4 ms·

"Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when microcomputers like the Apple II were all the rage, computer time was expensive, pressure-packed and cumbersome." Does no one

by phuff 11y ago

"Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when microcomputers like the Apple II were all the rage, computer time was expensive, pressure-packed and cumbersome." Does no one fact check anything anymore? If you're going to base part of your argument around technology that was around before you were born maybe do a little more research? And also... get off my lawn? Am I really that old?

31reasons 11y ago
Also it should be mentioned that the author is a co-founder of HackerRank.com , which is trying to be the testing platform for new interview candidates. From the article, I didn't get any information on why or what or if there is a "Looming Fall" of the whiteboard for testing engineering candidates.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  > I didn't get any information on why or what or if there is a "Looming Fall" of the whiteboard for testing engineering candidates. Because its a product placement article (selling HackerRank).
  - josephkern 11y ago
    "Native Advertisement"
Mandatum 11y ago
I'm 22 and cringed reading that sentence.
- rvivek 11y ago
  very sorry. fixed & added correction at the bottom.
soham 11y ago
At InterviewKickstart.com, we train candidates on various interviewing styles. We believe, that a whiteboard is here to stay for some time, however much we hate it. Why? 1. Coding is perceived to be a commoditized skill, but engineering is not. Most companies worth their salt, hire engineers and not coders. In today's world of nearly everything available readily, coding is maybe 30% of an engineer's job. Rest is designing, explaining and thinking in a collaborative setting to arrive at the right solution/design/spec. There is no better tool for collaborative working than a whiteboard, and you want to see those skills in an interview. 2. It's really easy to discuss a system-design question. Reading code samples and documents doesn't give you a good idea of how a system is designed, as much/fast as talking to the person does. When talking about such high-level concepts, a block-diagram on a whiteboard is inevitable. 3. Coding doesn't happen at speed of thought. Whiteboarding does. When you are trying to assess someone's thought-process, you need a tool that caters to that speed. 4. Whiteboards are way more "visible" and life-size. They force you to stand up and hence pay attention. 5. A more subtle and controversial reason: White-boarding allows for approximation in a solution, which can be a good thing for an interviewer. Most interviewers are only concerned with high-level aspect of code and don't want to take the time to read a solution in detail. Whiteboard provides that out. 6. When writing code in an assessment tool, it is not sufficient that the test-cases pass. You also have to pay attention to the time and space complexity. And when that complexity is not what you want, you feel like discussing it with the candidate, instead of just rejecting him/her. Whiteboarding allows the interviewer to pay attention to those things quickly. 7. Google does it! So everyone is going to keep following that :-) Pair programming is a great alternative to whiteboarding. But still it doesn't replace a whiteboard, which is just so fast, collaborative and convenient.

by phuff 11y ago

31reasons 11y ago

Also it should be mentioned that the author is a co-founder of HackerRank.com , which is trying to be the testing platform for new interview candidates. From the article, I didn't get any information on why or what or if there is a "Looming Fall" of the whiteboard for testing engineering candidates.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
> I didn't get any information on why or what or if there is a "Looming Fall" of the whiteboard for testing engineering candidates. Because its a product placement article (selling HackerRank).
- josephkern 11y ago
  "Native Advertisement"

Mandatum 11y ago

I'm 22 and cringed reading that sentence.

rvivek 11y ago
very sorry. fixed & added correction at the bottom.

soham 11y ago

At InterviewKickstart.com, we train candidates on various interviewing styles. We believe, that a whiteboard is here to stay for some time, however much we hate it. Why? 1. Coding is perceived to be a commoditized skill, but engineering is not. Most companies worth their salt, hire engineers and not coders. In today's world of nearly everything available readily, coding is maybe 30% of an engineer's job. Rest is designing, explaining and thinking in a collaborative setting to arrive at the right solution/design/spec. There is no better tool for collaborative working than a whiteboard, and you want to see those skills in an interview. 2. It's really easy to discuss a system-design question. Reading code samples and documents doesn't give you a good idea of how a system is designed, as much/fast as talking to the person does. When talking about such high-level concepts, a block-diagram on a whiteboard is inevitable. 3. Coding doesn't happen at speed of thought. Whiteboarding does. When you are trying to assess someone's thought-process, you need a tool that caters to that speed. 4. Whiteboards are way more "visible" and life-size. They force you to stand up and hence pay attention. 5. A more subtle and controversial reason: White-boarding allows for approximation in a solution, which can be a good thing for an interviewer. Most interviewers are only concerned with high-level aspect of code and don't want to take the time to read a solution in detail. Whiteboard provides that out. 6. When writing code in an assessment tool, it is not sufficient that the test-cases pass. You also have to pay attention to the time and space complexity. And when that complexity is not what you want, you feel like discussing it with the candidate, instead of just rejecting him/her. Whiteboarding allows the interviewer to pay attention to those things quickly. 7. Google does it! So everyone is going to keep following that :-) Pair programming is a great alternative to whiteboarding. But still it doesn't replace a whiteboard, which is just so fast, collaborative and convenient.