How to Pass the AI Coding Interview at Big Tech Companies

0:00The biggest change in the software engineering interview process isn't being discussed on social media, yet it's the most important round to get these big tech jobs that pay over $300,000 per year.

0:15And companies like Meta, Figma, and Headway are using this to assess their candidates.

0:22So if you're a computer science student or if you're already in the industry and you want to land these bigger tech jobs that can pay you a compensation you deserve, then stop and save this video.

0:36If you've applied to these jobs in the recent past then you know I'm talking about the AI coding interview.

0:45The AI coding interview looks different at every tech company, but it looks something like this.

0:52You essentially sit in front of your computer with a large code base, and you use your agentic coding tool of choice.

1:00That might be Claude Code, that might be Codex, and that might be Cursor.

1:06You more or less have to fix a bug or implement a brand new feature from scratch.

1:13And when you're doing this, the interviewer is assessing how you actually use these AI coding tools.

1:21Here's the secret to nailing the interview every single time and this is actually the exact process that you should do when you're using these coding tools in real life.

1:32So here's the actual process.

1:35Step one, you want to understand the code base and you can do this in a number of key ways but the best way is to first tell the coding tool to generate an HTML or a mermaid diagram so you can see all of the different components and understand how they all fit together.

1:58Step two, once you understand how it all fits together, you're gonna want to create a plan to fix the code or create a plan to build the feature.

2:10And when you tell it to create the plan, you should basically input your word jargon of how you want it to do it.

2:17So you can mention things like, keep everything on the client side or include server side and client side validation or whatever you actually would do in real life, you just tell the AI.

2:30And if you don't really know, you can get away with not putting much at all.

2:36But if you do know, and you probably should, it makes you look a little bit better, a little bit stronger of an engineer.

2:44Once the plan is created, you want to audibly read it through, consider trade-offs, and even change parts of the plan so the interviewer knows you're paying attention.

2:56Like, just, like, change the minor.

2:58It doesn't really matter, but read the plan.

3:01Finally, you're going to execute using test-driven development.

3:07Literally tell the AI to write the failing test first, and then let it pass.

3:13And by doing this, you've covered all your bases.

3:16You've created tests, the code will work, and you showed the interview a little trick they didn't know.

3:22They're going to really appreciate this approach.

3:24Test it out, it's going to work and you've just passed the hardest round in the interview and you also followed me because I saved your ass.

3:38Good luck.