“Why Can’t Programmers… Program?”, Jeff Atwood2007-02-26 (; backlinks; similar)⁠:

I was incredulous when I read this observation from Reginald Braithwaite:

Like me, the author Imran Ghory is having trouble with the fact that 199⁄200 applicants for every programming job can’t write code at all. I repeat: they can’t write any code whatsoever.

Dan Kegel had a similar experience hiring entry-level programmers.

Maybe it’s foolish to begin interviewing a programmer without looking at their code first. At Vertigo, we require a code sample before we even proceed to the phone interview stage…It’s a shame you have to do so much pre-screening to have the luxury of interviewing programmers who can actually program. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so damn depressing.