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Comment by richev | Hacker News Reader

Many years ago an interviewer had me handwriting my solution to a code challenge on a whiteboard. As I scribbled away I had a sense that something was amiss...the ink on the pen didn't smell quite right.

Focussing on the problem at hand, I dutifully filled the whiteboard with my solution.

All was well until I needed to erase the board, only to discover that I had selected a permanent marker rather than a dry wipe one.

Whiteboard ruined.

I did not get the job, but I did learn the importance of checking what type of pen you're using _before_ you start to use it...

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You also failed to get a job at a company where they leave permanent markers by the whiteboard. If that's indicative of their codebase at all then perhaps we should reword my first sentence to "You succeeded at not getting a job at a company where they leave permanent markers by the whiteboard".

Also, IME, that stuff is super easy to get off if you just go back over it with a regular dry erase marker.

Oh please. Someone use a permanent marker on the whiteboard? Take a regular ol' whiteboard marker and scribble over what you wrote. It'll take those "permanent" marks right off.

I was actually surprised that this isn't common knowledge so I made a video just now demonstrating (in case you don't believe me):

http://youtu.be/M-x8s6bTAU8

That works because of the alcohol in the whiteboard marker. Use an alcohol-based cleaner and you can take permanent marker off faster and cheaper.

Have done similar (though not in an interview). Usually an alcohol-based cleaning fluid can get that off with minimal effort.

Why they had a permanent marker next to a whiteboard is another question - incompetence, or to stop you rubbing anything out?

"incompetence, or to stop you rubbing anything out"

Even worse is if it was some sort of test to see if he'd check before starting to write...

It looks like everybody keeps a permanent marker next to their whiteboard. I have no idea why, but I make sure to ask the responsible person every time I see one. (I never got the same answer twice, I once got one that was honest.)

If richev really lost the job because of the marker, he safely got out of a place where people lose jobs because of powerfull people's (the interviewer) fault. Good for him.

The permanent markers are there to mark the writable disc media.

But everywhere I have worked, the dry erase markers are kept near the whiteboards, and the permanent markers are kept next to the stack of blank discs, or near the disc-writer drives. Keeping them both in the same place is a Murphy's Law infraction.

Also: you can go over permanent marker with whiteboard marker and rub it off.

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