It’s a tricky job marketplace for software program engineering hopefuls. Tens of hundreds of jobs cuts throughout the business have elevated competitors for open spots. The rise of AI has spurred fears of dishonest throughout interviews, and firm priorities are changing as the tech evolves virtually day by day.
But hiring managers have an even bigger concern: Now that AI can write code, how can you determine who – and even what skillset – makes a very good software program engineer?
The interview process hasn’t stored up with the approach AI has modified programmers’ day by day obligations, profession specialists and software program engineers instructed NCS. That’s made the hiring process more difficult for each job seekers and hiring managers.
“I would say AI has hit engineering interviewing like an atomic bomb,” stated Stefan Mai, a former engineer for Meta and Amazon and cofounder of tech interview teaching service Hello Interview.
Software engineering has been amongst the first industries to be noticeably impacted by AI. A report from Google’s analysis division final yr discovered that 90% of tech workers use AI for duties like writing and modifying code, up 14% from the earlier yr. The area has been carefully watched as a bellwether as AI adoption expands.
AI can now assist software program engineers write code and documentation; analyze information; study coding ideas and troubleshoot, amongst different issues. That lets tech firms transfer rather more shortly, some executives say.
An OpenAI engineer used AI to implement a system change that might have taken his staff per week in any other case, firm president Greg Brockman recently said throughout a Sequioa Capital discuss. Many inner apps at Google are being “mostly” written with the firm’s Antigravity AI coding device, Varun Mohan, a director at Google DeepMind, instructed NCS earlier this month.
Boris Cherny, Anthropic’s head of Claude Code, wrote on X in December that “100%” of his contributions to the product over the previous 30 days had been written by Claude Code.
Cherny believes AI is shifting the function of a software program engineer to deal with high-level decision-making quite than writing code. The title “software engineer” is likely to be changed with a reputation like “builder” that higher captures the place, he beforehand instructed NCS.
AI isn’t meant to switch engineers, Google’s Mohan instructed NCS.
“We think developers should spend most of their time trying to figure out what they should build,” he stated. “That’s the whole question.”
Madhu Kurup, vice chairman of engineering at Indeed, in contrast AI in software program engineering to Google Maps’ function in journey. Google Maps can inform an individual which freeway exit to make use of, flag site visitors situations and discover espresso outlets on a driver’s route, but it surely doesn’t choose the vacation spot or resolve what time to depart.
However, that Google report final yr indicated that 46% of tech employees solely “somewhat” belief the high quality of AI-generated code, and 31% stated AI solely “slightly” improved code.
And layoffs all through 2025 and 2026 recommend AI is affecting payrolls. AI was the high cause cited by firms for job cuts in April for the second month in a row, the government outplacement agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas stated this month.
Companies for years have evaluated potential candidates with regimented tests that some say have felt like taking the SATs, however for coding. They don’t measure how employees delegate duties to an agent and use AI to navigate points, brainstorm or work extra effectively.
Now, some engineers really feel these exams not mirror “what their job will actually look like,” stated Jordan Leonard, cofounder and chief working officer of Leopard.FYI, a tech hiring community for girls and genderqueer engineers.
In late April, software program developer David Barajas stated he had been on about 5 – 6 job interviews after being approached by recruiters over the previous six to eight months. None of them requested to see how he incorporates AI coding instruments like Cursor into his work.
“The first thing they say is, you’re not supposed to be using any AI tools, no AI assistance, nothing to help you solve this problem,” he stated.
Sujata Sridharan, who most just lately labored at the fintech agency Bolt and has spent roughly a decade as a software program engineer, additionally stated most of the firms she’s just lately interviewed with are utilizing the identical conventional exams that target understanding code quite than working with AI. “There is that gap, it’s just grown wider (because of AI),” she stated.
Some firms initially prohibited candidates from utilizing AI throughout exams to forestall dishonest. Barajas stated he’s even been requested to share his desktop throughout interviews to show he’s not utilizing AI. While such issues are nothing new, worries about dishonest have “really ramped up to an unusual level” due to AI, in accordance with Mai.
And AI’s fast development means function necessities are continuously shifting.
One firm Leopard.FYI works with stated the programming language Ruby on Rails was required for an open place, stated Leonard. Three weeks later, the firm modified its thoughts as a result of AI can simply translate different languages to Ruby on Rails.
“It feels like a moving target on literally a weekly (or) monthly basis,” she stated.
Employers are beginning to focus extra on questions that present how candidates suppose by points and weigh trade-offs quite than uncooked coding capabilities. Those subjects historically come up in senior-level interviews however are actually turning into extra frequent throughout the board, in accordance with Mai.
Some startups have experimented with bringing in candidates to work on website for a half a day. And it’s turning into more and more frequent for managers to permit candidates to make use of AI throughout the testing process, in accordance with Leonard.
But even these modifications don’t totally seize how the job will get performed nowadays. Sridharan, for instance, often collaborates with AI to work by points, however her expertise utilizing it in technical exams often entails utilizing it as a alternative for hands-on coding.
It’s nonetheless an “unsolved problem,” in accordance with Mai.
“It’s kind of unexpected what candidates are going to run into,” he stated.