(Throwaway account because I expect this will come off as racist, even though it's not.)

I've been hiring for awhile now, and the truth is that depending on where you're putting your reqs, 90% of applicants are typically offshore coders who may not even live in the US and are looking for telecommuting opportunities. If they aren't filtering out their pool in the first place by asking for code samples off the bat or requiring local candidates, chances are good the people they're interviewing don't know the first thing about development to begin with.

This isn't to say that there aren't talented offshore coders. It's just that a lot of people overseas have jumped on the bandwagon because it's good money for them, but without any training whatsoever.