Given time alone in a quiet room with a computer, these are not huge demands. Trying to do this in front of people, on a whiteboard, with limited time, and having to explain yourself to idiots is indeed, the very definition of &quot;stupid interview questions&quot;. This would, however, work great in other professions. For example, why don&#x27;t we test surgeons&#x27; skills by giving them a chainsaw to cut up the patient with, in a room full of germs, while they have to explain to a 3 year old what they&#x27;re doing? Oh, and always ask the surgeon to operate on a body part he doesn&#x27;t specialize in, hasn&#x27;t worked on in 20 years, and will likely never work on in his lifetime. This would hire us great surgeons because it hires us great programmers! I mean, just look at all the amazingly good code out there!