Anthropic team drops coding interviews in favor of weekend prototypes
Felix Rieseberg of the Anthropic team said that this month they have removed the coding interview from the hiring process, because small React/algorithm questions cannot measure real impact, and Claude is stronger at such questions. Instead, he assesses business impact, radical ideas, and runnable weekend prototypes, and believes that the "hunger" of junior engineers can outweigh seniority. Team newcomers Anthony Morris and Alice Zhao built a Claude Code graphical interface prototype over the weekend, and a public version was available about eight days later.
View original postThe coding interview is dead, at least for my team at Anthropic. I've seen enough to know that it no longer provides signal. I removed it from loops this month. I have a spicy, optimistic take - I think there's an opportunity for junior engineers: https://t.co/PVvpQCbQtK
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The coding interview is dead, at least for my team at Anthropic. I've seen enough to know that it no longer provides signal. I removed it from loops this month. I have a spicy, optimistic take - I think there's an opportunity for junior engineers: https://t.co/PVvpQCbQtK
Body · AI translation
Felix Rieseberg of the Anthropic team says: his team has officially removed the coding interview from its hiring process! And he believes that a junior engineer's "hunger" can outweigh seniority!
https://t.co/ROt8jyOuOz
Why remove the coding interview? Small React/algorithm problems can't measure who will truly have impact, and Claude is stronger at these problems. Newcomers often bring "ignorance" that lets them see friction that veteran employees can't (examples like Stripe / Notion offline and large screens); the cost is that the organization still won't listen to you: until the cost of execution drops, a runnable prototype can bypass lengthy PRDs and lobbying.
Five approaches to replace it 1. Choose business impact, not just grinding through the backlog. Engineers are here to create business value (citing Patrick McKenzie 2011). Figure out what the company (or your department within a large company) really needs; look at the goals at the level of your manager's manager, which is often a useful altitude. 2. Choose one radical idea. If it works, it will significantly raise the organization's probability of achieving its goals. 3. Build the prototype in a single weekend. Skip lengthy PRDs, lobbying, and queuing for design/product, and let a runnable prototype do the talking. 4. Push only one good idea at a time. Don't bury three good ideas among twenty bad ones and a mishmash of "new language + backend + mobile"; the prototype should let leadership immediately see the opportunity and recognize that you can carry it forward. 5. Use a fresh perspective. When facing users, you are more like an external user; when building infrastructure/tools, you haven't yet learned "why it's impossible."
Felix does not believe coding interviews will make a broad comeback. At Anthropic, two relatively new hires, Anthony Morris and Alice Zhao, built a Claude Code graphical interface prototype over a weekend, and about eight days later there was a public version; a good GUI was very popular. He himself is still figuring out "how to interview people who build with AI"; currently he scans resumes and portfolios, looking for small prototypes that show taste, empathy, and principled thinking. Better approaches are welcome.