I've never used FizzBuzz during an interview, but I see it as a "weeder" question, and I'm a big fan of weeder questions. I always start off with really easy (I

I've never used FizzBuzz during an interview, but I see it as a "weeder" question, and I'm a big fan of weeder questions. I always start off with really easy (IMO) basic questions, and pose progressively harder questions as the interview goes on. I want to see at what point the interviewee starts the reach the limit of his or her knowledge, rather than lead with something really difficult that I don't expect more than half of the candidates to successfully answer. The first few questions are weeder questions. I won't stop an interview if they blank on one, because I'll allow for nerves or a general brain fart. But if they blank on say, the first three really easy basic questions, the interview is over. It doesn't happen often, because those people are likely to get weeded out by the phone screen, but it's happened a few times. And it might not be 100% reliable, but it's good enough for my purposes.