Being able to communicate via whiteboard is a useful skill. I'm not good at it, but I appreciate those who are. That seems to be what this author is advocating:

Being able to communicate via whiteboard is a useful skill. I'm not good at it, but I appreciate those who are. That seems to be what this author is advocating: jotting down ideas, designs, diagrams, temporary notes. If the team depends on everyone being comfortable at a whiteboard, then it's worth testing at an interview. I don't think that is what most people are pushing against, but rather actual whiteboard coding. Taking the whiteboard out of the picture, the task is to write code in an unrealistically broken editor. You get a partially functioning backspace but no insert, indent/outdent, search/replace, etc. And the editor restricts your typing speed to 10% of your normal capacity. On top of that, strangers are staring at you. If whiteboard coding really leads to better hires than other forms of evaluation, I'd like to see the data.