Your criteria are almost exactly what I assign. I start with a phone screen. Then onto a (relatively short 45 min to an hour and a half) face-to-face. This i

Your criteria are almost exactly what I assign. I start with a phone screen. Then onto a (relatively short 45 min to an hour and a half) face-to-face. This is a 'let's get to know each other and our expectations' low-stress interview just to make sure we understand each other and what it is we're actually getting into. Then, a technical discussion. Approaches. Experience. Past projects. Some 'did you lie on your resume' questions but nothing that would require a whiteboard or anything. This culminates in getting a paragraph of requirements that will lead to the take-home test. The requirements are intentionally vague and missing critical information to see if the candidate recognizes this and asks the right questions (I'm convinced that 60% of any job is asking the right questions). Then, when I feel like they've hit a few of the important gaps I pull out the detailed specs that tries to answer all of the questions they might have, serve as a reference sheet, and make it clear what not to do (like turning a two hour task into an over-engineered weekend project just to try to impress -- I've got to review all of this code after all!). This is not a real world test but it is a somewhat simplified version of a real-world thing they will be expected to do. It shouldn't take more than 2 hours. I point out that if they have any code they can show me from a real, working project it can act as a substitute. What I am looking for is knowledge, approach to the problem, and code style. Afterward, I am looking for how they handle constructive criticism. This has saved me and I think applicants so much time with much higher quality information than a long interview or a nerve-wracking whiteboard session. I give them five days to a week to finish. Most do it within a day or two. If a busy person can't find the time that they'd normally spend in an interview session essentially any time they can fit it in over the next week or so...well, too bad. Oh, I also give them explicit permission to post their solution on github so that if we don't end up hiring at least they'll have some code to show the next potential hiring manager.