Anthropic Manager Ends Coding Interview, Says AI Tools Like Claude Make Them Obsolete

Anthropic Engineering Manager Declares Traditional Coding Interview Obsolete

Felix Rieseberg, an Anthropic engineering manager who has led development for Claude.ai, Claude Code Desktop, and the company's Cowork tool, announced he has stopped using traditional coding interviews for his team1

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. In a blog post titled "Hunger beats tenure: Advice for junior engineers" published on Tuesday, October 27, Rieseberg explained that small coding challenges had previously been "a weak but useful predictor" of success on his teams1

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. However, he now believes the coding interview serves no purpose. "There's no more point in giving you a little React challenge than there is in quizzing people about assembly; Claude is now better at both," Rieseberg insisted1

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. His most impactful builders succeed regardless of their performance on these tests, he added2

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AI Model Claude Outperforms Humans on Coding Challenges

The shift away from traditional coding interviews at Anthropic reflects the growing capabilities of AI tools in software development. Rieseberg, who previously worked at Notion, Stripe, Slack, and Microsoft, argues that the AI model Claude has surpassed human performance on the types of coding challenges typically used in technical interviews2

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. This development has rendered conventional technical assessments less meaningful for evaluating candidates. Anthropic itself has reported that Claude writes 80% of its own code2

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, demonstrating the practical impact of AI on software engineering workflows. The company's own reliance on AI-generated code underscores why testing humans on tasks that AI tools can perform better may no longer provide valuable hiring signals.

Tech Industry Responds to AI's Impact on Technical Roles

Rieseberg's perspective finds support among other technology leaders. Jaana Dogan, principal engineer at Google, expressed interest in interviewing candidates based on how they use coding agents rather than their raw coding ability. "That itself gives me more signals about candidates' coding skills," she wrote on social media1

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. Google reportedly began reevaluating its coding interview processes several months ago, and the company is now expanding pilots of engineering interviews that allow candidates to use Gemini2

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. However, the broader tech industry appears more cautious about abandoning skills assessments entirely. According to Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, based on their October 2026 Employer Survey of 1,500 employers, the tech industry remains the most likely to test for skills, with 62.5 percent of employers requiring formal skill tests on initial applications1

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Hiring Practices Shift Toward Soft Skills and Critical Thinking

As AI tools demonstrate coding proficiency, tech companies are reconsidering what they value in candidates. "The change at Anthropic might be reflecting a shift away from technical skills towards more human, soft skills," Bachaud explained1

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. She emphasized that while AI may code well, it cannot replace critical thinking. A staggering 61.5 percent of Information employers now report that critical thinking is a primary skill lacking in today's candidate pool1

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. Rieseberg acknowledged he hasn't yet determined what should replace the coding interview but said he scans résumés and portfolios for small prototypes that exhibit "taste, empathy, and principled thinking"1

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. Meanwhile, 70 percent of Information sector employers have switched to proctored skill assessments or in-person evaluations to deter cheating with AI tools1

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New Opportunities for Junior Engineers in the AI Era

Rieseberg's analysis suggests that AI's impact on technical roles creates opportunities for newer engineers. He wrote that impact now depends less on years of accumulated knowledge of frameworks and libraries, allowing engineers who are comparatively new to surpass colleagues with more experience. "Hunger beats tenure," he stated2

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. His advice for junior engineers without social capital or status is to identify what their company is trying to achieve, pick one ambitious idea that would help, and build a working prototype over a weekend2

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. He cited an example from Anthropic where two relatively new engineers, Anthony Morris and Alice Zhao, built a prototype graphical interface for Claude Code over one weekend, with the first public version shipping roughly eight days later2

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. This approach emphasizes rapid prototyping and business impact over traditional technical credentials, reflecting how software development is evolving in response to AI capabilities.