I don’t think so. I can touch-type but I have worked with many excellent programmers who can’t. Consider Stephen Hawking as an extreme example. Productive? Sin

I don’t think so. I can touch-type but I have worked with many excellent programmers who can’t. Consider Stephen Hawking as an extreme example. Productive? Since we don’t have a way to measure “being productive” in an objective or meaningful way you just assume without evidence that inability to touch-type decreases productivity. Programming requires typing but only incidentally — the real work happens in the brain, not in the fingers. I’d concentrate on requiring ability to solve problems in code first, and then ability to program. Typing falls much lower on the list of desired skills. Too many programmers can’t even program effectively.