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Ask HN: What do your technical interviews look like today? (Nov 2026)
7 points3 comments0.2 average comments/hourSubmitted by Heap4112
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Submission text
General callout to ask about the state of the standard (if there is even such a thing) of SWE technical interview. Also rough headcount to provide context if able :)
We may be past the point of leetcode challenges, but now different companies have different levels of acceptance for AI assistance.
One data point talked about technical interviews where a candidate was interrupted and asked to lean on the LLM more.
Some companies have shied away from AI and any indication or disclosure of AI assistance is a red flag.
Other companies continue to test coding abiltiy as a baseline expectation and do allow LLMs purely for boilerplate or autocomplete.
Follow up: does your company's AI guidelines for interview candidates align with the guidelines for employees?
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For a work sample, I’d leave one requirement a little ambiguous and tell the candidate they can ask questions. During my AiSDR (it's YC S23) interview, I was allowed to search and ask for clarification. I initially thought that was a trap. I once wrote about finding out what the CTO was looking for (https://domelian.substack.com/p/1000-days-at-yc-company): what I did when I got stuck, and whether we could think through the problem together. I’d make that permission explicit, especially if candidates are also allowed to use AI.
Comment on Hacker NewsIt's in a flux, and no standard has emerged. The closest I'm observing across companies I work with is customized work-sample. "If you can't do standardized, then just have them work on your codebase to see if they can grok it."
Comment on Hacker NewsPretty much the same as always. I am an ancient JavaScript guy, so most of the interviews comprise opinions about subjects for young people with limited experience that I find to be absolutely unnecessary. That goes about as well as it sounds.
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