Felix Rieseberg, an engineering manager at Anthropic, has stopped giving candidates traditional coding interviews. Comparing small coding challenges with tests of low-level programming knowledge, he writes: “Claude is now better at both.”
Rieseberg has led engineering for Claude.ai, Cowork and Claude Code Desktop. His alternative is to scan resumes and portfolios for “little prototypes that exhibit taste, empathy, and principled thinking.”
The replacement is still unfinished
Rieseberg says he is still working out how to interview people who build well with AI: “I haven’t quite gotten there yet.” His post describes one manager’s hiring approach, rather than establishing a company-wide hiring policy.
His advice to less established engineers is to understand the company’s goals, pick one ambitious idea that serves them, and build a working prototype. He warns against packing several ideas into one project. The prototype should make the opportunity clear enough for leadership to understand it and see who could carry it forward.
As an example, he names two newer Anthropic engineers, Anthony Morris and Alice Zhao, who built a graphical interface for Claude Code over a weekend. Rieseberg says the first public version shipped roughly eight days later.
A finished project needs an explanation
Rieseberg identifies a real assessment problem: when an AI tool can complete a coding exercise, the submitted code alone reveals less about the candidate’s contribution. That gives hiring managers a reason to reconsider what they ask people to demonstrate.
A prototype offers a different kind of evidence. It makes the choice of problem, the intended user and the proposed solution visible. It still leaves questions about who made those choices and whether the builder can explain, change and maintain the result.
For builders without a traditional engineering background, a small working project can therefore be useful evidence of product judgment. Be ready to explain the user problem, the choices you made with the agent, and what you changed when the first version failed. Those explanations help a hiring manager understand your contribution alongside the finished work.
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