[frostmatthew]

As someone who recently interviewed at a number of Boston area tech companies I disagree with #2 from a candidate's perspective. I agree that interview coding is "far removed from the real practice of writing code" - but that's okay.

If done correctly it can give the interviewer insight into the applicant's thought process - and for the applicant it can be one of the best filters for who you would actually want to work for.

Companies/interviewers that asked very specific questions that tested only my memorization of a particular language's syntax were a huge turnoff. More open-ended ones along the line of "how would you solve this problem" and allowed me to whiteboard in the language of my choice and/or psuedocode made the company much more attractive.