[celadon]

If you aren't prioritizing for code quality and beauty, do you also explicitly tell candidates that? I think it's very difficult for candidates to understand exactly what the interviewer wants—and, of course, all interviewers are different. I think that, for better or worse, many people worry that they need to perform perfectly during the interview and actually deliver a perfect solution—instead of just approaching and developing a solution.

I'm a designer, not a programmer, but I've found that I interview best when I get explicit guidance from the interviewer. "I want to hear more about x, don't worry about y. What I want to learn about you is z." It makes the interview feel like a collaborative process (especially helpful when interviewing people you will work directly with, as you're pre-selling them on the team dynamic they'll experience!). It allows me to provide the information the interviewer needs most, in order to effectively evaluate my abilities and fit. It also clarifies for the applicant what things are actually worth stressing out about.