What about just asking the candidate to do the same simple task on a computer that they own?
But in general, I think the idea of the whiteboard interview is a chance to see someone "think out loud", to see them reason through a problem. Getting a chunk of source code in an email isn't representative of that. (At worst, they paid someone to do it for them; at best, you have no idea what their approach was. Somewhere in the middle is copying and pasting most of it from SO.)
So thinking out loud while coding is a job requirement now? I have been an engineer for over 14 years, and a software engineer for 10, and I can count on one hand the number of times I have done that outside of an interview. I collaborate all the time, but almost never synchronously while actually writing code.
Sure.
>>And doing that out loud is the one of the few ways people can see how/if you do that.
Strongly disagree. I would posit that written explanations are a much better indicator of someone's ability to reason about problems, because:
a) They can provide hyperlinks, images and other supporting materials to aid their explanation
b) You also get to see if they are a competent writer, which is also a very important skill for an engineer
Which would easily come out at the interview when they fail to answer basic questions about their code.
> at best, you have no idea what their approach was
So? Did you get code that would pass a code review? Did you get code with good commits/history?
It is much easier to talk about a solution, when the solution is right there in front of you, and you read an explanation of the solution online.
Regurgitating someone else's solution is fairly easy.
This is exactly why I do this kind of stuff as well when interviewing. It's not about syntax or the ability to recall (regurgitate?) a function, but how does someone approach a problem and where can the conversation go from there. If you sent someone pre-work to write an array matcher, you'll see a final result, but not how they think through it, and you'll miss potential queues to further the conversation.
Using their own computer way to many struggle with creating a new project or other basic things. And that dont make them comfortable either. It also takes much longer then using the whiteboard.