[therealdrag0]

I started interviewing people this spring and since I hate algorithmic questions, I didn't look up any on the internet; I just wrote my own questions based on some data manipulation I've done in real work. They are basically data-normalization questions (given a 2d array of data from db, populate this class). But I found these to be a very good filter. You only need to be comfortable with Java Map and List interface, which is bread-and-butter of a Java dev in my experience. Yet still 75% of people couldn't solve these questions. However, the 25% nailed it and we made a couple good hires.

All this to say, if interviewers actually spend half a day and write practical questions that test the skills used in real work, it IS possible for both the interviewer and interviewee to be happy.

Also for the in-person, I just delete an existing integration-test we have and give the candidate our laptop and we pair program on rewriting it. This has worked well.

No memorization or trivia or tricks, just standard development exercizes.