As for "They work harder"... consider the impact of multiple generations of success, versus multiple generations of failure. I grew up what southerners call "poor white trash". I escaped, but barely, and mostly because I was very determined and very smart. When I landed at a high quality private college, I was utterly unprepared for the experience. I grew up listening to my father refer to the wealthy men he worked for as "educated mow-rawns", in that thick Kentucky accent of his. Going to college, surrounded by the children of lawyers and professors and the like, their family life was as alien to me as my dad bouncing in and out of jail was to them. I was embarrassed and ashamed.

Now, throw in the past century of crap that has kept even hardworking and talented black families down, and you can see where the problem might start.

A lot of schools don't teach anything about interviewing. Its not academic. In fact, a lot of the training videos used in schools that do teach "job skills" to prepare students make no mention of white board interviews. They talk about being polite, wearing a suit, grooming, etc.

Judging an academic program on if they have ever been exposed to a whiteboard interview is fairly silly. I never saw on in 20 years.

As to your last paragraph, I'm not sure what role culture would play in introducing people to whiteboard interviews. I guess I grew up in a different environment, but I don't remember any of my urban white friends extolling the annual whiteboard festival. I can see it being a economic function of better schooling though.

I failed it miserably. Honestly, the experience left me kind of embarrassed and metaphorically beaten up for a while. Kind of like I'd claimed to be a programmer and had been revealed to be a fraud.

By this point (almost 20 years later), I've been through this wringer so many times that it seems like common knowledge. It doesn't really bother me at this point. But now that I think of it, yeah, I was unprepared for this and unaware of it.

I'm used to this sort of thing now, but I still think it's an usual and really unpleasant part of our industry. Most knowledge based fields really don't have anything like this sort of interview/exam (seriously, it's almost a pure exam, I think that describing it as an interview is simply misleading to people who aren't aware of what goes on in our field) - though most fields have a more standardized set of credentialing and degree programs.

I do think that the mysterious, unpredictable, and stressful nature of tech exam interviews deters a lot of people from entering or remaining in this field.

Yikes, that's even worse. Some cultures will actively hold a suit against a candidate. I can't say I agree with that, but it's a little scary that they're giving stock advice to a highly dynamic field, very little of which is relevant. (Polite is good, being relaxed is better. Being suited is good, being comfortable is better.)

Most places I've been wouldn't hold this against a new grad.

However, some places might hold this against a more senior person as being tone deaf toward the position he's going to be in. Nevertheless, I might wear a suit if the CEO, CTO, etc. was going to be part of my interview loop. But, I'll probably ditch the jacket and tie for the VP of Engineering.

Well, stock advise is basically what text book publishers do.

Agreed, this is an indication of toxic culture on both sides.

HOWEVER. I would say aside from the grooming bit, the whiteboarding advice is the best possible advice for anyone. My mother can happily tell me to wear a suit, but she's not in a position to educate me about my field. A school had better fucking be, or what is the point? The technical knowledge—if they teach it at all—is itself is easier gained online than from a school.

These are students. I would not expect them to start their education knowing about whiteboard interviews. At some point, all of us professional software developers were ignorant about how interviewing worked, and then we learned.

The question is: why are black and hispanic students not reaching this level of understanding at the same rate as whites and Asians? Perhaps they're not doing internships at the same rate? Some other reason? Regardless, this question deserves a serious answer, and not a flip dismissal based on stereotypes about work habits.

High Tech companies rarely recruited at my school (an HBCU) and when they did, they would send some a random manager to talk about diversity, not a recruiter.

Wait, is it that or are the schools "woefully inadequate"??

>No only are the schools they are graduating from are woefully inadequate,

See, I listen to a lot of rap, or "black music". And differences in taste aside, some of the stuff is REALLY complex. Look at Nas, Tupac, or even more recently, Kendrick Lamar. The sheer amount of detail these guys put into their art makes me feel bad about myself as a programmer. These guys work hard at their craft. But you know what, they're not coders.

But here's the thing, quoting Kendrick Lamars "Black Boy Fly": "The only way out the ghetto, you know the stereotype Shooting hoops or live on the stereo like top 40".

The reason why they're not programmers is the same reason why I'm not a rapper. Because I'm white AND asian, and I grew up with a computer instead of a boombox, that my friends coded and didn't rhyme. Not that I don't want to, or that I don't work at it, it's closed doors to me.

I'm fairly certain that black people from the neighbourhoods that I get my music from, walking into a coding interview, even if they've been trying to program for years, they'd be just as lost as me walking into a rap battle. It's not about how hard you work at it, or how hard you push at it. Social mobility takes commitment.

Or succinctly put from the same song " What am I to do when every neighborhood is an obstacle"

That really makes me think. 20 years ago Biggie was saying "Either you're slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot." I guess being on Top 40 is an improvement.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

I've barely been to any career events at my school, and professors never mention about whiteboard interviews. My friends in CS don't discuss this either. I just learned right away when I did some basic research on job searching.

Bad students or bad schools, it's really surprising either way they can be that bad.

Wow, talk about broad strokes. I guess I'll refer to you all my slacker asian and jew friends so they can make some easy cash.