AI Coding Interviews in 2026: Company Formats, What They Test, and How to Prepare
How 13 companies run their AI rounds, what the AI can actually do in each one, and a step-by-step strategy for every round.
TL;DR
- "AI coding interview" covers four different formats, and the same name can mean very different rounds.
- What matters most is what the AI can do (chat, edit, or run your tests). It changes how you should play the round.
- If the round is called AI coding, use the AI. If you don't and an equally strong candidate does, they get the offer.
More and more companies now have an AI coding round. Sometimes it's an OA where AI is allowed, sometimes it's a separate round in the final loop. Recruiters will sometimes tell you it doesn't matter whether you use AI or not. It does.
The bigger difference is the AI itself. In some rounds it's a chatbot that can only help with syntax, so you still type everything yourself (very 2023). In others it's a full agent that writes the code and runs the tests. Those are two completely different interviews, and they need different strategies.
1What is an AI coding interview?
Any technical round where AI plays an explicit role. There are four kinds:
- AI-assisted OA. An online assessment with an AI assistant built in. The challenge is delivering working, tested code under time pressure.
- Live coding, AI as a helper. An interviewer watches while you solve the problem, with an assistant that can only chat. You still write the code.
- Live coding, AI writes the code. The assistant (or your own agent) can write and run code. The challenge shifts to directing it and reviewing what it did.
- AI-led screen. The AI is the interviewer. No coding, just a conversation with a bot.
The question that decides your strategy isn't whether AI is allowed, but what the AI can do and what you're responsible for. There are three levels:
| Level | Answers questions | Writes code | Knows the project | Edits files | Runs tests | For example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Chat-only | ||||||
| 2. Chat with project context | Meta, Google | |||||
| 3. Agent | Pinterest, DoorDash, Shopify |
- Chat-only: your bottleneck is moving between thinking, prompting, typing and testing. Lean on it for lookups and write the code yourself.
- Chat with project context: it can explain the codebase and draft functions, but you apply every change. Your bottleneck is checking what it gives you before it goes in.
- Agent: writing code is no longer the hard part. Deciding what to delegate, reviewing the diff and catching what the tests miss is.
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