This echoes the best interview I ever had, which finished with the interviewer starting me with a problem ("This functionality is running slow and hanging a lot

This echoes the best interview I ever had, which finished with the interviewer starting me with a problem ("This functionality is running slow and hanging a lot") and had me walk through how I'd diagnose the problem, from the front end to the database: he was interested in what metrics I'd gather, what question I'd ask about how things work, who I'd want to rope in for help with particular parts of the problem, and so on. It was all drawn from a real-world problem they'd solved a few weeks ago. I've used that ever since when I've been a technical interviewer. It's fascinating hearing how people go about solving problems, and it tells me a lot about their actual skills. (One of the best responses for a sysadmin role qas a quiz around sudenly degraded performance and the first question was, "What's changed? I'll check the change management to see what's gone live recently.")