There are a bunch of certifications already. They are either too simple or too narrow to be particularly useful for hiring purposes (imho). The best way I've

There are a bunch of certifications already. They are either too simple or too narrow to be particularly useful for hiring purposes (imho). The best way I've seen to evaluate the ability of a programmer and their* fit at your company is to: 1) Ask them to program something simple in the language you expect them to use. 2) Present them with a problem your team recently faced and ask them to talk through how they would approach finding a solution. 3) Ask them about things that relate to your startup/corporate culture (eg. if you're a bunch of practical jokers, ask them about practical jokes they've done or been victim to) 4) Ask them what part of your product sucks the worst. What specific thing would they do to improve it? Why would that be an improvement? 5) Have all your short-list people meet and spend some time together. In a followup interview, ask each about their opinions of the others. * I hate to use "they" and "their" as a gender-neutral, singular pronoun but haven't really found anything better :-(