Currently working in the web operations department of a media company hosting all infrastructure in the cloud (Amazon). Looking to hire a systems administrator but very few candidates have real hands-on cloud infrastructure experience.

In light of this we decided to ask candidates to create a few scripts in their language of choice that performs a few tasks such as drop files in S3 or creates a Puppet manifest. The idea is to discuss this in the face/face much like many coders do when applying.

The question: If you were to ask a candidate for a SA position for a cloud-based company, what would you ask them to prove their excellence?