To what extent should a person use reference material for coding? Percentages: What you know vs what you look up

Answer 1

This is an interesting question because what I think you're trying to gauge, indirectly, is how comfortable should the average coder be to be considered proficient in a language. This is something I wondered, myself, for quite a while. If you know what you're looking for, can understand what's out there and know how and when to apply it...you're using the internet as reference not exactly a cheating tool. The internet will be there, if not, you probably will no longer need to worry about how to code something, hahahaha! If an accountant uses a calculator & get their job done well, they're not cheating, they're utilizing a tool.

Answer 2

you have to use at least so much reference that you know what you need to get the job done. there is no percentage