Let me qualify the parent comment with my own feelings, as i knew the moment i read their comment what your reply would say. Of the 30 or so engineers i have w

Let me qualify the parent comment with my own feelings, as i knew the moment i read their comment what your reply would say. Of the 30 or so engineers i have worked closely with over the last 6 years, nothing correlates better to the programmers ability than what i describe as "passion". I do not share the stance that this requires someone to spend time outside of work on personal projects or burning the midnight oil on work. Instead, what i look for is a burning desire to be creative and solve problems, specifically with code. I give candidates a number of opportunities to express why coding is important to them, and what would they be doing in its absence. If i had to only ask a single interview question, it would be something to that effect. While i don't mean to suggest every excellent programmer shares this passion, it has become the best single barometer i can find of gauging future ability. With midlevel and senior devs this task becomes a lot easier because you have so much experience to lean on. For juniors, passion is king.