That sucks! I think it's unfair to ask candidates to write code on the spot. You're already nervous, and if you don't have your computer with you then you're to

That sucks! I think it's unfair to ask candidates to write code on the spot. You're already nervous, and if you don't have your computer with you then you're totally out of your element and without the tools you normally use. We have a small coding exercise we ask candidates to do at home in their own time. I think it's much more fair that way. In the interview itself, as I said, no coding. Sometimes I will ask the candidate to spot bugs in a function, or read code and say what it outputs, or have a whole function written with one thing missing, and ask what's missing. But asking the candidate to create something where nothing yet exists is not fair, I think. Whiteboard coding and all that, it's no good. When I say the candidate didn't know the language well, I meant conceptually. Like, imagine if someone told you C had a built-in array type, for example. It was that sort of thing. And remember, this was a person claiming expertise.