I don't think that programming puzzles are the best way to divine better information in this area. But yes, there's a ton of people looking for a programming j

I don't think that programming puzzles are the best way to divine better information in this area. But yes, there's a ton of people looking for a programming job that both have a lot of experience on paper and can't code their way out of a wet paper bag. It seems you can have very long stretches in a large company where you do negative work. Best way I've found is to talk to them about their experience, sort of post mortem style. Pretty much everyone can talk about their experience in some respects, even those working on classified projects; you just need to respect their boundaries.