One of the most enjoyable and mutually effective interviews I had included a one-hour pairing session which was language agnostic that required me to describe how I'd implement a basic data structure. The interviewer drove and implemented. This was then followed by a day long session of pairing on real problems with a number of different interviewers. Lunch was spent with some of the other team members, where we discussed basic things like culture, day-to-day affairs, and each of our histories.
This was a great approach to me, because it didn't particularly focus on anything outside of the present. We worked on solving real problems, and contributing to the project. It's a great, low-stress, method of gauging if someone has the chops for what is typically the "day-to-day" life at the given shop.
This was a great approach to me, because it didn't particularly focus on anything outside of the present. We worked on solving real problems, and contributing to the project. It's a great, low-stress, method of gauging if someone has the chops for what is typically the "day-to-day" life at the given shop.