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by hejja 2152 days ago
100%.

if properly trained, interviewers ask questions that build without throwing the kitchen sink at you.

whiteboard interviews (when done holistically) assess for signal, not binary correctness

- do you have a solid framework to build a solution?

- are you considering multiple approaches / data structures / complexities

- referencing similar problems, vocabulary, situations to illustrate breadth of knowledge

sure, the stress component isn't ideal, but there are multiple relevant capabilities being assessed in a very short amount of time...

in other words it's a much better test of tacit knowledge than alternatives

1 comments

You can confirm the same using a take-home assignment and a code review together with the candidate. Or even with an on-site pair programming. Neither of those require whiteboards.
pair programming, for sure

if done right, whiteboarding should be almost the same as pair programming -- an iterative dialogue