[tway_GdBRwW]

I have failed simple coding interviews because of stress. Been coding for 2 decades or more, know I'm good at it, and have had multiple other people confirm this. But sometimes under interview stress, I can lock up. Especially if something goes fubar like their on-line editor.

If I was at work, that wouldn't be a problem, take 3 minutes and come back to it. You don't have that in an interview.

I'm thinking of the observation from the speed climbing event at the Olympics. They had set up the course wrong, and one of the holds in one of the lanes was like 2cm out of position-- and it wasn't even a hold that was used by the climbers. But that was enough that people in that lane consistently lost.

[rachofsunshine]

Yeah, this is one of the best arguments against timed interview problems, and I do think it's a good one. You could justifiably argue for a lot of other structures, but those structures do come with their own trade-offs (like time investment for a take-home, or "game-ability" for a behavioral interview, etc).