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Abdallah Ebrahim
Abdallah Ebrahim

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What do you think about white-board challenges in interviews?

Hello fellows,

I just wondering if I see things in the wrong way, but what are the goal, benefits of challenges like white-board and problem-solving challenges in an interview for one who will not do it in the actual job?

Top comments (8)

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gochev profile image
Nayden Gochev

I find them fun.. :) at least when I was being interviewed in my early days.. to write Producer/Consumer pattern on the whiteboard is fun because then you can start discussing about synchronization and etc.

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abdallahmezo profile image
Abdallah Ebrahim

This one is valid, as you will discuss it, what about this one related to calculating the angle between clockwise when its 3:13 as an example? :D

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gochev profile image
Nayden Gochev

well you can always say to the interviewer : what have you smoked man ? And simply continue :D Or you can simply say "7.5 degree… let me google that for you" and he will freeze :D

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abdallahmezo profile image
Abdallah Ebrahim

Or calculating a real clock with protractor :D, but this question have a logical answer and you once I had been asked to create a function which returns the angle

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gochev profile image
Nayden Gochev

hahh thats good I think :)))

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richardeschloss profile image
Richard Schloss

I think they're worth doing because both interviewer and candidate are seeing how well they would gel in real life. If one person provides feedback, will the other be stubborn and fight or will both work together to achieve the common goal? It's easy for code reviews to get nasty, so a good interview should help gauge early on how well a new member will work with the team. (it's ok for people to disagree, but how well can they work together when disagreement occurs?)

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blazephoenix profile image
Tanmay Naik

I think they're good if they're done purely for the purpose of problem solving while being language agnostic

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abdallahmezo profile image
Abdallah Ebrahim

I agree with that, but there are some problems which are mind blown agnostic