A few years ago, a technical interview mostly tested one thing: can you write correct code, from memory, under pressure. That bar has quietly shifted — and a lot of developers preparing for interviews right now haven't fully clocked it.
AI coding assistants are part of daily work at most companies now, from big IT services firms to small product teams. Interview panels have adjusted to that reality faster than most prep guides have.
What's actually different now
Interviewers care less about whether you can produce a function from scratch, and more about whether you understand what code is doing and why. It's increasingly common to be handed a piece of AI-generated code and asked to find the bug, justify a design decision, or optimize it — instead of writing something from zero on a whiteboard.
Some companies go further and let you use AI tools during the technical round, then evaluate how well you direct the tool, verify its output, and catch its mistakes. The skill being tested has moved from "can you write code" to "can you reason clearly with code as your material."
