Perhaps one problem is that there are several articles on the internet ALWAYS stating that one of the top 5 best paying "hot" jobs right now (especially in this bad economy) is the "Software Engineer." Of course people are going to be drawn into thinking they can program when they can't. Another problem is that colleges do not ever train programmers to drill themselves on answering simple coding questions. It's more about passing exams and learning theory. Most coding done in college is for assignments and projects that the students have one to several weeks to work on (with books, notes, etc.). When is a budding programmer ever trained to practice these interview-style questions from memory? I think part of this "epidemic" is due to lack of practice.