[tootie]

It 1000% depends on what kind of role you're hiring for and what your company does. I've never asked nor been asked a leetcode style question. I don't think they're useful for anyone building webapps or any other sort of line-of-business software. The handful of times I tried ended up being mishires anyway. I've worked at a few places with standard take-home coding assignments, and they were used to whittle candidates, but I'm not really clear on their value.

My tactic for a mid or jr dev is to poke into some specific things in their resume. They say they know JavaScript, then hit them with a bit of JavaScript trivia. Basic stuff that anyone who has worked in the language would answer in 2 seconds. Also some domain stuff, like if this is a web dev, then have them explain CORS or HTTPS. Then have them talk in detail about a specific project or two. Try to get them to articulate not just what the code does, but why that direction was chosen. Have them explain their role and the other roles and the project team to show they understand teamwork. Ask them how the estimate work. Try to elicit an opinion (PHP or Python, strict or loose typing, AWS or GCP) not to question their thinking, but rather to see that they can make qualitative arguments.

[taf2]

agreed with all the of the above - but also to add... get them to do something on their computer... this way you can see how well they know their tools... e.g. can they type on a keyboard... navigate etc... tells you a lot without asking...

[tootie]

I used to harshly judge anyone who didn't use the debugger in their IDE, but it turns out that it's most people.

[taf2]

Yeah it’s not about what tools they use just that they know how to use whatever they choose…. This lets you understand whether they spend time with their tools…

[mariedavid]

Thanks very useful !