One of the most salient features of our Tech Hiring culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.
One good thing about whiteboard interviews is that at least they are time constrained.
I hate open ended take home assignment supposed to take four hours but obviously will take 16 or more because we are perfectionists and don't know how we will be judged.
Also I dislike online whiteboard interviews more than offline what, because there ask you to compile and run your code in their super crappy online IDE, which is a major distraction because pseudo code is all you need really
Absolutely! There are trade-offs with each medium you choose.
For take-home assignments, I think having really clear criteria for what the graders are looking for is important. And equally important is communicating that criteria to the candidate. I once completed a take-home assignment during an interview that was supposed to take four hours, and they clarified that they don't care how the end result looks and not to focus on styling it up to look nice, and that was incredibly helpful to me.
For the online editors, I've run into those same problems as well. As an interviewer I think you need to decide what you're trying to evaluate here: either the pseudocode and problem solving, or the actual code and whether it compiles. If the exercise is something like a test-driven development exercise, then the immediate feedback and the tests running in real time is actually really helpful! But if you're just trying to see how the candidate solves problems and if they can think critically, then I agree, the code shouldn't need to compile.
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One good thing about whiteboard interviews is that at least they are time constrained.
I hate open ended take home assignment supposed to take four hours but obviously will take 16 or more because we are perfectionists and don't know how we will be judged.
Also I dislike online whiteboard interviews more than offline what, because there ask you to compile and run your code in their super crappy online IDE, which is a major distraction because pseudo code is all you need really
Absolutely! There are trade-offs with each medium you choose.
For take-home assignments, I think having really clear criteria for what the graders are looking for is important. And equally important is communicating that criteria to the candidate. I once completed a take-home assignment during an interview that was supposed to take four hours, and they clarified that they don't care how the end result looks and not to focus on styling it up to look nice, and that was incredibly helpful to me.
For the online editors, I've run into those same problems as well. As an interviewer I think you need to decide what you're trying to evaluate here: either the pseudocode and problem solving, or the actual code and whether it compiles. If the exercise is something like a test-driven development exercise, then the immediate feedback and the tests running in real time is actually really helpful! But if you're just trying to see how the candidate solves problems and if they can think critically, then I agree, the code shouldn't need to compile.