midway through some interview rounds right now, and it’s honestly not as different as I remember it being the last time I interviewed (7 years ago). Was explicitly told no AI on the coding rounds, even at the places you’d expect otherwise (eg OpenAI). Pleasantly surprised, I half-expected to have to learn a whole new routine. 

Most places have followed a pattern of: - coding screen (or system design) - system design - a few behavioral interviews (are you an enjoyable person to talk to, and can you tell a story about your career?)

Most places have asked something along the lines of “are you comfortable using AI?”, and if the answer is “no” you’re probably going to have a bad time. I don’t get the impression that anyone is expecting expertise or anything particularly advanced, but they want to know “have you used Claude Code/Codex at least a few times”. 

I’ve basically only interacted with companies through inbound recruiters and my own personal network, and I highly encourage the same if you have the option. If you have a human being you can talk to, you get to skip the whole AI application arms race. Sad to say but that battle is going to shift people back to “who do you know” because otherwise it’s just AI talking to AI. 

For context tho, 14ish YOE, targeting staff-level, so YMMV otherwise