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> "Whiteboarding" has become too large of an umbrella term, one that groups together everything that's wrong with the interview process. That general premise i
by bhb603 8y ago
> "Whiteboarding" has become too large of an umbrella term, one that groups together everything that's wrong with the interview process.
That general premise is right, we've lumped too much into the term "whiteboarding", and it's worth unpacking into the different interviewing practices we may like or dislike. Some things people don't like have nothing to do with an actual whiteboard (e.g. testing esoteric CS knowledge or deliberately creating a stressful environments), and some things that involve a whiteboard IMO are ok (e.g. sketching out a system diagram).
- alkonaut 8y agoYes. The whiteboarding that gets hate is effectively the one where you would be asked to write a depth first traversal or similar, in some verbose language, correctly. On a whiteboard. That is STILL a thing (judging by HN) and it's useless. I don't think anyone would ever think it's a bad idea to have a whiteboard on hand if a candidate is asked to describe how they would design some nontrivial system. Being asked to describe something without a whiteboard in that case, is even harder. The objection you often get for the latter kind is that it tends to benefit the extroverted kind that likes to babble and sketch, whereas a candidate who would prefer ten minutes alone with a pen and paper might not do so well. I think are some merits to that complaint, but I also know from experience that being able to babble and sketch is really important.