[vonmoltke]

I don't really see that. I think whiteboard coding is one of many ways a team could function and that how a candidate performs on it is not generalizable. For instance, I have never written code, pseudo or otherwise, on a whiteboard outside of an interview in over eight years of writing code full-time. Hell, I used a whiteboard more in my four years as an EE and two years as a SysE than I have as a SysE/SwE.

[jlees]

It depends how you evaluate the exercise -- for example, don't mark the candidate on correct code and syntax, but reasoning ability, communication, and problem solving. Whiteboard code interviews also have the flaw that the type of problem they tend to cover is not one you might run into in daily coding, so the way the candidate thinks and communicates is seen through a very particular lens - but my point is that given an Olympiad-level candidate who can clearly solve those kinds of problems, I think there is still value to be had from watching them solve them.

I prefer whiteboarding systems design/architectural concepts, which is definitely something I do in the course of my regular work.