This exact topic came up yesterday in the HN post "Bullshit Interviews": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6304911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=63049

This exact topic came up yesterday in the HN post "Bullshit Interviews": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6304911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6304911 (https://coderwall.com/p/yn9g2a https://coderwall.com/p/yn9g2a) I repeat now what I said then: I think there's a very simple rule anyone can and should follow to not fuck up interviews: Don't ask people to do things in the interview you wouldn't expect them to do in the job. Examples: (1) Do people in this job regularly write code on the whiteboard? Lack access to a search engine? No. Then don't do it in the interview. (2) Do people in the job design spice racks for blind people? No. Then don't ask them to do this in the interview. (3) Do people in the job regularly find themselves coding something on the level of fizz buzz? Yes? Go ahead and ask! (4) Do people in the job regularly find themselves writing code to find loops in a graph? Yes? Go ahead and ask (though, let's be honest - this is exceedingly rare in comparison to how often it is deployed in interviews) Verify people have the skills they need to do the job you're hiring for. It really is as simple as that.