"Look, he couldn't even copy stdin to stdout, LOLOL". The most probable reason for the failure is because Java is not used in industry that much as a shell pro

"Look, he couldn't even copy stdin to stdout, LOLOL". The most probable reason for the failure is because Java is not used in industry that much as a shell programming environment. The most common use case for Java is as a server-side, long-running server, with C++-like performance and without C++-like headaches. I work with algorithmic trading engines in my job. Though I trade personally these days and the orders are small, the engines I implemented for banks typically handle $250m worth orders per stock exchange. I have NEVER, not in a single instance in the last 5 years, have had to read from stdin in Java. Why : in my particular niche in my industry, input comes via a socket that is abstracted away by an engine that implements the FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol. For all practical purposes, in the finance industry, the FIX library / server IS stdin and stdout. This doesn't make a colleague of mine who forgot how to access stdin in Java a nincompoop. It's a failure to remember what is rarely used, not a failure to perform basic job duties. See the difference? I believe the author is / was a Perl expert? That's why he thinks being able to read stdin is "so basic". I challenge the author to confront his prejudices : hire a few candidates who fail the stdin / stdout test. If they are allowed to do the damn work instead of jumping through your Perl-shaped hoops, they might have actually done quite well on the job. Similarly, many Perl programmers would fail a test devised by someone who is used to Java.