I've seen multiple entire successful commercial game studios in the US and CA built from the ground up with *zero whiteboard interviewing*. They conducted a bunch of 2-3 on 1 interviews with the most promising candidates, hired them and put them to work. Vast majority worked out.

Even with the candidates that didn't work out as coders, they would stay at the studio until we found something they could help us with. In many cases, we found they could add value in some way.

Off the top of my head, this no-whiteboard process was followed at Utopia Technologies (Montezuma's Return), Sandbox Studios/DICE CA (Shrek Xbox - first deferred shaded game), Ensemble Studios (Halo Wars 1), Beanbag Studios (casual game studio formed by ex-Sandbox devs.

Whiteboard interviews are:
- a professional hazing ritual
- a way to suppress programmer wages
- a way to prevent horizontal movement between companies
- an expression of power and ego

I say this as someone who had to conduct numerous whiteboard interviews at Valve and other companies. It's total bullshit. The execs would bypass the process and backdoor key employees in by leaking the questions and training them. It's all bullshit.

I know of several well-known very highly paid developers who were back doored in this manner. If you're an insider long enough you see this happen.

If you're an insider long enough, you don't need to whiteboard interview or they feed you the questions beforehand to give you time to practice. Some developers may even sit down and secretly train you.

Any company that *requires* whiteboard interviews has employees that are backdoored in. Management will have to bypass the process or their company won't be able to hire the people it needs. Think of the irony in that!

When a bunch of programmers are laid off from a company, they will send in programmers to several whiteboarding-required companies to get their process and questions. This key info will be privately shared to help their buds get hired.

Why does nobody talk about these truths? Because few can or are willing to rock the boat. I don't depend on the corporate employee system to make a living.