[ipnon]

You can just get on the phone with them. Talk shop for an hour. Tell them about problems your company is having. Ask them how they would solve them. An experienced engineer can determine a person's relative skill level this way.

Algorithm quizzes aren't the only way to reduce false positives. Can we say definitively that they are the best?

[CommieBobDole]

I agree with you - the best way to do the things I talked about is to spend time talking with the person to ensure that they actually understand and can reasonably communicate about the skills they claim to have.

There's probably a place for practical programming tests, too, but whiteboarding algorithms and such seems to be more of a fraternity hazing/secret handshake ritual than anything else. Good if the skill you need to hire for is "Read and memorized 'Cracking the Coding Interview'", not really indicative of anything else.