Fair points. I think obviously it depends on specifics of the role etc - I'd not expect (nor need!) a web developer to know how to write a command line app etc

Fair points. I think obviously it depends on specifics of the role etc - I'd not expect (nor need!) a web developer to know how to write a command line app etc. Just needing bums-on-seats developers to just churn out MVC code and who dont know how to do "javac -help" if all they've ever used is maven or gradle etc might be acceptable, but I might lose a bit of faith in humanity along the way (...and maybe I expect too much!) :-) Perhaps it would be better to have a very, very, very simple application (like a simple calculator, or a simple web app, using the framework(s)/libraries you're using and the person is applying for (i.e. they should know it)), then show them a failing unit-test and/or a simple bug report and see what they do to resolve it. Basically, I want to see someone actually do something realistic and actually produce something tangible for me to judge my decisions on. I've been burnt a few times in the past hiring people who were good at the "book smarts" during interview, but were bad when it came to actually doing stuff.