Honest? Smart? Positive attitude? Fun to work with? Willing to learn new stuff? Learn new stuff on your own because you like coding?
Ok. We're done. Now check references.
We'll follow that up with an audition, show up on a Saturday and pair up with team members for some random hacking, see how you handle working closely with people on a problem.
I actually love the idea of teaming up with some people to do some random hacking. That sounds like a super fun interview! But it also sounds really time-consuming for the team members as well as the candidate, especially if the time goes flat
Skipping over why do you think "likes to code" is important metric when evaluating candidate for a _job_, is it common in your company to interview people on weekends?
A job as a developer is making technology do things people want. It is important to both like people and technology -- and be able to work in both seamlessly.
Whenever people are available we can see how they'd work out. Sometimes it's a Saturday, sometimes a Tuesday. I think you're reading far too much into my comment than was intended.
Ok. We're done. Now check references.
We'll follow that up with an audition, show up on a Saturday and pair up with team members for some random hacking, see how you handle working closely with people on a problem.