[pedrocarvalho]

Yes, agreed. What I'm trying to see is how they behave with something they're not used to, how they take on the problem. These are some of the things I try to analyze:

Do they search and read about the problem? Are they able to implement what they just researched? Are they looking for recipes and trying to copy and paste the code from some website? Do they have critical thinking (what you mentioned) and propose better solutions with better tools? Do they communicate during the problem solving stage, or are quiet, closed and isolated? Do they ask questions? Or behave like asking questions is a sign of weakness?