I'll take coding interviews over expensive qualifications, work history and nepotism any day of the week. Let's say I give candidates a basic whiteboard proble

I'll take coding interviews over expensive qualifications, work history and nepotism any day of the week. Let's say I give candidates a basic whiteboard problem that requires no fancy algos/data structures other than knowing about arrays and dictionaries. A passing candidate will demonstrate the following attributes: 1. Understands basic programming constructs and elementary data structures (loops, vars, arrays, dictionaries) 2. Can model problems in her head 3. Can communicate effectively 4. Can work well under the pressure of an interview environment So it's process that selects candidates that have desired attributes 1+2+3 but the downside is that it also selects irrelevant attribute 4 This is a pretty good system! Sometimes it will fail because candidates will be rejected for lacking 4 even though I don't care about it. Is there a better system? I don't believe that just looking at resumes and past experience selects for 1+2+3 nearly as well. Furthermore I've said that "works well under the pressure of an interview" is an irrelevant attribute, but I think you could also make a case that it is weakly relevant in this way: if a candidate can do 1+2+3 while under pressure then you would expect them to perform 1+2+3 as well _or better_ when not under pressure. There is also desired attribute 5 "is pleasant to work with" — coding interviews don't really select for this, but I don't think anything else does either short of probationary periods.