I've been mulling over the idea of writing a small buggy program, one that doesn't compile, and providing some test cases, then post it on GitHub as a first pass filter.
It achieves several aims:
1. This approach scales. Send a prospective employee the github url and they can get started.
2. The programming puzzle can be solved in about 15 minutes. Kind of like a better Fizz Buzz.
3. The interviewee doesn't feel insulted that the employer expected them to do some work for free.
4. The employer has some assurance the person will have some source control competency, to be able to check out from a Git. repository.
5. You could test the prospective employee based on the skills you require. For example: You could even have the puzzle interact with a web service. Troubleshooting the program will involve firing up a proxy or packet sniffer to figure out why things didn't work. It might be a jQuery bug. etc.
Why go through all this complication? Use bugs that have actually occurred in your app, repurpose those into coding problems, and see how the prospect solves it. You might be surprised that they fix the bug better than your existing employees (or you).
Well you don't give them the entire codebase, you package the bug-that-was-fixed into a tiny example app. I think it probably goes without saying to exclude changes in business rules.
Is this not closer to the actual job than Pascal's Triangle?
It achieves several aims:
1. This approach scales. Send a prospective employee the github url and they can get started.
2. The programming puzzle can be solved in about 15 minutes. Kind of like a better Fizz Buzz.
3. The interviewee doesn't feel insulted that the employer expected them to do some work for free.
4. The employer has some assurance the person will have some source control competency, to be able to check out from a Git. repository.
5. You could test the prospective employee based on the skills you require. For example: You could even have the puzzle interact with a web service. Troubleshooting the program will involve firing up a proxy or packet sniffer to figure out why things didn't work. It might be a jQuery bug. etc.