not google for something if they don't know to google for it.