Asking for an example of good code the programmer had written previously and bringing it in and asking them to explain what they thought was good about it. Some

Asking for an example of good code the programmer had written previously and bringing it in and asking them to explain what they thought was good about it. Sometimes this can tell you the programmer is being too clever / not clever enough. E.g. when they override javascript prototype classes for the sake of succinctness, or going too far the other way when they repeat some boilerplate code excessively. You could ask them questions about why they did things that way, and see if they can provide a good reason, or they just didn't think deeply about the code they picked to show us.