Actually to me this just sounds like a typical bad tech interview. The idea that you'll be live coding on the job with someone looking over your shoulder is kin

Actually to me this just sounds like a typical bad tech interview. The idea that you'll be live coding on the job with someone looking over your shoulder is kind of silly no matter where you work, even in an open workspace. Also, you'll probably use your own tools not their IDE, and if you did use their environment, you'd have ample time to pick it up. And so on and so forth. I've frozen in interviews before under similar circumstances. The only blame I place on myself is not being a better interviewee... it really is a skill unto itself quite apart from the job and apart from programming.