Again, I don't think this is the only signal, or the most important signal, but there's still signal there. Imagine I get two data science candidates who seem basically the same and say they work in SQL daily. One of them can comfortably write out a JOIN with a GROUP BY and an ORDER BY when the problem calls for it, the other struggles and makes a lot of errors. I'm going to guess that the former is better at SQL, acknowledging that this is an imperfect proxy.
I'm also not nearly as picky as a compiler/interpreter. I can tell what you're trying to write, and lots of people make silly mistakes. But a high volume of mistakes, or especially difficulty getting anything substantial out at all, those start to make me worry.
I'm also not nearly as picky as a compiler/interpreter. I can tell what you're trying to write, and lots of people make silly mistakes. But a high volume of mistakes, or especially difficulty getting anything substantial out at all, those start to make me worry.