AI is Reshaping the Tech Interview

The long-standing practice of "whiteboarding"—solving algorithmic problems by hand—is being phased out as AI tools can now produce optimized solutions in seconds. Companies are shifting focus from a candidate's ability to memorize and recite algorithms to their capacity to debug, optimize, and critically evaluate AI-generated code. This evolution in interviewing is a direct response to the widespread adoption of AI coding assistants in daily engineering workflows. Companies like Canva now insist their engineering candidates use AI tools during the interview, reflecting that nearly half of their own engineers use them daily to prototype and understand large codebases. This approach aims to gauge how a candidate will perform in a realistic job environment. Meta began rolling out AI-assisted coding interviews in late 2025 for software engineer and manager roles, presenting candidates with a multi-file project and access to an AI assistant within a CoderPad environment. The interview still includes a traditional, non-AI coding round, forcing candidates to prepare for both scenarios. The goal is to see how engineers collaborate with AI, a skill now seen as crucial. The industry, however, remains divided. While some companies embrace AI in interviews to better simulate real-world conditions, others like Amazon have banned AI tools to maintain a level playing field. Some firms, like Intuit, encourage AI use on the job but restrict it during interviews to assess a candidate's foundational problem-solving skills without assistance. This shift has also been fueled by the rise of sophisticated cheating tools that can feed candidates answers in real-time, sometimes using undetectable screenshots. This has pushed some companies back toward in-person interviews or to create novel problems that AI tools struggle to solve, effectively raising the difficulty of some assessments. Beyond just coding, system design and behavioral interviews are also adapting. System design questions now often involve architecting systems that incorporate AI components, while behavioral questions probe into a candidate's direct experience and habits with using AI tools in their past projects. Technical interviewing platforms are also evolving. Karat, a company that conducts technical interviews on behalf of other firms, has launched "NextGen Interviews," a format that combines a human interviewer with an AI-assisted environment. This approach is designed to evaluate a candidate's reasoning and judgment when working with AI on complex projects.