>Their ability to program? Or their ability to practice interview tricks? Often, neither. It can be the ability to think clearly and communicate that thinking.

>Their ability to program? Or their ability to practice interview tricks? Often, neither. It can be the ability to think clearly and communicate that thinking. I personally avoid whiteboard coding questions when I interview people, but the good ones I've been given involve a good back-and-forth, basically working on the problem together. I usually ask more open-ended questions, like "how would you go about solving this large, potentially ambiguous problem". Both types of questions give the interviewer the ability to gauge personal skills and mental clarity. Whiteboard questions provide some ability to test technical ability in exchange for some ability to test higher-level knowledge. They both work in the same kind of way, though.