I'm not sure if you exaggerated or we are talking about different things. But if I ask candidate to write any simple sort algorithm (like 2 nested for loop) an

I'm not sure if you exaggerated or we are talking about different things. But if I ask candidate to write any simple sort algorithm (like 2 nested for loop) and they can't do it, I'd be extremely worried. I know you will never write sorting logic in work, but we have to evaluate something. Basic non-mind-bending coding problem seems justified.