[zidar]

When I try to see if a person knows how to "think", I start with fizzbuzz and then ask them to do it again without if or case statements. The first time a person is asked something like that you see if they're a thinker or if they just go "that can't be done." That question does a good job dividing people into a group that in 5 years time will ether have 5 years of experience or 1 year of experience repeated 5 times.

[taylor-smith]

I love the five years experience vs. one year of experience repeated five times idea

[nilliams]

Same, I've added that to my 'remember this' list of phrases/quotes/terminology.

[yuliyp]

Wow, so simple, and yet it leads to all kinds of discussions of space complexity, what counts as branching, etc.

[troels]

Do you mean FizzBuzz specifically, because then you may just see how well they do on pop-quizzing?