We have to watch them write code for some problem they didn't cram for. We can't just read code because we don't know how much trouble they had producing it, or

We have to watch them write code for some problem they didn't cram for. We can't just read code because we don't know how much trouble they had producing it, or whether it's even theirs. Our recruiter (when we had one) just looked for reasonable fit with the claimed skills, and asked a couple of elementary conceptual questions (not single-language trivia like this), then brought in engineering.