Comment by tom_m

Live coding has never been a good way to interview. I've been on both sides of it. I've even had to do it by writing on a whiteboard once upon a time. Super awkward to write code on a whiteboard and my writing skills on a whiteboard sucked (and still suck).

Often times coding interviews are academic and only prove basic understanding.

Those that are most successful are ones related to the business/product and that have no expectations of being finished or solved. So much so that I will simply bring up code as a reference to discuss and talk about -- not actually have anyone do any coding. The value is in understanding how someone approaches a challenge or simple day to day work. What are the questions they have? They should have questions. How engaged are they? Is there any past experiences with something similar? Etc.

Using code as a talking point or guide in an interview isn't bad. It's the awkward and stressful academic mental gymnastics that is. Most people giving interviews simply get this wrong. As a result, they have a lot of employee turnover. The funny thing is many people still sit there scratching their heads over why people don't work out if they passed the coding challenges.