My former company hired interns and junior level engineers regularly. If you are hiring jr devs because you can't afford sr people you are going to have a bad t

My former company hired interns and junior level engineers regularly. If you are hiring jr devs because you can't afford sr people you are going to have a bad time. Jr Devs require constant attention early on if you want them to ever move pass the junior part. They need the ability to fall on their face occasionally and resources who can't point them in the right direction when they do. But if you can't afford to pay the Sr people your junior people are going to leave right around the point where they start really being a great value(that's 2-3 years in tops). If you're looking for how to find hidden gems, my best advice is don't bother. Ask them fizz buzz (yes literally fizzbuzz), some basic OO vocab, and have them do an easy design problem. If they have a pulse and can do that, they're probably worth your time. For most devs of any level it's really hard to tell whether they will be valuable additions until you've actually worked with them. For a jr dev it's a pointless exercise. Find someone motivated, who seems like they can learn, and spend time putting in place a framework to make sure they have the tools to succeed.