it is trivial code, but in the context of a real code base. I would never ask a candidate to solve a "hard" problem that no one in the company wasn't able to so

it is trivial code, but in the context of a real code base. I would never ask a candidate to solve a "hard" problem that no one in the company wasn't able to solve. Just an example: in the context of a spring application, I would ask to add a new api, from the controller all the way down to the database. And of course, I'd gauge the interview according to the experience of the candidate and knowledge of a specific framework etc. They are free to lookup the documentation. Really simulating what would happen if the candidate were to get hired. I mean either that, or you are back at the : implement a linked list, invert binary tree, check palindrome string and similar bs.