[paraiuspau]

Avoiding the p1ssing contest is very important, as well as ensuring we don't have egotistical a-holes interviewing.

In a role we're currently interviewing for, we intentionally ask deep-dive style questions. We first explain our approach by telling the candidate we don't necessarily care about the answer; we seek to assess aptitude, rather than ability, and so we ask the candidate to be as vocal as possible to display their reasoning. So far, it has helped us narrow-down the pool to two promising candidates. Of course, we also mention in the interview that, "we'd make liberal use of google, and we understand that most other people would too" - but some of our better interviews have turned into pleasant, fruitful technical discussions, and not just a back-and-forth "pub quiz". Just my $0.02.