Anthropic drops coding interviews from hiring loops, engineers debate replacement
Overview
Anthropic engineer Felix Rieseberg says the coding interview no longer gives his team useful signal, so it was removed from Anthropic's hiring loops this month, as he posted on X on October 27, 2026.
He says Claude performs well on those questions, so algorithm questions and small code implementations are no longer used. A later report says Rieseberg is testing ways to assess candidates through small prototypes that show taste and judgment, and that he does not expect coding interviews to return widely.
Yuchen Jin agrees on X that AI has killed LeetCode-style interviews, and says young AI talent he has spoken with would skip companies that still use them. Jin says taste, empathy, principled thinking, business sense and agency matter more. These are Jin's views, not Anthropic's stated criteria.
Written by AI from the articles below · updated Oct 28, 1:28 AM ET
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Developments
3 developments
- Oct 27, 11:16 PM ET · 1 articleAnthropic engineering lead says coding interviews are dead and offers junior engineer adviceGuizang: Anthropic engineering lead says coding interviews are dead and offers junior engineer advice
- Oct 27, 7:13 PM ET · 1 articleAI kills LeetCode-style coding interviews, Yuchen Jin saysYuchen Jin: AI kills LeetCode-style coding interviews, Yuchen Jin says
- Oct 27, 5:56 PM ET · 2 articlesAnthropic's Felix Rieseberg says coding interviews no longer signal engineering skillmeng shao: Anthropic's Felix Rieseberg drops coding interviews, favoring junior hunger
Article timeline
The articles in this story. Times are ET.
- Latent SpaceBlogAnthropic hiring manager says coding interviews are over for junior engineers
AIAnthropic hiring manager Felix Reiseberg says he has stopped giving traditional coding interviews because Claude now outperforms candidates on such tests, and advises junior engineers to focus on business impact, build working prototypes over a weekend, and pursue one strong idea.
meng shao@shao__mengXAnthropic's Felix Rieseberg drops coding interviews, favoring junior hungerAIAnthropic engineering lead Felix Rieseberg says his team has removed coding interviews from its hiring loops because they no longer provide useful signal, since Claude performs well on those questions. He argues junior engineers can outperform seniority by pursuing high-impact ideas and shipping working prototypes over a weekend instead of writing long PRDs. He says he does not expect coding interviews to return widely and is testing ways to assess candidates through small prototypes that show taste and judgment.

Guizang@op7418XAnthropic engineering lead says coding interviews are dead and offers junior engineer adviceAIAnthropic engineering lead Felix Rieseberg says his team no longer uses coding interviews such as algorithm questions and small code implementations, because they no longer provide useful signal. He argues that AI gives junior engineers a chance to outpace more senior engineers quickly, and advises them to focus on business impact, bold ideas, weekend prototypes, one strong product idea, and their fresh user perspective.

Yuchen Jin@Yuchenj_UWXAI kills LeetCode-style coding interviews, Yuchen Jin saysAIYuchen Jin says he is glad AI has killed LeetCode-style coding interviews, and that young AI talent he has spoken with would skip companies that still use them. He agrees with Felix Rieseberg, who says Anthropic has removed the coding interview from its loops because it no longer provides signal. Jin says taste, empathy, principled thinking, business sense, and agency matter more.
Felix Rieseberg@felixriesebergXAnthropic's Felix Rieseberg says coding interviews no longer signal engineering skillAIFelix Rieseberg says the coding interview no longer provides useful signal for his team at Anthropic, so he removed it from hiring loops this month. He argues junior engineers have an opportunity in this shift and links to an article offering them advice.
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