Ask HN: Interview coding - whiteboard or keyboard?

3 pointsby iMark13 yıl önce3 comments

In a recent interview I was asked to complete a couple of coding questions on a whiteboard. Both questions required a reasonable amount of code to complete. I didn't embarrass myself, but I did find it to be a difficult experience. I tend to type and revise as I'm going along, something which doesn't lend itself well to whiteboarding.

I've noticed other developers struggling in similar situations when I've interviewed them, so I switched to making sure they had a laptop to code on, with an overhead projector displaying the results for anyone wanting to observe the process. It represents a more realistic situation, and I've generally been happier with the results.

On the other hand, working on a whiteboard forces people to put more thought into what they're about to do upfront, which may be the point.

I'm curious to hear other perspectives on this.

3 comments

rpietro13 yıl önce

both and access to the Web. the white board because you need a plan, the keyboard because ... it's code, and the web since it's hard to program without looking up sources

lucb1e13 yıl önce

Keyboard. You can edit and move code and it's also much faster to type than to write. I don't understand why anyone still uses whiteboards for anything other than pseudocode. What advantage does a whiteboard have in interviews when what you're hired for is typing code?

therealunreal13 yıl önce

Well, it depends. Are you looking to hire a programmer or a teacher? ;)