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I think the hidden agenda here might be that big corps also test for the candidate's a) motivation and b) obedience. Are you the sort of person who's willing to learn whiteboard programming on your spare time, and then tolerate abuse from the interviewers? The type of unethical business most of the big corps do works best with subservient, diligent code slingers.

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Is your experience that interviewers "abuse" candidates? I interview candidates about once a week, and I always try to make them feel at ease and comfortable, no matter if they are doing well or not. I would be curious to learn about other people's experiences.

I personally have only anecdotal evidence, but I've read now many stories where the interviewers of these giants refuse to engage in a two-way, human-to-human conversation with the candidate but instead make the ordeal deliberately prolonged, stressful and unconfortable. I'd call that abuse.

Even though I'm sure there is a lot of variance between interviewers, I can't help but think that the abusive style of whiteboard grilling must "work" in that it results in able workforce, and that might be because of the reason I suggested.

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