I've been making hiring decisions for 7 straight years, mainly hiring Software Engineers.

Turns out that hiring people is really hard.

Here is my process.

First, I understand that every company follows its own process. Mine is not better.

Second, I understand that every individual prefers to be interviewed a certain way. This might not be your cup of tea.

This process is the one that has worked for me over the years.

Earlier today, I posted the one single technical question I present to the candidates:

https://twitter.com/svpino/status/1309499149663035392?s=20

No hidden tricks.
No brain teasers.
No syntax.
No specific tools.

Completely open-ended exercise.

You can decide to pull up your laptop and work on it right there. Most people prefer to take it home.

Both options are fine with me.

If you are taking it home, I schedule a follow up in a week (or earlier if you are up for it.)

I try to work hard to remove any biases from our conversations.

Everything you answer under stress will be biased, so I try to minimize this as much as possible.

Those who say that they want to see "how you work under pressure"? Yeah, that's bullshit.

I ask candidates to not dress-up. I personally wear a t-shirt during every interview.

I don't seat behind a desk. I try to talk as much as possible about random things before getting into it. I make a lot of bad jokes.

I do everything I can for you to relax.

When I share the problem, the first reaction from people is to try and establish boundaries:

"How much do I need to accomplish to maximize my score?"

The answer is always the same: it's up to you. There are no points for doing more (it usually means that you spent longer.)

What I'm looking to get out of the exercise is your decision-making process.

It's impossible for anyone to build a full-fledged search engine in such a short amount of time. You'll be forced to compromise.

All I want is to hear about those trade-offs.

I don't care about a particular tech-stack. I don't want you to design the system in a specific way.

This is your system to build.

I gave you a problem. I need you to come up with a solution and explain your decision-making process.

The follow-up meeting, where we discuss everything, is a gold mine.

Every meeting goes a different way.

I learn a ton about you. You learn a ton about me.

I was never able to replicate the amount and quality of information I get from these conversations.

Some people have asked why I need to see code, and not just focus on the design of the system.

Personally, I want to see how you use your tools. I don't care what those are, but there's a ton I can get from looking at how you write your code.

Has anyone ever declined to go through this interview process? No one in a few dozen candidates.

Are there better ways to hire software engineers? Probably. Depends on what you do.

Does this process work? Some of the best people that I have worked with were hired with this.

In summary:

I try to minimize biases and maximize the amount of information I get. Open-ended questions do that very well.

It's all about your decision-making process. I care little about everything else.