If you know how an insertion sort (for example) works, then you can pretty much answer all your questions fairly easily. Knowing algos is good, but does not in

If you know how an insertion sort (for example) works, then you can pretty much answer all your questions fairly easily. Knowing algos is good, but does not in itself make you competent in every respect. Having said that, I am not trying to be critical. I completely agree that having a discussion like this is extremely valuable and can let you find out a lot about a person and even eliminate most of the chaff (although I have met a couple of people who I wouldn't necessarily hire, but who could have done well in a discussion like that). After your discussion, you might even decide you really like a person, but does your team like them? How about this, can you tell if a person can stick to a deadline? A longer discussion is necessary before this becomes apparent.