[em-bee]

i had also good experiences with live coding. both as an interviewer and a candidate. you not only see a candidates skill, but also their way of communicating, and as a candidate if you are lucky to be interviewed by a future teammate or superior, you see how they will treat you when you need help working on something.

i had this approach work even in china where people tend to be very submissive and afraid to speak up. i expected them to have trouble in the interview, but most candidates told me they felt very at ease even though they had never worked with a foreigner before.