AI-Assisted Coding Interviews: What They Are and How to Prepare
7 minutesNot long ago, getting caught using AI in a coding interview meant you were done. Now some companies hand you an AI assistant and expect you to use it. Meta, Google, DoorDash, and Canva have all said so publicly, and candidates are reporting the same thing at a bunch of other companies.
If your loop has one of these rounds, it's worth preparing for it separately. The problems are bigger than a normal coding question, and the interviewer watches how you work the whole time. This guide explains how these rounds work and how to get ready for one.
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What is an AI-assisted coding interview?
It's a coding round where you're allowed to use an AI tool while you work. Sometimes you're required to. The tool might be a chat window built into the editor, or it might be your own setup with something like Cursor or Claude Code.
AI can solve a normal LeetCode question in a few seconds, so companies don't use those in this round. You usually get something that looks more like a real day at work. You might have to fix a bug in a project with several files, add a feature, or build a small system from scratch. Canva shared one of its problems as an example: build a system that manages planes taking off and landing at a busy airport.
The interviewer wants to see whether you can do the job the way engineers work now, with AI as one of your tools.
What kinds of AI-assisted rounds are there?
There are three main kinds. Before your interview, ask your recruiter which one you're getting. You'll prepare a little differently for each.
1. You use their AI, in their editor
The company gives you a coding environment with an AI chat built in. You can only use their assistant. The interviewer can see every prompt you send and every answer you get back.
Meta started doing this in October 2025. One of the two coding rounds in the onsite is now a 60-minute session in CoderPad. You get a project with several files and an AI chat on the side, and you can pick which model to use. Candidates say the AI can't edit your files. It only answers in the chat, so you still type the code yourself.
The round usually comes in three parts. First you fix a bug. Then you build a feature. Then you make your code fast enough for much bigger inputs. Our Meta interview process guide covers the rest of the loop.
Candidates have also described rounds like this at LinkedIn, Stripe, Atlassian, and Amazon. Those come from interview reports, not from the companies themselves, so check with your recruiter.
2. You use your own AI, on your own computer
You share your screen and work in your own editor with whatever AI tools you normally use. This is the closest thing to a normal workday.
DoorDash announced in March 2026 that it's replacing its classic coding rounds with a 60-minute working session like this. At DoorDash, using AI isn't optional. You're expected to use something like Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex. DoorDash says the free versions are enough, so you don't need to pay for anything.
Canva has asked backend, frontend, and machine learning candidates to use AI tools like Copilot, Cursor, and Claude since June 2025. Candidates report similar rounds at Shopify, Rippling, and Datadog.
If you get this kind of round, test your setup the day before. Make sure you're signed in to your tools, close anything you don't want on screen, and try a screen share with a friend. You don't want to spend the first ten minutes fixing your editor.
3. You read and fix code someone else wrote
In this one, you get code that already exists. Your job is to figure out how it works, find what's broken, and make it better. AI is there to help.
Google is trying this out as a "code comprehension" round. Right now it's only for junior and mid-level engineers on some US teams. You can only use Gemini. Google says it's looking at your "AI fluency, including prompt engineering, output validation and debugging skills." That means they're watching how you ask the AI for help, whether you check what it gives you, and whether you can fix it when it's wrong.
If your Google loop has this round, you'll still have a normal coding round with no AI. Our Google interview process guide has the details.
Some Datadog candidates say they got to choose between building a feature and reviewing code, with AI allowed either way.
What are interviewers looking for?
The companies that have written about these rounds mostly look for the same things.
First, they want you to understand the problem before you start prompting. These problems are big and a little vague on purpose, so ask questions and make a quick plan out loud. If you paste the whole problem into the AI in your first minute, it looks bad.
They also want to see you give the AI small, clear jobs. Good candidates ask it to write a helper function, write some tests, or explain a file they haven't seen before.
The most important thing is checking what the AI gives you. The interviewer wants to see you read the code, run it, and test the edge cases. Accepting AI code without checking it is the most common way people fail this round.
When something breaks, they want to see you figure out why. Asking the AI to try again over and over doesn't count as debugging.
You should also be able to explain any line you kept. Interviewers will ask why something works, and "the AI wrote it" isn't an answer.
You usually don't need to finish everything. DoorDash says finishing every task matters less than working in a tight loop and making good calls. Meta candidates have gotten offers without finishing the last part.
Can you use the AI too much?
Yes. Candidates have said they were turned down after Rippling's AI round because they leaned on the AI too much.
It works better to figure out roughly what the answer should look like in your head first. Then use the AI to get there faster. If you already know where you're going, you'll notice right away when the AI heads the wrong way. If you don't, you can't tell good code from bad code.
Meta candidates also say the AI often did worse in the real interview than when they practiced, so don't count on it being right.
Do I still need to know algorithms?
Yes. Almost every company with an AI round still has at least one normal coding round with no AI. Meta and Google both do. Online assessments are usually still AI-free too.
Knowing the common patterns is also how you catch the AI's mistakes. Say the AI writes a slow nested loop where a sliding window would do the job. Or it searches a grid with graph BFS but forgets to keep track of the cells it already visited. You need to spot that fast and explain why it's a problem. You can only do that if you know the pattern well yourself. Our pattern map shows how all the patterns fit together.
How should I prepare for an AI-assisted round?
- Ask your recruiter what to expect. Find out which kind of round it is, which tools you can use, and whether you need to set anything up ahead of time.
- Practice on real code, not puzzles. Pick a small open source project, find an open issue, and fix it with an AI assistant. Then try adding a small feature. That's a lot closer to the real round than doing another LeetCode question.
- Talk out loud while you work. Say what you're about to ask the AI and why. When the answer comes back, say what you're checking. Your interviewer can only give you credit for what they can see.
- Write a few tests early. It's the quickest way to show you're checking the AI's work instead of trusting it.
- Get used to reading code you didn't write. Open a project you've never seen and give yourself ten minutes to explain how it's put together. That's most of Google's round and the whole first part of Meta's.
- Keep practicing the patterns. You'll need them for the round without AI, and they're how you catch the AI's mistakes. Our guide on how to prepare for a technical interview has a plan for that part.
These rounds are still new, and companies keep changing them. If you've done one recently, we'd love to hear how it went. We'll keep this guide updated as things change.