Internal hiring SOP

The Live Coding Interview

This is the document our senior engineers use when they assess candidates. The 60 minute format, the 35 point scorecard, how we handle AI use, and the two times we got it badly wrong.

We wrote it for ourselves, so some of it will only half apply. Make a copy and change whatever you want.

Open the playbook
  • Opens in Google Docs
  • No email needed
  • Nothing to fill in
From the scorecard
  • AProblem-solving approach
  • ACollaboration and coachability
  • AEdge case and test thinking
  • BCommunication and clarity
  • BReflection and self-awareness
  • CCode quality and structure
  • CTool use

30+ strong hire · 24 to 29 discuss · under 24 pass

What's in it

  • The 60 minute format

    Five minutes setting the tone, 45 building together, ten to reflect. What to say, what to watch for, what not to cut.

  • The scorecard

    Seven criteria, weighted, out of 35. Plus what to do when two interviewers disagree, which happens more than you'd think.

  • How we handle AI

    We let candidates use it. What you're assessing is not whether they use it, it's how. Good signals and bad ones.

  • When someone freezes

    Being watched while you work is not a normal condition. Three ways to recover the session without losing the person.

  • Example tasks

    Frontend, backend, fullstack and data. Scoped so you can run the same one across candidates and actually compare them.

  • Where we got it wrong

    A candidate who passed every stage and failed in two months. Another who failed the format and became one of our best placements.

“How they respond to being told they’re wrong is close to the whole job.”
Anto Cabraja, CTO
Open the playbook

We also published the prompts we use alongside it, including the one that argues against your own scoring.

See the prompts