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Developer interviews out of step with reality

Disclaimer 

I am in the process of trying to get back into the workforce, after taking a few months out to be more available for family while dealing with a medical situation.

After some time away from coding my muscle memory for solving little software problems is a bit slower than normal, so I fear that I may not be coming across as being a relatively intelligent and capable professional software developer with over two decades of industry experience.

I'm feeling a bit glum, as shortly after each interview I established some aspect that I had not covered off with my implementation - which can be a showstopper for progressing to the next round of the interview process.

The coding interview process is out-dated

Disable default editor functionality

I have attended a couple of online coding interviews in the last couple of weeks, and found myself having to disable some of the default features in my integrated development environment to enable myself to show my own capabilities separated from the auto-completion suggestions.

On the positive side, at least by coding in my own editor I was able to choose some familiar and relatively up to date test libraries as dependencies - unlike an in browser development environment for another interview, where I found myself stuck with JUnit 4 that has been "in maintenance" for about half a decade.

Meanwhile, in the real world

Day to day software development within the types of company that I am interested in joining now generally involves making the most of the suggestions offered up by editing tools. Additionally, there is an increasingly common expectation that developers will lean on AI systems where their employer has paid for a subscription to have access to those coding assistants.

Turn on AI and let her rip?

No. I don't have a solution to offer, as I still believe that the assessment is meant to be of the developer's capability.

My underlying gripe is quite tangential to this particular aspect of the state of the approach to coding interviews. From having been on both sides of the current interview process, I am of the opinion that there is too much time pressure on candidates and interviewers to squeeze in a coding. implementation and try to gain a realistic impression of the candidate's ability to do the job.

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