[Nocturnals]

> Take an afternoon and skim Cracking the Coding Interview before applying.

First, I know this isn't a black or white issue but the problem I have with this is that I'm wondering if they are hiring people with the skills they want or are they hiring people with the skill to succeed in their test.

In theory, they should be the same. In practice... I don't know.

[ng12]

I'm convinced that they are. Sure, it's not perfect, but the set of qualities that impress me in a whiteboard are generally the same qualities that I look for in an engineer. Can you communicate well? How do you approach problems you've never seen before? Can you write readable code without thinking too hard about it?

I'm not really selecting for people who are really, really good with binary tries -- I'm selecting for people who display those qualities, the question is pretty much incidental.