[meowface]

Everything I've ever read or heard about technical interviewing in the past 5 years basically says your idea (and other work sample-type things) is the way to go. And it's kind of obvious when you think about it. Seeing how someone works in practice is almost always going to tell you a lot more about their potential effectiveness as an employee compared to only asking them a bunch of questions or having them solve a puzzle or whiteboard a CS algorithm.