[brandall10]

I agree.

I have a strong belief that the best way to interview a candidate is to take a literal real world problem the team experienced, distill it down to its essence so it can be tackled in a 2-4 hour pairing session. You should have full access to internet, whiteboard, etc.

If the candidate is having to review CS algos and doing whiteboard prep, you're doing it wrong (unless that stuff truly is what the job entails). If the candidate is nervous because they feel like they're giving a dissertation, you're doing it wrong. It should mimic as closely as possible what the actual job will be like.

You're not going to fully know whether or not they will produce in practice, but you'll be able to tell that you can work with them and that's half the battle.