It depends. It's better to get a candidate unstuck with a few hints and then not give them a perfect score, than just staring at them while they struggle then c

It depends. It's better to get a candidate unstuck with a few hints and then not give them a perfect score, than just staring at them while they struggle then crash and burn and panic. Sometime a little hint is all it takes, and then you get to see a great solution you didn't expect, or awesome code, and the candidate still passes the bar - while not in flying colors.