[sachingulaya]

I request work samples from applicants with the same brief that would be given to a task currently facing our internal team. It makes it easy to compare candidates not only to each other but to our internal team. As our internal team has the project fresh in their mind they're aware of the requirements, scope, and limitations of the project. It makes them better able to judge the candidate's work.

Of course we pay them for this work at a predefined rate.

[eridius]

If you pay your candidates, then by all means ask whatever real question you want.

[the_watcher]

Yea, this is what I recommended to my coworker who ended up taking the marketing manager job. Ask to be paid for the work in exchange for Uber receiving exclusive use of it. Not sure if she ended up asking for it though. They still save money on this, and they should be well aware of the benefits of non-employees performing work.