> Asking someone to code on a whiteboard is stupid. I've started to turn this around and so far our senior candidates have loved the experience. (I only wish I

> Asking someone to code on a whiteboard is stupid. I've started to turn this around and so far our senior candidates have loved the experience. (I only wish I had come up with the idea.) Instead of asking to write code on a whiteboard and solve an arbitrary problem, couple of our engineers came up with an inverted problem. And ever since seeing it in practice, I've been trying to introduce it to every interview I can think of. We write a piece of code on the whiteboard, and then ask the candidate to review it, as well as modify it to better suit the problem and context. This way the question turns into a discussion on design, constraint exploration, service expectations and externalities. Hell, sometimes it even goes into deep language design issues. Sure enough, it still measures a level coding skills but puts a much higher emphasis on understanding what the problem and its scope really is. It's also a lot of fun.