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I didn't downvote, but I disagree and I did try to hire someone. Whiteboard questions are next to useless because they are, essentially, a guessing game. The ca

by gambler 14y ago

I didn't downvote, but I disagree and I did try to hire someone. Whiteboard questions are next to useless because they are, essentially, a guessing game. The candidates need to guess what behavior the interviewer wants them to exert. Some interviewers simply use it as an idiot filter, while others want the person to explain their reasoning, wile yet another group is stupid enough to think it's representative of real coding habits of the candidate. If the candidates guess incorrectly, they will fail the question, regardless of who they are or how good they know their trade. In short, interpretation of whiteboard questions is too damn subjective.

lessnonymous 14y ago
That's bad interviewing, not bad practice. Get rid of the guessing. Make sure you explain to the candidate exactly what you're looking for. I use whiteboard coding .. and it's not to catch you out on semi colons. I even tell my candidates that they can use any language they want or even mix them together or make up their own. What I want to see on the whiteboard is a logical, working solution to a simple problem. And if your brain freezes up because it's an "interview", I'm going to push you in the right direction. Once you have an initial working solution, we're going to chat about how it works. If there are cases where it would fail. What assumptions we've made about input. Maybe we'll (both) even jump over to another whiteboard and write a new version based on our discussion. (Do your eyes light up when we've found a cool optimization??) The only language caveat I use: you can't have a call a function called doitforme() (If you or anyone you know is looking for a senior PHP job in Melbourne.AU, I'm hiring. Hit me up and I'll send you to the ad on Seek)
niggler 14y ago
"others want the person to explain their reasoning," I think far more people use whiteboard questions in that context than the article's author thinks. " If the candidates guess incorrectly, they will fail the question, regardless of who they are or how good they know their trade." I don't know about your experience, but in my experience candidates actually ask questions if you properly set up the problem and present an inviting atmosphere. And in my experience the best programmers are those that aren't afraid to ask good questions.

by gambler 14y ago

lessnonymous 14y ago

That's bad interviewing, not bad practice. Get rid of the guessing. Make sure you explain to the candidate exactly what you're looking for. I use whiteboard coding .. and it's not to catch you out on semi colons. I even tell my candidates that they can use any language they want or even mix them together or make up their own. What I want to see on the whiteboard is a logical, working solution to a simple problem. And if your brain freezes up because it's an "interview", I'm going to push you in the right direction. Once you have an initial working solution, we're going to chat about how it works. If there are cases where it would fail. What assumptions we've made about input. Maybe we'll (both) even jump over to another whiteboard and write a new version based on our discussion. (Do your eyes light up when we've found a cool optimization??) The only language caveat I use: you can't have a call a function called doitforme() (If you or anyone you know is looking for a senior PHP job in Melbourne.AU, I'm hiring. Hit me up and I'll send you to the ad on Seek)

niggler 14y ago

"others want the person to explain their reasoning," I think far more people use whiteboard questions in that context than the article's author thinks. " If the candidates guess incorrectly, they will fail the question, regardless of who they are or how good they know their trade." I don't know about your experience, but in my experience candidates actually ask questions if you properly set up the problem and present an inviting atmosphere. And in my experience the best programmers are those that aren't afraid to ask good questions.