CaptainCodeman asks:
I recently had a job interview in which they gave me an hour to write some real code. It wasn't a huge amount, probably less than 100 lines. After about 45 minutes, I compiled, ran it, and got it to work. I may have spent 5-10 minutes working out compile errors and a couple minor bugs, but overall it was very smooth. (Incidentally, I did get an offer from them.)
However, what puzzled me was that after I handed over the completed code, the interviewer told me that the only thing I did wrong was "not compiling as I go along". I asked him what the difference is, and he said "what would you have done if you finished the code and it didn't compile in time."