> But if a candidate can't code say bubblesort (or any kind of sort) in 30 minutes they are not very good at coding
Thats bullshit. Sorry. Most developers will NEVER implement a generic sorting algorithm except in a code interview. You say you don't want rote API memorization, but you do want rote sort method implementation memorization. Yes you can be a system or tools developer and maybe have a higher chance of doing it, but its 99% likely even then that you just use a library for it for the language you're using, or copypastaing it from someone who's studied the specific implementation for your lang.
Thats bullshit. Sorry. Most developers will NEVER implement a generic sorting algorithm except in a code interview. You say you don't want rote API memorization, but you do want rote sort method implementation memorization. Yes you can be a system or tools developer and maybe have a higher chance of doing it, but its 99% likely even then that you just use a library for it for the language you're using, or copypastaing it from someone who's studied the specific implementation for your lang.