[rgreasons]

I think OP implied a better solution when mentioning interviews that mimic the job: present interviewees with a small take-home case study based on a real on-the-job problem. I have done a few of these and they have been much more enlightening experiences than any paired programming boilerplate live coding exercise. Even in situations in which my proposed solution weren’t up to snuff to land the job, the conversation with the team about my solution felt like an actual representation of what it would be like to be a member of the team.

[friedman23]

> present interviewees with a small take-home case study based on a real on-the-job problem

In my experience these are terrible. It becomes an arms race, what the company intended to become a 5 hour take home assignment becomes a 20 hour assignment because everyone else that's doing the take home assignment is also spending 20 hours. Take homes are a trap.

[kodah]

Personally, I like the idea of objective based take homes rather than time based. Then just have them check everything in on git so you can see how they work.