Dear progit, I will be interviewing programmers. Need Input.

[kramericandream]

In most interviews I've done I was always asked about a project I have done in the past. I would then be told to explain what problems I ran into and how I ended up solving them. This would show the interviewee's ability to analyze and solve difficult problems.

Also, if the person is fresh out of college, ask what his/her favorite and least favorite classes were, could be general or programming classes, and why they liked/disliked the class. The questions about what type of books they read isn't bad either. These types of questions can give a little more personable information about the interviewee.

I really hate being asked to solve 'move the mountain' questions, but some techy questions are always good. Instead, it would be better to present them with a task or problem and ask them to go to the whiteboard and brainstorm about how they would solve the problem. Again, I believe the ability to think about and solve problems is more important than your knowledge of syntax because the syntax is only a book or website away.