I've seen candidates who screw up problems which boil down to trivial "if" or even just "return" statements on the whiteboard (like "write a function which dete

I've seen candidates who screw up problems which boil down to trivial "if" or even just "return" statements on the whiteboard (like "write a function which determines if the argument is an even number"). The argument of mental associations makes sense, but having someone in front of a whiteboard with a trivial problem is a good way to tell if the candidate can program at all.