I've interviewed hundreds of candidates over more than 20 years. I've lost count of the number of times that a candidate has talked-the-talk so well that I'm th

I've interviewed hundreds of candidates over more than 20 years. I've lost count of the number of times that a candidate has talked-the-talk so well that I'm thinking "This guy/girl is amazing. They're a shoe-in. Better do a little coding just to make sure"... and then they literally couldn't even get close to solving something like fizz-buzz. I agree asking highly specialized, deep CS-algorithm type problems is usually a terrible indicator. I typically start with a very rudimentary question that could go off in various directions and to various depths as time/progress allows. I let candidates choose the programming language, and to use either whiteboard, pen & paper, or laptop with choice of IDE. I've seen candidates who claim to have years of "senior" experience struggle to get the basic syntax of their "language of choice" right - to the point where a competent hobbyist who spent a weekend doing a couple tutorials would wipe the floor with them. There's just something about coding that makes it impossible to truly evaluate a candidate (for a developer role) unless you see them actually code.