This time last year, we added a virtual whiteboard to our Interview product. The virtual whiteboard is a tool embedded within our interviewing platform that allows candidates and interviewers to collaboratively sketch out ideas. (Cool, right?) Since then, many of our customers have adopted the tool to improve their system design interviews, visually represent complex processes, and more.
Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve upgraded our virtual whiteboard with an improved user experience and more powerful functionality.
What’s different about the new virtual whiteboard?
CodeSignal’s upgraded virtual whiteboard is now powered by Miro, a collaborative whiteboard tool that’s one of the hottest software products of 2021. ???? Previously, our whiteboard used a tool called AWW, “A Web Whiteboard.”
Note: current CodeSignal users can find documentation on using the new virtual whiteboard in this Knowledge Base article: Using CodeSignal's virtual whiteboardImproved user experience
Compared to AWW, Miro offers two key advantages in terms of user experience. First, candidates and interviewers can see text as someone else types. This makes for a more seamless collaboration experience, as each participant can see exactly what others are doing in the whiteboard in real time.
Second, Miro offers a smarter set of drawing tools. When a candidate connects two boxes with an arrow, for example—a common scenario in system design interviews—the arrow is responsive. That is, you can move the boxes without needing to re-draw the arrows.
More tools for structured interviews
For structured interviews, you may not want to start with a blank canvas in your whiteboard. Instead, you might want your candidates to work with a standard UML diagram, for instance, or create a custom template to use for a specific role you’re hiring for.
Miro offers a library of over 150 ready-made templates to choose from, as well as commonly-used wireframe objects. They also allow you to create your own, custom templates.
Why Miro?
When our team learned that AWW would be discontinued in Summer 2021 (AWW shucks!), we explored a variety of alternatives before landing on Miro. Here’s what we learned:
- Compared to Excalidraw, Miro has better performance for real-time drawing. Excalidraw is also missing some features like uploading images and accommodating multiple pages on the same board.
- Compared to products more similar to AWW, Miro will have a much more powerful set of functionality. It’s a tool currently used for design and project collaboration, so it already has a rich set of features that can be used for a variety of purposes. Some teams may already be familiar with Miro for internal purposes, as well, and will already be comfortable with the platform.
I’m not a CodeSignal customer yet. Can I try it out?
Yes! Explore CodeSignal Interview for yourself, including our upgraded virtual whiteboard, by requesting a free demo.