Programming Job Skills Test?

eclecticgeek asks: "I've recently finished a CS/SD degree at uni and the interviews are starting to come thick and fast. I've yet to have a skills test for any of them, and it's only a matter of time before I do. I'm hoping to do one this week and I will get the choice of language. The position is quite broad and they're more after competent programmers in general, rather than any one specific language. So I'm wondering, have you done a developer skills test? What type of things did you get asked?"

Comments

Yes

[Pan T. Hose]

Are you really saying that you would always hire someone who's contributed to a FOSS project over someone who hasn't, just because they made a public contribution?

Yes, but not just because of the public contribution. Let me rephrase it: I would always hire someone who I know is good over someone who I don't know whether he is good or not. And by "good" I mean both a good programmer and a good citizen.