[Phlow]

I have gone through a couple of interviews at large companies recently. I have over a decade of experience, and I can tell you that I know what I'm doing. I have a real problem with these whiteboard handwritten algorithm problems. I'm not sure why companies insist on conducting interviews in this manner. It doesn't represent anything close to how I actually go about solving problems. Hell, I RARELY actually write anything down anymore, so the slowness and errors I make in writing just make it that much more distracting.

Why do these companies not just give you a computer and an editor, hell, even one with code completion enabled, and let you solve the problem that way?

I agree completely with this article. I have not once needed to write an algorithm to traverse a graph, or find the shortest path, etc. I have RARELY ever needed to implement a common data structure myself. That's what libraries are for. People that write library code wouldn't be able to properly write these data structures in the allotted interview time. It makes very little sense.

Something else to note. Traveling from one coast to the other for interviews almost certainly has a mental cost. I have noticed it personally, that the jet lag reduces my concentration and ability to process.

I'd be interested to see statistics on what percentage of hires were actually successful when coming from the same coast vs the opposite coast.