[jdmichal]

There are hostile interviews, but not all interviews are. I'll borrow from Michael Church [1] in describing what I consider a hostile interview. A hostile interview is any interview in which the interviewers are actively trying to remove the candidate from the pool. This can be a very subtle thing; as an interviewer, you have to ask yourself: Am I asking questions in order to attempt to weed out this candidate? Does this question have a right and wrong answer? And if so, what does it mean if they get it wrong? Did I simply discover a limit of their knowledge, or is it more ominous?

An important point is that you can be quite friendly and amenable, while still asking hostile questions intended to directly weed out candidates, as opposed to plumbing the depth and breadth of their knowledge and experiences.

[1] http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/how-the-other...