For my part, when someone's looking over my shoulder, I get too nervous to rely on basically any editor functionality except cut/copy/paste, undo, and save. I start second-guessing everything. So you may as well just give me Notepad, because I'm gonna look like an idiot in any editor when someone's watching and I'm not already quite comfortable with that person (and the inherent scrutiny/judgement aspect of interviews makes that impossible, in that context).
That's very valid. I was actually only thinking of having someone metaphorically looking over my shoulder, like in a remote interview, but literally having someone in the same room watching is even worse.
To me, purely as far as the using-my-editor part of it goes, it's a lot like having practiced an instrument to an OK level of skill, but only ever playing it alone, then being asked to perform for others, who will make decisions about my future in part based on that performance. So I fall back on playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" because I'm too worried about screwing up in some stupid-looking way if I attempt something fancier, but that also makes me look like I'm bad at it.
