cupofcoffee parent
I honestly doubt that 50% of applicants can't do FizzBuzz.
At a previous company we asked candidates to calculate the median value given an array of numbers. We also gave them test cases that covered 100% of what we wanted.
23% of applicants could not produce a working solution.
I will try that one in my interviews.
It might be 40% or 55%, I don't keep records [1], but I'm 100% sure it's not exactly 50%.
Numbers are rarely shared, so I have a lot of questions, what is your ration when recruiting? Lower? Below 20%? If you do not use FizzBuzz what to you do use then? Fixing bugs? Homework project (do you find it on StackOverflow afterwards?)? What is the ratio there? Or don't you check for coding skills? (One of the old blog posts talks about 90%).
The ratio depends on where your job ads are I assume. If your ad is on some remote only website, you get more applicants but also a higher ratio.
If you only work with recruiting agencies, from my experience the ratio is lower, but you pay EUR 20k commission.
[1] Sadly I can't get our HR software to track these ratios over channels.
Joel Spolsky has explained how it's possible before:
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/01/27/news-58/
It really isn't possible. Every single CS person I know of is doing LC.