If your concern is to ensure that you're not getting a coding bozo, I think that your tests are designed incorrectly. Instead of having a 'simple test', just f

If your concern is to ensure that you're not getting a coding bozo, I think that your tests are designed incorrectly. Instead of having a 'simple test', just find some random, buggy sub-optimal code sample online (shouldn't be hard) and ask them to identify the problems with it and refactor. I can almost guarantee you that bozos won't see half the problems, and they definitely won't know how to fix them. Asking someone to code up simple examples on a board ends up just testing a dude's ability to code up simple coding questions. Bug finding/fixing, creating readable and elegant code and the ability to refactor are all much more relevant and important than asking if someone can implement a sorting algorithm or parse a custom data structure. In the end, I think that by testing candidates this way it'll make it more likely that the people you hire actually have skills that are important to their daily work.