> Do you think IDE would help much? I don't think so. It'd help quite a bit with the parts that make writing this in Java different from talking through a pseu

> Do you think IDE would help much? I don't think so. It'd help quite a bit with the parts that make writing this in Java different from talking through a pseudocode implementation, yeah. Or just let them write pseudocode instead, since you've written you don't care much about the details (aside from knowing you need to take care when manipulating strings that you're operating on the correct unit in order not to turn it into gibberish, which is a universal detail, not specific to Java). Bonus to that approach: you haven't just made your candidate incredibly self conscious over and distracted by things you apparently didn't care about to begin with, and there's also a lower chance they'll try to correctly use the language in ways you don't like and expected them to guess you don't like (e.g. using a single utility method that solves the problem immediately).