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Take your candidate to a computer, ask the programmer what he/she is working on. Have the candidate sit down and continue the work for ten minutes. If it works, hire him/her.

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This is absurd. Most companies don't have code bases that one can get an understanding of within a day. This is more of a test of the candidates luck on what the person is working on.

Have you tried this? Do you feel that personal projects correctly reflect production releases? Is it necessary that they do?

I mean; ask the programmer who is currently working on that computer, what he/she is working on. Then see if the candidate can pick up the work from there, with some hints from the programmer.

The engineers working on a team might spend hours in sprint planning meetings, doing research, and working out an approach with their team before they start coding anything. How would you expect to get a fair assessment of someone by dropping them in the middle of someone else's code work, and putting them on the spot?

I understand.

Have you done this during interviews with applicants? Have you received feedback from applicants?

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