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Reimagining the Coding Interview

AI can generate code. The scarce skill is catching what AI gets wrong. This article introduces the Audit Interview.

By Richard Ewing·

A Paradigm Shift in Talent Assessment

Standard data structures and algorithms tests do not predict performance in an era where Copilot handles boilerplate. The real danger in modern software development is the opaque complexity introduced by AI models generating code faster than humans can comprehend it (Vibe Coding Debt).

Testing for Auditing Prowess

The solution is the Audit Interview. By presenting candidates with flawed AI generations and asking them to navigate the debug process, companies can assess the only skill that matters: human judgment. An engineer who can spot a subtle context-window hallucination or a dangerous edge case in an LLM output is exponentially more valuable than an engineer who has memorized a binary tree reversal.


Test your skills on the Audit Interview Simulator. Published originally on Built In.

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Published Work

This article expands on ideas from my published work in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon. View published articles →

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Richard Ewing

The Product Economist — Quantifying engineering economics for technology leaders, PE firms, and boards.