
Ask HN: How can I avoid whiteboarding interview questions? - throwmeplease
Are there any tech companies that don&#x27;t do whiteboarding interview questions? I&#x27;m looking for a Sr. Engineer role and most of the companies in san francisco bay area seem to focus mainly on writing perfect but meaningless functions on a whiteboard as fast as possible. I have +10y or experience and would like to leverage that for my next gig beyond just recruiters. Not necessarily looking for a big name, been there done that. Today I just want to work on a cool project with cool people and still get paid for that. Who cares about binary trees for an extra few RSU&#x27;s and a free t-shirt? Bring your dog, free beer, brand new campus looking like a college town... It ain&#x27;t gonna do it. I have a family, I&#x27;m in my mid 30&#x27;s.<p>Thanks
======
itamarst
If you're stuck interviewing at a company that has these:

1\. Try to suggest an alternative, e.g. "here's some algorithm code I provably
wrote, let me explain it". Works better if you have open source contributions.

2\. Learn how to take control of the interview so whiteboarding isn't as bad.
I have a writeup of how I do it, but basically I explain I will write tests,
then write code, then go through tests. This helps show off testing skills,
but also means you look good even if your algorithm solution isn't perfect
immediately. Full writeup: [https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/04/04/interview-
puzzles/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/04/04/interview-puzzles/)

------
c8g
[https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-
whiteboards/blob/ma...](https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-
whiteboards/blob/master/README.md)

Hiring Without Whiteboards

~~~
throwmeplease
You are awesome my friend!

