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I would say, try to test the fundamentals. Do they understands how memory is accessed, have sense what kind of algorithm is used (though it would be too much to code in 45 minutes), ambitious, have general idea to solve a problem, can they see issues if things are not performant... Having a conversation, comfortable conversation is the key, imo.

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For a general developer role that seems excessive not sure what you mean by algorithem here?

I would assume you'd be asking about how the address and data busses work which varies by cpu and architecture (von Neumann vs Harvard) presumably you'd be happy if some one explained how PIC memory access works ?

With algorithms, I mean if the problem demands some optimization, be it network flow, string compression or some kind of resource allocation (something like register allocation in compilers), one should have the vague idea which direction to pursue or approach. This requires somehow rigorous course-work in school. Assuming everyone takes standard CS machine architecture courses, having the breadth in multiple domain is, essential, imo for a well rounded engineer. Now knowing(or having no idea) how memory access, hierarchy etc works, they won't know when things just get stuck.

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