My ideal hiring process for developers would be this: First an on-site talk at the company site, with a general discussion with the candidate about his persona

My ideal hiring process for developers would be this: First an on-site talk at the company site, with a general discussion with the candidate about his personality, background and technical experience, as well as a presentation of the company and the people he would be working with. A polite and pleasant talk, to feel each other out while still getting the relevant information. After the interview is complete, the candidate would be given a couple of sheets of paper with two written tests: (1) A general IQ test. A lot of people seems to find these controversial (ignoring for the moment any legal issues which I believe are overblown), but I find them pretty good at gauging an individual's logic skills. (2) A small number of programming questions targeted to the language/platform/niche that the candidate would be working with. Not too hard or complicated, but merely a filter to quickly assess the candidate's experience. Questions about some common development paradigms, best practices, knowledge of frameworks, stuff like that. The candidate would get 10-15 minutes for each of the two tests, and can do them any way s/he likes, in any order and with no requirements to complete all the questions (the questions s/he chooses, and choice between speed/thoroughness is itself an indicator about the candidate). S/he would complete the tests in a room alone without pressure or distractions. After this, the interview process is complete. The candidate goes home and can be assessed from both his presence and statements, and the results from the tests. No confrontation necessary. The candidate gets a chance to look his best during a relaxed and affable conversation. The recruiter is able to easily get a picture of the person's hard qualifications. Any embarrassing slip-ups on the tests are evaluated offline after the candidate has left. Code is, after all, usually not written on a whiteboard in front of a group of people you have never met.