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An interview is designed to answer three questions.

1) can you write software?

2) can we tolerate writing software with you?

3) can you tolerate writing our software?

This is a great brief summary. Currently, most interviews put very heavy emphasis on 1, slightly touch 2 and often forget 3 altogether.

I think the idea about skipping 3 is that the applicant is choosing to apply to a particular company. That's implicitly saying that they're willing to work on that company's code. I don't know how valid this is nowadays with the common practice of throwing applications at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Well 3 is the job of the applicant to figure out. That's about having the right questions on your end.

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