Three things I look for at the outset, fairly unrelated to coding ability: (1) humility, (2) entrepreneurial spirit and (3) passion. If they have those things,

Three things I look for at the outset, fairly unrelated to coding ability: (1) humility, (2) entrepreneurial spirit and (3) passion. If they have those things, I feel I'll enjoy working with them. Then I'll spend 30 minutes talking through an actual problem I'm trying to solve, to see if they can add value. I ask the interviewee to be at ease, and to treat this like a taster consultation they might give to a prospective client. We cover all the bases, from design to data structures for the implementation. I generally don't ask them to write code, as the ongoing discussion easily reveals who can and can't write code well. I might check out their github repos if I'm unsure about code quality, but often the conversation is enough to know if they're worth hiring.