Comment by ukd1

Pairing on something close to whatever real work they'd be doing, but familiar to the applicant is my favorite way to evaluate someone (e.g. choose a side project, pre agree adding a feature).

I don't care if someone uses modern tools (like AI assists), google, etc - e.g. "open book" - as that's the how they want to work. Evaluating their style of thinking / solving problems, comms, and output is the win.