Sure, but that's what code samples are for. If I send you code samples, and I can't explain to you what they mean or how I built them, or describe a variation o

Sure, but that's what code samples are for. If I send you code samples, and I can't explain to you what they mean or how I built them, or describe a variation of your choice about them, then you can assume that I don't know what I'm talking about. You can do this over the phone. There are endless, quality, revealing questions you can ask about provided code samples that are far, far, far, far superior to asking the equivalent of reciting the ABCs. That seems like a reasonable idea, but we've tried that before, and it's just a terrible filter. Let me try to make a more general claim: anything that lets the candidate have outside resources or unlimited time is going to be a bad filter. In this case, the candidate can prep the code sample and be able to explain it well.