Right, as you said the technical question is unnecessary if they've already looked at the code. Which would be pretty hard unless the candidate kept his/her cod

Right, as you said the technical question is unnecessary if they've already looked at the code. Which would be pretty hard unless the candidate kept his/her code up somewhere (linked from the resume) or had former coworkers essentially vouch for his/her code quality. And even if the candidate does have the code up, not all interviewers would bother spending the time to look at it. At the end of the day I think it is based off some kind of reputation on whether or not people believe in the technical chops enough to skip asking the candidate the question. And it's really hard to draw the line between belief and sloppy interviewing where they simply forget to ask. I wonder, in your cases where you experienced the ideal interview, which factors do you think contributed to it?