Software engineers often face a critical test before landing a job—passing a technical interview. During these sessions, candidates must write code while thinking aloud as they work toward a solution to a problem under the watchful eye of an interviewer. While thinking aloud during technical interviews gives interviewers a picture of candidates’ problem-solving ability, surprisingly, these types of interviews often prevent candidates from communicating their thought process effectively. To understand if poor performance related to interviewer presence can be reduced while preserving communication and technical skills, we introduce asynchronous technical interviews—where candidates submit recordings of think-aloud and coding. We compare this approach to traditional whiteboard interviews and find that, by eliminating interviewer supervision, asynchronicity significantly improved the clarity of think-aloud via increased informativeness and reduced stress. Moreover, we discovered asynchronous technical interviews preserved, and in some cases even enhanced, technical problem-solving strategies and code quality. This work offers insight into asynchronous technical interviews as a design for supporting communication during interviews, and discusses trade-offs and guidelines for implementing this approach in software engineering hiring practices.

Software engineering candidates commonly participate in whiteboard technical interviews as part of a hiring assessment. During these sessions, candidates write code while thinking aloud as they work towards a solution, under the watchful eye of an interviewer. While technical interviews should allow for an unbiased and inclusive assessment of problem-solving ability, surprisingly, technical interviews may be instead a procedure for identifying candidates who best handle and migrate stress solely caused by being examined by an interviewer (performance anxiety).

A technical interview is a stage in industry hiring process for assessing developers' skills. Despite several critics against technical interviews, there is no reported scientific approach to assess their effectiveness. In my work, I first study developers' concerns about technical interviews. Then, I propose a framework to study whiteboard interview in particular and investigate the factors that introduce extraneous challenges for developers. My thesis proposes studying each technical interview style and finding out the factors that negatively affect developers' performance. This may help in propounding interventions and enhancing technical interviews.

Technical interviews-a problem-solving form of interview in which candidates write code-are commonplace in the software industry, and are used by several well-known companies including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. These interviews are intended to objectively assess candidates and determine fit within the company. But what do developers say about them?To understand developer perceptions about technical interviews, we conducted a qualitative study using the online social news website, Hacker News-a venue for software practitioners. Hacker News posters report several concerns and negative perceptions about interviews, including their lack of real-world relevance, bias towards younger developers, and demanding time commitment. Posters report that these interviews cause unnecessary anxiety and frustration, requiring them to learn arbitrary, implicit, and obscure norms. The findings from our study inform inclusive hiring guidelines for technical interviews, such as collaborative problem-solving sessions.