Getting on board

So why do we even have whiteboard coding tests as part of job interviews for programmers?

It turns out, the point of this entire exercise was to inspire a thoughtful conversation with a candidate about the way they solve problems.

It is an idea that originated in the early 2000s. The whole area of tech recruiting was even more of a mess than it is today, and the idea of focusing on how a candidate solves real coding problems represented a huge leap forward in making interviews much more pragmatic and relevant.