I was asked to write very little code for my current position. One of the questions was being presented with some code and figuring out what it did. I didn't

I was asked to write very little code for my current position. One of the questions was being presented with some code and figuring out what it did. I didn't realize how apropos that question was at the time. I just got done doing a series of 10 1-hour interviews for contractors for an enterprise Java web application contract lasting about 6 months. Only 2-3 of them could write correct Java on a white board for simple questions. We had three who weren't even close to Java syntax. Code quality seemed to be directly relational to algorithm quality, in that those with better syntax also knew how to solve the algorithms best, and those with terrible syntax were way off on the algorithms. Up until we asked these candidates to write code on the board, a few of them sounded like great hires. They could rattle on about design decisions and enterprise web application stacks, about configuration and organization. But when it came to the white board at least one of them just stood there and left it mostly blank. Some of the positions here have had interviews where the candidate is expected to write code but only one, if even that, interviewer asked to see any code. And even then the managers don't seem too worried when I tell them the person can't code, because everyone else likes them so much.