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How to include AI in the developer interview process

What problem are we trying to solve?

In an earlier post I put forward an observation that as of September 2025 (month of posting), companies that are looking to hire professional software developers include a setup in the interviewing process that takes away common code assistance, which is in stark contrast to the way that developers joining the company would be expected to operate in their day to day work.

I've had a little bit of time to contemplate this, and while I do not have a solution that involves keeping the AI features enabled, I do have the an idea of an alternative approach to include some consideration of AI.

Look what the AI made us do

Instead of getting developers to cram revision of computer science fundamentals by re-reading Cracking The Coding Interview to fit a cookie-cutter template of what a good developer should be expected to produce for a given coding challenge, we could instead present examples of code that has been generated by AI, and have the candidate evaluate the quality and / or suggest refinements to the prompt.

This could get us closer to aligning the interview process with the new reality of how software development is increasingly being assisted by the application of artificial intelligence systems.

For a limited time only 

I fully expect that cleaning up after loosely applied AI generated code will become less of a requirement as systems evolve, but at this point in time it should be considered as a valuable skill to have.

The amount of buzz on LinkedIn mentioning Vibe coding is either a sign that a lot of people are getting into it, or that AI companies are doing well at loading up the hype train (or both).

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