[personZ]

Explaining your thought process to a coworker after you've written the code is ex post facto rationalization -- you are invariably leaving out many side-tracks, many missteps, and get to condense down a long process into a simple, seemingly obvious explanation. You already see the route, and now you're just describing it.

Trying to do the same while you're trying to solve the problem, with a judgmental crowd scoring your comments, however, is an absolutely and completely different matter. Even thinking about how I would narrate my thought process as writing this reply ("maybe I'll talk about how I'd narrate the writing of this reply") is confusing enough.

I don't disagree with the concept of technical interviews, especially given that there are countless people who hold none of the skills they claim they have mastered. A process I implemented requires developers to come in for a coding test, where they are equipped with a development machine with full internet connectivity and a full toolset, and given a problem within their skillset to solve, alone in a closed office and for as much times they need. After the test we do talk through their "thought process" and their implementation choices.

I know this offends some people, among whom I'm sure are the people who completely failed to demonstrate even a basic knowledge of skills they claimed an expert level of competency at.

[pekk]

As someone who is very annoyed about interview process in general, I'm not sure what you think offends some people about giving them a realistic environment and time to work. What is annoying is when a false equivalence is drawn between stress and difficulty on some ad hoc interviewing task and "even a basic knowledge of skills".

[personZ]

I'm speaking more to the viciously anti-technical-interview sentiment that is so commonly seen on technology sites. While there are a lot of shops that do the whole process in a ridiculous fashion, similarly there are a lot of frauds among us: we have experienced such a number of people who claimed skills that they didn't begin to have, even when warned well in advance that they were going to be tested, told how they would be tested, and given a full ability to leverage the internet. Whenever those interviews ended, awkwardly, I always imagine them heading to Reddit or wherever to tell everyone how technical interviews are so much bullshit, and can't people just hire them on their resume, etc.