I think this is a great interview. I do something similar.
I’ve done most of my interviewing in finance where:
1. The engineers are mostly really good
2. They almost never have side projects, and everything they have ever done is super secret and proprietary.
For this it makes sense to ask people to do a take-home, and then ask them questions about it when they come in.
I usually also ask them to add a simple feature to their code and just silently watch them code it. You learn a lot from watching how someone breaks down a simple problem, especially where they are expert (ie they are working in their own codebase).
I’ve done most of my interviewing in finance where:
1. The engineers are mostly really good
2. They almost never have side projects, and everything they have ever done is super secret and proprietary.
For this it makes sense to ask people to do a take-home, and then ask them questions about it when they come in.
I usually also ask them to add a simple feature to their code and just silently watch them code it. You learn a lot from watching how someone breaks down a simple problem, especially where they are expert (ie they are working in their own codebase).