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Discussion on: Engineering whiteboard interviews: yay or nay?

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ItsASine (Kayla)

I love whiteboards for discussion within teams, but they seem too much of a crutch for use during interviews. Ask trivia question about an algorithm or something, make code monkey write it on the board, move them to the next step if they can do it.

If it's used in the way whiteboarding is used in real life, as a discussion, that's better for the interviewer and the interviewee.

"How would you approach this system?" They draw it out a bit. "What's that part over there do?" They explain, keep drawing, say they don't know how to proceed. Interviewer asks a relevant question to see what their thought process is. Interviewee answers and they talk it out.

It's hard to interview properly, but that's also how you can find the best fit on both sides.