The best interviews I've been a part of have been a short cultural style interview followed by a (roughly) 2 hour paired-programming session on a relatively sim

The best interviews I've been a part of have been a short cultural style interview followed by a (roughly) 2 hour paired-programming session on a relatively simply to-do application. 1. The problem is pretty well understood (but does offer room for interpretation). 2. Provides time to cover all key aspects (Frontend, Backend, Database, Networking, Debugging, Testing, Caching, etc) in at least some capacity. In particular, it shows you what areas the developers focus on. 3. Provides a more relaxed/realist environment. It's also more accommodating to developers switching stacks - familiar with good programming patterns but not the specifics of stack (e.g. "Here's how I'd do [some specific task] in [other stack]. How do I do it here"). 4. It's clearly a throw away task so there's no concern about "interview labor". It can also be pre-prepped so you don't have to worry about jumping too far in. 5. You can cut short with bad candidates and expand the problem for more complex candidates.