Engineering whiteboard interviews: yay or nay?

Re:Engineering whiteboard interviews: yay or nay? by dingo_bat on Friday August 10, 2018 @12:46AM (#17730740)

> We do whiteboard problems, BUT we also emphasize beforehand that the interviewers in the room are there to work through the problem with them. This is meant as more of a conversation, we're less concerned about getting to the "right, fastest, or most optimized" answer. Not a hard problem, no mindgames, no syntax rules, and no complicated pre-known algorithm work other than an if and a loop. Let's just talk about some pseudocode.

If only all interviewers were like you.

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Re:Engineering whiteboard interviews: yay or nay? by gautamdivgi on Friday August 10, 2018 @01:47AM (#17730997)

We do the same thing as well. As long as the candidate can explain their abstractions in pseudo code we are good. We also keep to a 1-1 between interviewer and candidate so that the candidate isn’t intimidated.

I’ve interviewed at Facebook as well and although the interview was not successful I have never been nitpicked about syntax and compilabiltiy/runnability of my whiteboard solutions. I came off with a very healthy appreciation of the way they try to engage the candidate and reduce stress.

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