The point that's often overlooked by people who complain about any sort of interviewing process (this one being an example) is: somebody _does_ pass the interview, eventually, or they change the process. The poster here seems to be suggesting that live coding is an impossible hurdle that nobody can overcome, but that's obviously not true - people overcome it and get hired all the time. I've auditioned as a musician in the past and it's tempting, when rejected, to say, "well, their standards were just too high" - but I have to find the humility to recognize that they just went with somebody better, because they did end up going with somebody.