5 Best Tips for Interviewing and Hiring Top Tech Talent

Hiring a developer or engineer isn’t like hiring for other roles. A technical interview should focus less on past achievements and more on real-time, validated problem-solving skills.

Here are five essential tips to ensure your interviews identify truly capable and high-potential candidates for the ITJobs.lk community.

1. Ditch the Generic Brain Teasers—Focus on Real Code

The days of asking “How many golf balls fit in a school bus?” are over. Modern tech candidates need to be evaluated on their ability to build and debug, not their ability to memorize puzzles.

2. Validate the Fundamentals, Not Just Frameworks

A great developer can learn a new framework in weeks, but a solid foundation in computer science principles is indispensable. Don’t just ask if they know React; ask why they chose useState over a different state management approach.

• Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA): Keep these simple and practical. A complex, 45-minute LeetCode challenge rarely reflects daily work. Instead, ask them to use a simple data structure (like a Map/Dictionary or a Queue) to solve a small, tangible problem.
• System Design (For Mid-to-Senior Roles): Instead of asking them to design Netflix from scratch, scale it down. Ask them to design a small component relevant to your business, such as the architecture for a simple notification service or a checkout process. This reveals their ability to handle trade-offs and complexity.

3. Emphasize Communication and Collaboration

In a distributed or agile team environment, technical skill is only half the battle. A candidate must be able to clearly articulate their decisions and accept feedback.

• Think Aloud Protocol: Insist the candidate vocalize their thought process while solving problems. If they go silent for five minutes, prompt them: “Walk me through your current approach and what assumptions you’re making.” If they struggle, you are assessing their learnability and communication under pressure.
• The “Unsolvable” Problem: Sometimes, intentionally present a problem with an ambiguous requirement or a non-optimal solution. The goal is to see how they negotiate, clarify the requirement with you (the “Product Owner”), and what trade-offs they prioritize.

4. Evaluate Cultural Add, Not Culture Fit

“Culture fit” often means hiring people who are similar to existing employees. “Culture add” means hiring people who bring diverse perspectives, experiences, and communication styles that strengthen the team.

• Ask Behavioral Questions Focused on Conflict:
  • “Tell me about a time you fundamentally disagreed with a technical decision made by a senior engineer. How did you handle the discussion?”
  • “Describe a project you delivered that, in hindsight, you realize was over-engineered or poorly implemented. What did you learn?”
  • “How do you handle being blocked for a long time by an internal dependency or another team?”

5. Provide a Consistent, Structured Feedback Loop

The post-interview process must be objective. Create a standardized rubric before the first candidate is interviewed. This ensures consistency and reduces unconscious bias.

• Standardized Rubric: Rate candidates not just on “Pass/Fail,” but on specific dimensions: Code Quality, Problem Decomposition, Communication Clarity, Depth of Technical Knowledge, and Cultural Add.
• Interviewer Debrief: Immediately after the interview, have all interviewers share their scores and rationale before discussing the candidate. This prevents the most senior person’s opinion from swaying the rest of the panel.

By structuring your interviews around practical, real-time problem-solving and clear communication, you will move beyond judging résumés and successfully identify the high-quality technical talent your company needs.