An Indian software engineer who has spent nearly a decade working across some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Google and Amazon, has shared how job interviews and the skills needed to crack them have fundamentally changed in the age of artificial intelligence.
In an as-told-to essay published by Business Insider, Akaash Vishal Hazarika, a 29-year-old senior software engineer based in Seattle, reflected on his 8-year career at Google, Amazon, Splunk and Salesforce, offering insights into how software engineers must now prepare for interviews in the AI era.
“I've had a front-row seat to witness the changes in the tech landscape. I've learned which skill sets software engineers need to land a job offer in the AI era,” he said.
According to Hazarika, traditional preparation methods, such as mastering data structures, algorithms and system design, are no longer enough. He said that while these fundamentals remain essential, they are now seen as baseline expectations. “AI is now widely used for coding, review, and design, so tech companies, especially startups, expect more from candidates,” he wrote.
Hazarika said he himself uses AI extensively for boilerplate code, allowing him to focus on complex system design and business logic. As a result, engineers are increasingly expected to understand prompt engineering, AI-assisted debugging, error handling and deciding when AI solutions make sense over traditional approaches.
{{/usCountry}}Hazarika said he himself uses AI extensively for boilerplate code, allowing him to focus on complex system design and business logic. As a result, engineers are increasingly expected to understand prompt engineering, AI-assisted debugging, error handling and deciding when AI solutions make sense over traditional approaches.
{{/usCountry}}“You're still expected to have fundamental knowledge of core system design, data structures, and algorithms. You can still expect interviewers to test your problem-solving approaches, and if you know how to make the correct tradeoffs in time and space. Interviewers still care about debugging skills, since AI makes a lot of fundamental logic errors,” Hazarika said.
However, he noted that some companies now allow candidates to use AI tools during live coding interviews to assess how effectively they combine engineering judgment with AI assistance.
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Hazarika went on to recall failing a 2024 interview with a Silicon Valley startup after ignoring explicit permission to use AI while debugging a large codebase. “That was an eye-opener for me about AI's new role in this field,” he wrote.
System design interviews, Hazarika added, now often include questions on integrating AI into existing workflows, managing model lifecycles and evaluating trade-offs such as cost, reliability and scalability. In some cases, candidates are given a small codebase and asked to deliver a feature within an hour - something he said is “nearly impossible without AI.”
Techie's advice for fresh graduates
For fresh graduates, Hazarika advised developing a production mindset through open-source contributions, building AI-integrated projects deployed on the cloud, mastering cloud tools and continuing LeetCode-style practice. For experienced engineers, he stressed pairing domain expertise with AI skills, developing an AI product mindset and using AI to improve workflows at work.
Concluding his advice, Hazarika urged engineers to position themselves as “hybrid engineers.” “Don't just be a pure coder or just a prompt engineer. Be the bridge,” he said.