Key algorithms to do…what, exactly? Why not just read the documentation on that instead of having people bring you a random sample of their code on paper?
Who said they're evaluating the code? Maybe they're evaluating the people by asking them questions about the code they've just written. That's a great way to find out who's full of shit.
So they can have the code on hand while interviewing them, ask about the code, why they made a certain choice, what other options were available, etc. Have you never had an interview with code printed out or otherwise provided for discussion?
