Drop Dead Simple Interview Questions

[Ofnuts]

You guys must be more impressive than me.  I've always been on the receiving end of interviews, never the giving end :p

I don't ask code questions, because all I get to see is a first shot, and this first shot is very often plain crap. What makes a good programmer is the ability to think it over and rewrite it, but you have no time for this in an interview.

Good programmers like coding so they are not one-language ponies (especially if you hire them for a boring language like Java...), and likely also code at home. So I ask candidates about the compilers they have on their own PC and their pet projects. Some are embarrassed,  others lighten up. It also make them consider that even if the job can be a bit boring, it will at least be done with like-minded people, so there is some hope that they will be able to use some not too decaying technologies. Because, remember that the interview works both ways, programmers are not that desperate, and you also have to attract the good ones.