I've been interviewing a bit recently and not a single candidate has actually managed to complete it successfully (I use a slightly simpler variation with diffe

I've been interviewing a bit recently and not a single candidate has actually managed to complete it successfully (I use a slightly simpler variation with different numbers and strings). They have all been juniour but all claimed at least a few years of programming experience (counting university/school). Thinking I was going nuts, I tried it out on my colleagues including one whose total programming experience was trying to learn Python a few months ago, and they finished 100% correctly in under a minute. I don't ask for correct syntax, an actual programming language, fret over the 100 being included or not etc. Heck I even ask them what the output would be for the "code" they just wrote and they usually get that wrong too! For a for loop and 3 arms of conditionals. I suspect it is a standin for experience. You can get pretty far copying and pasting sample code you find on the net, maybe altering a number or two. (Or the far more telling commenting blocks of code out.) These days you can have something that appears to work by using project creators and tinkering, but not actually doing a reasonable amount of what could be considered older school programming.