If you have ever been in the position to hire a programmer then chances are you already agree with me. I've been involved in lots of interviews with candidates for programming/web development jobs. After reviewing a candidate's resume it is still difficult to really judge their knowledge. Even if the candidate has every certification you can think of with tons of education and the do very well in the interview you still don't have a good enough idea whether to hire them or not. I've seen people hired with these qualifications, but when they start working they don't even know how to connect to a SQL database or grab code from a Subversion repository.

The best way to judge a candidate, in my opinion, is to see samples of their work. Hopefully they've created their own web site(s) on the side that can easily show their talents. If not they need to show me work they've done at their previous job. I will never approve of a candidate that I've not seen samples of their work that has been verified as their own. No set of interview questions can truly replace this.