Imho whiteboarding(solve this trick question by using well known algo/datastruct...) was introduced because when hiring fresh grads/no-experience people, one ca

Imho whiteboarding(solve this trick question by using well known algo/datastruct...) was introduced because when hiring fresh grads/no-experience people, one can not expect them to know enough about any language or any domain related problem an experienced person can solve, so only way to check if they are good learners is asking ds and algo they learned at college which they still retain or revised recently added with their favorite language of choice in basic form. Unfortunately, this has spilled over to experienced hires as well & gained the bad rep as experienced people retain their memory/experience of solving a real world problem related to the job at hand rather than ds and algo they learned long time ago. Depending on which type is being hired the interview could be adjusted. So probably if an applicant has no experience at all, give them ds and algo problems, but if the candidate has some experience, focus on that may be and go deep from there.