Yes I agree it's difficult and the best approach I've ever seen is to give a sort but "simple" programming task. The one I've been given (and used since) was a simple program that opened a file read the number from it, same with a second file adds the "lines" of numbers together and sends the result to a third. Ask the, to handle exceptions etc and make the names / locations of the files fixed. Like you have experienced those that look on paper can't usually do the work and we have found so many that can't do that simple task! Given a full Visual Stuidio IDE (which 90% of people would be used to) with full help etc and as much time as they need, only about 1 in 10 that we interviewed could write a decent bit of code, which is after all what you are after. I would disagree with the publishing / discussion way of recuriting as some people (like me for instance) a) Have no web site of their own, b) Too busy to spend a lot of time of forums etc! and only contribute once in a while. The previous company I worked for had the best most talented broup of engineers I have ever worked with and as far as I know not one publised articles etc as like me there were all too busy / had no interest in doing so. Andy