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Coding challenges either take home or live session. Most whiteboard questions are always some esoteric algorithm any engineer worth their salt would in real li

Coding challenges either take home or live session. Most whiteboard questions are always some esoteric algorithm any engineer worth their salt would in real life would look up before ever consider using to verify their own understanding before using it. Putting someone on the spot saying whiteboard x is not ok. However if the test is to see if they can take part in a meeting, then by all means do a white board, but ask them draw a workflow diagram or some other 40,000 foot type of diagram. Do not ask them to put code on a whiteboard.

ubernostrum 8y ago
It's not just that real working engineers would go look it up. It's that the culture around these "prove you can code" problems got into an arms race, where companies kept trying to come up with ever more difficult problems and stringent requirements on solutions. It finally reached the point where, at some companies which use them, the bar for "can you code at all" is actually "given a problem you've never seen before, can you match or beat the absolute best solution the world's best CS researchers have ever come up with, in twenty minutes, on this whiteboard". If you aren't able to, they label you a bozo who can't even write a for loop, and pronounce you unqualified to do any type of programming, and pat themselves on the back for having kept "fake coders" out of their company. (and if you wonder how anyone ever gets hired there, the answer is: by cheating. If you're going to interview at one of those places, odds are their interview problem and an accepted solution will be online somewhere, so you just go look up and memorize)
- sbov 8y ago
  Yes, my favorite was a while back, someone's list of algorithmic interview questions got posted on here, and a couple of his answers were wrong! And he STILL insisted they were good interview questions! Our field is full of some of the smartest morons on the planet.
- Ancalagon 8y ago
  You absolutely nailed it.

ubernostrum 8y ago

It's not just that real working engineers would go look it up. It's that the culture around these "prove you can code" problems got into an arms race, where companies kept trying to come up with ever more difficult problems and stringent requirements on solutions. It finally reached the point where, at some companies which use them, the bar for "can you code at all" is actually "given a problem you've never seen before, can you match or beat the absolute best solution the world's best CS researchers have ever come up with, in twenty minutes, on this whiteboard". If you aren't able to, they label you a bozo who can't even write a for loop, and pronounce you unqualified to do any type of programming, and pat themselves on the back for having kept "fake coders" out of their company. (and if you wonder how anyone ever gets hired there, the answer is: by cheating. If you're going to interview at one of those places, odds are their interview problem and an accepted solution will be online somewhere, so you just go look up and memorize)

sbov 8y ago
Yes, my favorite was a while back, someone's list of algorithmic interview questions got posted on here, and a couple of his answers were wrong! And he STILL insisted they were good interview questions! Our field is full of some of the smartest morons on the planet.
Ancalagon 8y ago
You absolutely nailed it.