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A hiring manager at Anthropic said their team has stopped asking software engineering candidates coding questions, citing a lack of useful signal from data-structures-and-algorithms interviews. The report does not establish that Anthropic has ended coding interviews company-wide or describe the team’s replacement process.
A team led by an Anthropic hiring manager has stopped asking software engineering candidates coding questions, after concluding that data-structures-and-algorithms interviews provided no useful signal about applicants, according to a report by The Pragmatic Engineer. The change concerns that team; the available report does not say Anthropic has removed coding interviews across the company.
The report identifies the manager as Felix Rieseberg, who has led work on Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop. In a blog post cited by The Pragmatic Engineer, Rieseberg said the team had stopped asking coding questions of candidates for software engineering roles. The stated reason was that the conventional DSA interview did not help the team distinguish candidates effectively.
The account describes a change to one team’s hiring process, not a company-wide announcement. It does not provide details about how many candidates or interviews are affected, when the change took effect, or what exercises or evaluation methods the team uses instead. The report’s headline, “Anthropic kills the coding interview,” is broader than the specific evidence described in its account.
The Pragmatic Engineer presents the decision as part of a wider discussion of hiring at AI-focused companies, suggesting other teams might follow. That is a possibility, not a confirmed policy change elsewhere. The report provides no named comments from Anthropic about whether the practice will spread to other teams.
A Narrow Change With Hiring Implications
Technical interviews can shape who gets hired and how candidates prepare. If a team believes a familiar interview format produces no useful hiring signal, removing it could change both candidate experience and the evidence recruiters use to make decisions. But the report does not say that Anthropic has abandoned technical assessment; it says this team no longer asks coding questions.
The distinction matters for applicants. A company-wide policy would affect expectations across many roles, while a team-level decision may apply only to a particular hiring group. Without information on the team’s replacement process or hiring outcomes, it is not possible to judge whether the change improves selection or simply shifts assessment to another format.
The report also frames the decision as a possible reference point for other AI-native startups. That remains an interpretation about what companies may do next, rather than evidence that the practice is spreading. Any wider effect would depend on whether other hiring teams reach similar conclusions and adopt comparable changes.
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What The Report Actually Describes
The source is The Pragmatic Engineer’s The Pulse, a series covering developments in technology companies and startups. Its item on Anthropic refers to data-structures-and-algorithms interviews, commonly called DSA interviews, and attributes the reported change to a hiring manager’s blog post. The material supplied does not include a date for that post or a full description of the interview process.
The same issue covers other workplace developments, including AI spending at incident.io, Amazon’s expectations for software engineers and managers, and voluntary exit offers at Microsoft. Those items provide the newsletter’s broader workplace setting, but they do not establish a connection between those companies’ actions and Anthropic’s interview decision.
“They have stopped asking coding questions to candidates for software engineering jobs.”
— The Pragmatic Engineer, summarizing the hiring change
Scope And Replacement Method Remain Unknown
The report does not identify how many Anthropic teams use the practice, whether other teams still ask coding questions, or whether the company has considered a broader policy. It also does not say what assessments replaced coding questions, if any, or how the team tests skills it considers relevant to the role.
The team’s conclusion that DSA interviews provide no useful signal is its stated assessment; the supplied account includes no study, hiring data, or comparison of candidate performance to support or quantify that conclusion. The timing of the change and Anthropic’s response beyond the cited account are also not provided. Claims that other AI startups may adopt the approach remain speculative.
Whether Other Teams Follow
The next useful developments would be clarification from Anthropic on whether the decision is limited to Rieseberg’s team, and details of how that team evaluates software engineering candidates. The source reports no announced company-wide change or timetable for one.
Other AI-focused companies may review their own interview practices, as The Pragmatic Engineer suggests, but there is no confirmed follow-up from them in the supplied material. For candidates, the clearest current takeaway is limited: at least one Anthropic team has said it no longer asks coding questions, while the process used across the rest of the company remains unspecified.
Key Questions
Has Anthropic ended coding interviews company-wide?
The report describes a decision by one team. It does not confirm a company-wide change.
Who said the team stopped asking coding questions?
The Pragmatic Engineer identifies Felix Rieseberg, a hiring manager who has led Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop, and cites his blog post.
Why did the team drop the questions?
The reported reason is that data-structures-and-algorithms interviews gave the team no useful signal about candidates. The supplied material does not include supporting data or a fuller explanation.
What does the team use instead?
The report does not say whether the team replaced coding questions with another assessment or describe its full interview process.
Are other AI companies making the same change?
The Pragmatic Engineer suggests other AI-native startups could follow, but the source material confirms no similar policy change at another company.
Source: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
