Anthropic manager drops coding interviews, says Claude does them better

Anthropic engineering manager Felix Rieseberg says he has stopped asking candidates to complete coding challenges in interviews, arguing that Claude now performs better at them.

In a blog post about how junior engineers can approach jobs and their roles, Rieseberg said traditional coding tasks no longer reveal anything meaningful about candidates. He compared asking applicants to complete a React challenge with quizzing them about assembly, saying Claude is better at both.

Rieseberg advised junior engineers to focus on making an impact and understanding a company and its people. He described prototypes built with AI as one way candidates might demonstrate their work. He said he is looking through résumés and portfolios for prototypes that show “taste, empathy, and principled thinking.”

Rieseberg said he has not yet settled on a new interview approach for people who build with AI. His decision concerns coding assessments, not hiring itself: he said he is still looking for ways to find junior engineers.

The source article also quotes Rieseberg citing actor and director Orson Welles on trying new things, but does not provide further detail about how Anthropic will assess candidates.