[vunderba]

It was usually a combination of algorithmic questions, some riddles, a few technical questions, etc. All of it was done on the whiteboard.

The thing is that at the time there were no books around commonly asked interview questions, online leetcode lists, etc. so the assumption was that the applicant was basically going in cold, and that there wasn't an expectation that they would be able to instantly solve the problems.

It was more important for them to talk out loud so that the interviewer could observe their thought process.

[jaredsohn]

There were ways to get problems, though, such as prior questions for the ACM programming contest. Those tended to be a little harder, though.

Also, topcoder started in 2001.