#12: Thoughts on tech interviews in 2026

Reviewing recent cycle of interviewing late 2025

The last time I seriously did tech interviewing, it was late 2019, and all my onsite interviewing was in person. Tech interviewing usually follows the pattern of recruiter screen, followed by a technical screen and then the onsite, which is usually meeting 4-6 people in the company.

The new landscape

This time, all but one of my onsites was remote. This was a pivotal time for interviewing for two reasons. One is the prevalence of generative AI tools, and companies are cautious of candidates cheating. This is already bringing back momentum towards in-person onsites.

The second also involves AI coding. There's a couple companies which allowed me to use AI tools in the interview to see how I use them. This primarily makes sense to do in a copilot-based setting, instead of a Claude Code full agentic flow. For now. Smaller startups on the edge will soon do pairing interviews in codebases where you can test the candidate's ability to steer agents making changes in a larger codebase. This is just a matter of time.

Leveling

Personally, the other big change is that I was interviewing for more senior roles. In '19, I was interviewing primarily for senior roles while this time I was interviewing for Staff roles. I felt intimidated by the increased bar, and the only way to feel less so was to experience the process.

Leveling is also not uniform in the industry. Words like Senior / Staff / Principal don't have consistent meanings. To me, a key part of the "Staff" distinction is that you're expected to lead initiatives that span across teams, as opposed to a nice-to-have for senior engineers. You're also expected to be a champion of the business and org's needs.

I noticed the negotiation happening between my ego, which didn't want to take a role demotion, and my protective self, which didn't want to bite off more than I could chew and experience overwhelm / burnout. I needed to give both of them space and yet not take up so much space that it would introduce doubt and fear during interviewing.

What was I looking for in a company? I was looking to operate in a nimble environment where the business already has product-market fit.

Back to the Grind

As I poured myself into interview prep, I found it humbling to get back into Leetcode and systems design since late 2019. I worked hard to build consistency, but the first few interviews were rough.

After a month, I was connecting the dots better, and I realized something that's helped me endure in this industry as long as I have: I genuinely do enjoy learning about this stuff. Building can be even more fun, as long as we can manage all the externalities that get in the way.

What Worked for Me

• Practice coding and systems design under time pressure. In the beginning, take as much time as you want, but time pressure is essential. It was rough for me to see just how slow I was at the beginning, but I had to eat my ego and persist.

• Do mock interviews. There are companies like Exponent which make it easy, and ask your friends in the industry to support you. It doesn't matter too much how good the feedback is as much as doing the reps.

• Do specific preparation for the companies you're really interested in. You can be interview-ready, but interviews are random in nature, and we want to reduce variance as much as possible. Do your research, talk to folks internally if you have access. Have your questions ready. Even if this is just the psychological boost of preparedness, it all adds up.

• Interview first at companies you have less attachment to. These won't be your best interviews, but they'll give you the most signal on where you're at.

The Bigger Question

Like many, I’m still pondering what it means to do software engineering in the age of coding agents. If coding is now just writing prompts and steering agents, what good are skills we spent years to acquire? I sometimes feel behind the pace of change, but in a way, the field has always been like this. It’s ever-changing, and our job as stewards of technology is to enable business goals. That hasn’t changed. And as long as humans remain the consumer, we still need humans to be the producer.

Interviewing, though, hasn’t changed a whole lot. Yet. Companies still care about you performing under pressure, whether it’s coding, systems design, or behavioral questions. And companies will still hire for the experience that comes from building many things, and the battle-tested wisdom that comes from knowing what will and won’t work.

Now, is all of this changing soon as coding agents are taking over development workflows? Even so, companies will want to see you perform under pressure. If coding agents are allowed in interviews, the bar will be higher, not lower.