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Whiteboard problems work great as a general intelligence test if administered correctly. A well designed whiteboard problem will filter out people of lesser int
by ybrah 8y ago
Whiteboard problems work great as a general intelligence test if administered correctly. A well designed whiteboard problem will filter out people of lesser intelligence. This means the people you would be working with would generally be more intelligent. This is not a bad thing.
Furthermore, whiteboards are great communication tools. I spend some time on VRChat's whiteboard room teaching people various algorithms, and other abstract things to help me learn. Someone who knows how to use a whiteboard and communicate correctly would be a better hire than someone who doesn't.
If the company you work at uses whiteboard problems to vet interviewees, just drill them. With a little practice, you'll have a better chance.
- nunya213 8y agoThis is so wrong that it actually hurts my brain. Albert Einstein, a certifiable genius probably could not tell you how to invert a binary tree, this has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with how many HackerRank problems you have memorized.
- recursive 8y agoThere are many things you can do with a whiteboard other than inverting binary trees. You're thinking too narrowly.
- nunya213 8y agoObviously, but I was specifically referring to the typical algorithm oriented whiteboard questions found at major tech company interviews. Working a real world problem on a whiteboard I see no issue with.
- recursive 8y agoThis whole post is about companies that "don't whiteboard". Not companies that "only whiteboard for real world problems".
- Melchizedek 8y agoTrue, but there are also brain-teaser type problems that don't require memorization of obscure algorithms, and those could actually be disguised intelligence tests. (But I suppose if you really wanted to you could memorize most of the brain-teaser problems in existence.)
- nunya213 8y agoGoogle has already shown that those types of questions have 0 correlation to developer success.
- Grue3 8y agoWhat's so hard about inverting a binary tree anyway? If Einstein lived today and was into computer science, he'd be able do this in his sleep.