I'm currently short listing applicants for a job at my company, and I wanted to give each interviewee a small test to judge their abilities.
I was hoping you guys might have suggestions as to what I could do.
My idea was to set a small test (30 - 60 mins) during the interview from which I would be able to judge what level the interviewee was at (and therefore whether they are worth the cash they are asking for!).
Previously I have only receruited for juniors with no experience so a basic html test was all I needed, but now I'm recruiting for a mid-level (2 years commercial experience) and I already know that the job has attracted applicants with backgrounds from 1 years experience to 5 years. And just because they've got 5 years experience doesn't mean that are worth more / any good.
Should I go with a test where they have to code a solution to a problem, one where they are given a broken system and have to fix it, or one where they are given a working system and they have to implement an improvement?
What things do you think I should / could cover in the test given the timeframe?
It is important that I set something that has multiple solutions so that I can easily differentiate between the good programmers and the great ones.
On a side note if you are in the UK and interested you can see the advert here
http://forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?t=43278