[sho]

OK, agreed that's not the trivia I was talking about. Although honestly it sounds like you dodged a bullet, if anything your experience is even more ridiculous. Does this company make a habit of writing programs on whiteboards without any references?

It, uh, probably does help to know the language you're being interviewed for, although a good programmer in any language can almost certainly start being productive in another one within a month. A good hiring process knows this, too.

[notyourloops]

There's knowing a programming language and where to look when you're unsure of the details, and there's knowing a programming language.

I could write programs in the target language on a computer, easily, but on a whiteboard I encountered a few halts where I would have used the reference docs. When I asked a doc reference question, I immediately could tell from facial expression alone that my interviewer was docking me points.

Was that experience ridiculous? I know it changed my willingness to interview more until I've mastered more material. I'm not going to burn time and money to be grilled for several hours and not be able to nail it.

I'm employed full time but it's time for advancement, so I've been studying a lot.