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Why not pull down a decent example of code that fits their resume's skill set and having them go through it with you line by line to tell you what they would do differently or why they like it, etc.?

>It doesn't even matter if it is their own code. The fact that they will have to talk intelligently about it means that it will accomplish its task.

I think you missed this part. Anybody can go on github and grab a repo and pick a specific section of code to talk about. This still accomplishes the goal of finding out if the candidate can understand code and communicate about it.

Why not offer both options? Bring in a piece of code you want to talk about, or have the option to do a coding challenge.

Either way, you're asking the candidate to develop code, and then explain their decisions in a meaningful way.