Couple of years ago one of London companies did it well IMHO, after little chat about few technical things (which looked more like Friday night chat in a pub wi

Couple of years ago one of London companies did it well IMHO, after little chat about few technical things (which looked more like Friday night chat in a pub with colleagues than anything else) they said there's computer in the corner, here's a problem (it was to use macfuse to implement in-memory virtual filesystem with basic file ops) - I was left with computer, with internet connection, I could browse whatever I wanted, nobody was looking over my shoulder etc. Even though macfuse was a bit crap at that time (kernel would sometimes panic so i had to reboot machine few times) and I never used macfuse before - it still felt like there was no pressure. After that quick chat about written code and next meeting was with CEO about the salary etc, all smooth. Since then I think one of the best approaches is to come up with work related problem, leave person to solve it with computer, keyboard, internet etc. with no time limit (if candidate can't solve the problem, they will give up and just say it after 2h or so). Quick chat about the code afterwards will tell you in 1 minute if person understands it and didn't copy pasted solution etc.