1) A couple basic coding questions. FizzBuzz and such. Can they actually solve something basic?
2) Do a real code review with this person. Share your screen and let them review code. Observe what questions they ask and the comments they leave for the author.
3) Ask some design questions. Digging in on how they would design the classes for some new product and purposely throwing a twist in there from time to time. How do they handle this new information and adapt their design? Do they take constructive criticism well?
4) Talking to this person. Are they polite and respectful? You can help someone grow as an engineer, but good luck getting them to be a better coworker if they are rude.
For point 2 and 3, I had a very pleasant experience interviewing for a Frontend role recently where the CTO just screenshared their actual production site, and asked me some high-level questions about how I'd implement some random elements on the screen.
Stuff like a dropdown filter list, a searchbar, customizable list layouts etc. it was nice cause it lends itself naturally to casual conversations about different possible implementations and lets you sort of riff on possible solutions, probably the most enjoyable interview I've ever done.
1) A couple basic coding questions. FizzBuzz and such. Can they actually solve something basic?
2) Do a real code review with this person. Share your screen and let them review code. Observe what questions they ask and the comments they leave for the author.
3) Ask some design questions. Digging in on how they would design the classes for some new product and purposely throwing a twist in there from time to time. How do they handle this new information and adapt their design? Do they take constructive criticism well?
4) Talking to this person. Are they polite and respectful? You can help someone grow as an engineer, but good luck getting them to be a better coworker if they are rude.