Google pilots coding interviews that let candidates use Gemini
Google is piloting a software engineer interview change in which candidates in a new “Code Comprehension” section can use Gemini to read, debug and optimize existing code, while interviewers assess “AI fluency” — how candidates prompt, verify AI output and debug, according to a report republished by 36Kr from Machine Heart. A Google spokesperson confirmed Gemini is the tool offered to candidates, and VP of recruiting Brian Ong said the change aims to better reflect how engineers work in the AI era; the pilot covers junior and mid-level US roles in the second half of this year, with Google Cloud and Platforms & Devices among participating organizations, and expansion depending on results. The article also cites Google CEO Sundar Pichai saying 75% of new code at Google is AI-generated and reviewed by engineers, Andrej Karpathy saying roughly 80% of his coding is now done by agents while his hand-writing ability has declined, and similar AI-in-interview moves by Canva and Meta, plus Codility allowing interviewers to inject hidden instructions into candidates’ AI coding tools.
If such interviews spread, hiring and education may shift emphasis from writing algorithms by hand toward code review and AI collaboration.