[Hydraulix989]

Yes, the prevailing attitude is that someone's GitHub, knowledge, experience, and portfolio might as well be entirely a lie if they can't solve a particular dynamic programming LeetCode toy problem du jour on-the-fly on a whiteboard.

It's also a potential killer advantage for startups to be able to recognize budding coder talent that doesn't check off all the boxes that say FAANG recruiters have. It's still very much an inefficient market, and people that can't code aren't necessarily the best at recognizing coder talent.

[mattmanser]

I've never seen a whiteboard interview in the UK, I imagine the op would probably confirm he's never seen one in France.

The whiteboard thing seems to be a US obsession.

[marssaxman]

How else would you do a tech interview?

[mattmanser]

I've had to code something that actually had to do with the job a few times. Like write a basic page that displays X from table Y. Fill in the missing JavaScript function that does Y. Write a SQL query for the report Z. Usually left alone to do it at a computer in the de facto editor for that language.

I've also had written tests with questions to do with the job, not trick questions, just straight, normal, day-to-day problems. Usually 10 or so that start easy and get harder.