When I was hiring at my old place we set up disposable cloud VMs with a shared screen we could both remote into for interviews. No need for the candidate to install anything, and more responsive and secure than sharing my corporate desktop. Obviously the best thing is in-person at a shared screen (and the human interaction goes better too). This seemed like the best and most respectful compromise. https://www.edparcell.com/remote-desktop.html

They (not what OP is talking about but usually these software) detect if a VM exists and abort, to prevent “cheating”.

How about no.

If you want me to run a particular piece of software, send me a fucking computer. If you want me to be on call on a company-managed cellphone, send me a phone that you can own and manage all you want.

Do not ask me to download, install, or run malware on MY computer or phone as part of the APPLICATION process. If you are the sort of company that thinks this is appropriate, then I do not want to work for you. I've actually turned down work because of this. "Oh, they just want you to install this Chrome extension to make sure you're not cheating during the video interview." No. Fuck you. Don't touch my fucking equipment.

how about they do what they want, and you do what you want, and you don't collaborate with each other if you can't get along? no reason to be angry.

if one of my hiring practices would reliably generate that many f-bombs, i'd consider it a success and stick with it!

You're allowed to be angry when people do dumb things. Expecting your interviewees to install malware on their computer just to do an interview is dumb. Not only is it asking for trouble, it's also completely unnecessary. We have platforms specifically built for coding interviews, you just don't need to do that.

I guess, sure, companies are technically allowed to request you install malware on your computer. It's probably a CFAA violation, but nobody gives a rat's ass about the CFAA unless you're hacking the FBI, so who cares.

Also, make no mistake: a piece of software that is designed to record your screen, keypresses, etc is malware. It is spyware. You have absolutely zero guarantee it isn't install hooks into your system that will exist long after the application is gone.

Just do the interview in a browser sandbox like a normal person, and share your screen. Boom, problem solved, we figured this out 10 years ago. Really that paranoid about cheating? Then pay up and do an in-person interview, paper code test and all. I've had it done to me multiple times.

engage with the people you want to engage with, don't with the people you don't, you didn't offer any correction to that.

I agree, but that doesn’t mean you can’t call things dumb. You can. Asking interviewees to install random software on their computer is dumb, and you should stop if you’re doing that. You’re certainly allowed to disagree, that’s just my opinion.

Personally I judge hiring practices based on cost efficiency and quality of candidates, but I suppose "making people mad" could be an alternative criteria.

don't straw man, making a certain group of people mad, if it detects people who are problematic teammates, is an unmitigated plus.

Ah yes, "a certain group of people".

You wouldn't by any chance normally use a different term for this group? Perhaps a single word?

I have a desktop that I use as a remote server for the GPU, so I'd be happy to disconnect the ssd and boot off a usb stick.