I do not think white boarding is a cover for ageism. I think a group collaborative exercise where you're sketching, drawing, or otherwise visualizing an abstra

I do not think white boarding is a cover for ageism. I think a group collaborative exercise where you're sketching, drawing, or otherwise visualizing an abstract concept to explain a point, answer a question, or justify a decision is a skill that talented, effective people can leverage regularly to get great results at work. I think testing for this skill is a really good idea. I think that doing this in a way that's equitable and emotionally supportive to the candidate takes thoughtfulness and effort, and not every company/person in this process does this well. I also think there's a great number of people who turn this concept in to a boogeyman to rationalize their interpersonal or technical ineffectiveness. I would use a whiteboard interview to evaluate a candidate (and have), I would happily submit to a whiteboard interview (and have), and I think that all things being equal, the noise around them mostly comes from people who perform poorly on them and if I'm a betting man, a team made up of people who performed well on an equitable, well structured whiteboarding exercise would outperform one made of people who did not in the work context of building software as a team.