Hiring for the Next-Gen, in Three Steps

Writing code stopped being the scarce part. Knowing what is safe to ship did not. Here’s the interview rebuilt around that, on a real codebase with a real ticket.

It is organised around three phases, plan, build and review, with more than half the interview deliberately spent before any code exists. At each phase it separates an okay developer from a good one and a great one, which is the part worth stealing: catching an agent when it drifts, writing your own tests, knowing which files were touched and why. It also admits the cost, that this is harder to standardise than a puzzle round and the judgment is messier than pass or fail.