Nah, software is weird because they so rarely ask people to do anything related to the task at hand. "solve a toy problem without using libraries. Please don't

Nah, software is weird because they so rarely ask people to do anything related to the task at hand. "solve a toy problem without using libraries. Please don't paste off SE/AI". I prefer to actually think about what I want and devise a problem set to work through with the last candidates. You know, "here's a simple TCP server with a minor bug in the handler for one packet. Let's fix it". Real job: here's a 100k LoC server. Add a report/packet type/etc or fix a bug... Uses up my time as well as theirs, but shows me a lot about how they work as well as what they'll be like to deal with.