

Ask HN: Interview coding - whiteboard or keyboard? - iMark

In a recent interview I was asked to complete a couple of coding questions on a whiteboard.  Both questions required a reasonable amount of code to complete.  I didn&#x27;t embarrass myself, but I did find it to be a difficult experience.  I tend to type and revise as I&#x27;m going along, something which doesn&#x27;t lend itself well to whiteboarding.<p>I&#x27;ve noticed other developers struggling in similar situations when I&#x27;ve interviewed them, so I switched to making sure they had a laptop to code on, with an overhead projector displaying the results for anyone wanting to observe the process. It represents a more realistic situation, and I&#x27;ve generally been happier with the results.<p>On the other hand, working on a whiteboard forces people to put more thought into what they&#x27;re about to do upfront, which may be the point.<p>I&#x27;m curious to hear other perspectives on this.
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lucb1e
Keyboard. You can edit and move code and it's also much faster to type than to
write. I don't understand why anyone still uses whiteboards for anything other
than pseudocode. What advantage does a whiteboard have in interviews when what
you're hired for is typing code?

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therealunreal
Well, it depends. Are you looking to hire a programmer or a teacher? ;)

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rpietro
both and access to the Web. the white board because you need a plan, the
keyboard because ... it's code, and the web since it's hard to program without
looking up sources

