I have built TQMemory as a high-performance, in-memory cache that can be used as a drop-in replacement for Memcached. It uses the same CLI flags, speaks the same protocol, and under some conditions it exceeds Memcached performance. When used as a Go package, it circumvents network, and achieves over 15 million GET requests per second (about 48x faster than Memcached over sockets).
Hi Colin, I like your approach. I would also be letting somebody do a programming exercise for an hour or so. With an Internet connection and a editor and runtime of choice. I guess you could even consider to hire a company/service to perform coding tests on applicants for you. That may save you even more time.
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS has TRIM support for SSD drives out of the box. No need to setup a cron with the "fstrim" command or set the fstab "discard" option, like in earlier versions.