"I've been in charge of technical interviews for a large corporation for a year and a half, and there have been many truly shitty developers who couldn't solve even simple programming problems, but they knew how to bullshit, and they would totally ace your questions."
Well, first, it's not like I just ask someone if they enjoy documenting code, and expect them not to lie. That would be stupid. It's much easier to just ask coding questions than to figure out if someone is creative. That's why the problem is hard.
Second, how do you focus on the other important factors, and still manage to test for coding ability? You ask coding questions -- you just don't devote the entire interview process to them.
Well, first, it's not like I just ask someone if they enjoy documenting code, and expect them not to lie. That would be stupid. It's much easier to just ask coding questions than to figure out if someone is creative. That's why the problem is hard.
Second, how do you focus on the other important factors, and still manage to test for coding ability? You ask coding questions -- you just don't devote the entire interview process to them.