I don't really understand this point of view, because implementing a Sieve of Eratosthenes is not particularly difficult. I really don't know where to start wi

I don't really understand this point of view, because implementing a Sieve of Eratosthenes is not particularly difficult. I really don't know where to start with your comment. All I can suggest is that you sit in on about a dozen interviews by someone who actually knows how to interview and learn from that process. The thing about interviewing is that it is really just about due diligence. You are verifying that what someone represents on their resume is likely to be true. I think it's great that you are passionate about algorithms and various Sieves. You are a piece of a puzzle in a team. Someone who loves algorithms will pair well with someone who loves standard CRUD, as well as a UI designer. You are not looking for someone who knows exactly what you do plus more, you are looking for a team member. Interviewing on "what you'll actually be doing" is also problematic, since most work is simple stuff that won't demonstrate the difficult edge cases. Why not let your inferior-sounding candidate handle all of the CRUD and you can tackle those fun edge cases? For hacker news, I'm not sensing a lot of hacking going on here. I am 100% positive that I can ask someone 10 questions that they don't know the answer to, and subsequently make them look like a fool. I can do this to PHD's, it's not hard. Get over yourself and start looking at candidates as potential team members, rather than opponents or competition.