> Employers that do this are ridiculous.

In my experience, they're usually startups or smaller companies that are trying to "copy google" in their hiring practices, but don't fully think out how they're doing it. It's not a good sign.

Well Google does it too. Their 'gang bang' interviews are notorious for weeding out people that don't perform well under short term pressure like that. "just write an algorithm for a stack on this whiteboard with a big O complexity analysis and memory usage pattern in 15 minutes while we all stare at you. What? You don't work well like this? Well this is how elite Googlers work all of the time so GTFO"

To be fair, a lot of people are capable of becoming that type of employee after gaining comfort at the company, and after building relationships with their co-workers. To expect someone to do that in front of strangers while under pressure doesn't necessarily correlate with a programmer who can evolve into such a person.

> What is this, preparation for when coders are kidnapped by terrorists and forced to recite how to tar/untar stuff on command?

:-D you never know!

>Employers that do this are ridiculous.

Unless they are trying to hire a mentat.