Google is reportedly piloting a new interview format for software engineering candidates that allows them to use an AI assistant during technical rounds, as reported by Business Insider. This move by the tech giant reflects how deeply artificial intelligence has reshaped the role of software developers and aims to make hiring more aligned with the modern engineering landscape.
Details of the pilot program
According to the BI report, starting in the second half of the year, candidates applying for junior to mid-level engineering roles will be permitted to use Google's own Gemini AI during the code comprehension round. In this stage, applicants will be asked to read, debug, and optimize an existing codebase. Interviewers will also evaluate AI fluency, including prompt engineering, output validation, and debugging skills.
Brian Ong, Google's vice president of recruiting, told Business Insider: We're always evolving our interview processes to ensure we're recruiting and hiring the best talent. As a part of that, we're rolling out a pilot for software engineering interviews to be more reflective of how our teams are operating in the AI era.
How engineers work in the GenAI era
As per the BI report, the internal document describes the new format as human-led, AI-assisted. The document claims that the new format is designed to simulate how engineers work in the GenAI era. Alongside the AI-assisted coding round, other changes include:
- The Googleyness and Leadership round will now involve a technical design discussion about a candidate's past project.
- For junior candidates, one technical round will be replaced with an open-ended engineering challenge.
- Pilots will begin across Google Cloud and its platforms and devices unit this month.
Google is not the only company to adopt the AI-assisted format
Google's decision follows similar moves by companies like Canva and AI coding startup Cognition, which already allow candidates to use AI tools during interviews. Emily Cohen of Cognition compared banning AI in interviews to asking a kid to take a math test without a calculator.
The shift comes as AI-generated code dominates software development. Google said in April that three-quarters of new code inside the company is now written by AI. OpenAI's Greg Brockman recently noted that AI has gone from writing 20% of code to 80% in just a few years.
