So what should a developer job interview look like then? Simple: eliminate the exam part of the interview altogether. Instead, ask a few open-ended questions that invite your candidates to elaborate about their programming work.
– What’s the last project you worked on at your former employer?
– Tell me about some of your favorite projects.
– What projects are you working on in your spare time?
– What online hacker communities do you participate in?
– Tell me about some (programming/technical) issues that you feel passionately about.
These questions are designed to reveal a great deal about the person you have in front of you. They can help you decide whether the candidate is interested in the same things as you, whether you like their way of thinking, and where their real interests lie. It’s tougher for them to bullshit their way through here, because the interviewer can drill deeper into a large number of issues as they present themselves.
via Hiring Developers: You’re Doing It Wrong.
Strangely this mirrors the advice that I got on how to interview?