4 ms·
When you ask someone to stand at a whiteboard and write code with a pen you're asking them to demonstrate being able to write pseudo code with a pen. If you nee
by rickdangerous1 16y ago
When you ask someone to stand at a whiteboard and write code with a pen you're asking them to demonstrate being able to write pseudo code with a pen. If you need that skill at your company go ahead and interview that way.
Most software activities require the ability to write software at a keyboard with an IDE.
I suck at writing pseudo code on a whiteboard...I also suck at writing code while someone there is watching every mistake I make. If I don't know the exact answer in advance, I need to feel my way by trying something, back tracking then trying a variation etc...You can't do that process effectively in an interview at a whiteboard with a pen.
Also, I don't bother carrying around advanced algorythms in my head for doing this and that. What I do have is an effective strategy and skill for discovering the algorythms I need just - in - time. Who's got time to memorize arbitary algorythms so they can pass whiteboard interviews anyway?
- gfodor 16y agoit's algorithms
- rickdangerous1 16y agoroger that.
- johnswamps 16y agoI recently had an interview at google which I did not pass. The problem I did the worst on was finding the median of two sorted arrays. If I had 5 minutes with my favorite editor and an easy way to run unit tests, I could have easily written a correct version of the algorithm. It's not a hard problem, and a lot easier than many of the algorithms I write every week. Instead, I spent a long time erasing what I had written, running out of room on the edge of the board, staring at the board, thinking about off by one errors, etc. Just looking at code on a computer screen is a lot easier. You're used to seeing code in a nice monotype font with syntax coloring, not some scribbles on a board. And if the interviewer had just left the room for 10 minutes and let me write it on the board by myself I think I would have done a lot better.
- AngryParsley 16y agoIf I had 5 minutes with my favorite editor and an easy way to run unit tests, I could have easily written a correct version of the algorithm. If you did have your preferred development environment in front of you, your interview questions would likely be harder. I see two possible solutions to this problem: 1. Interviewers: Change the interview process so that candidates are expected bring their own computers to write code on. Increase the difficulty of the questions. 2. Candidates: Practice interviewing, including writing code on a whiteboard. Have a friend pretend to be the interviewer. BTW if you ever interview at Google again, I suggest reading http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-goog... . It definitely helped me. Actually, I suggest reading that before you interview anywhere.
- barrkel 16y agoThe nice thing about harder questions is that you can be sure that flakes are more likely to fail at them. Bring on the hard questions, I say, so long as they are not "trick"-based.
- AngryParsley 16y agoInterviewers would have to spend a lot more time thinking up questions, so the cost-benefit analysis heavily discourages that. There's also the status-quo bias to deal with. I don't understand why people don't practice interviewing. It's worth your time to spend a few hours practicing something that could determine your future for years. Employers will change their interview process some day, but until then, if you want a good job you sometimes have to jump through stupid hoops. Of course, I'd like interviewers to practice as well. When I interview someone, I want to get some idea of the candidate's skills. I seriously doubt my hastily-thought-up questions are anywhere close to optimal at achieving that goal.
- stretchwithme 16y agousually, they've got tough problems they need solved, so thinking up tough questions isn't really necessary send your best people to startup weekend and similar events. It should take only a few hours to identify the top people and establish a rapport that may lead to a successful hire.
- jemfinch 16y ago> If I don't know the exact answer in advance, I need to feel my way by trying something, back tracking then trying a variation etc... That sort of "coding by accident" is exactly what interviews like that are designed to exclude. No doubt some very few people can successfully code that (wrong) way but the vast majority who do so are simply incompetent.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- RyanMcGreal 16y agoIf your company computer is a 1960s mainframe and you have to input code via punch cards, this is probably an effective interview technique.