TL;DR
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Felix Rieseberg, an Anthropic hiring manager who has led Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop, says his team has stopped asking software engineering candidates coding questions. The report says the team found data-structures-and-algorithms interviews provided no useful hiring signal; it does not establish that Anthropic has ended coding interviews companywide.
Anthropic hiring manager Felix Rieseberg says his team has stopped asking software engineering candidates coding questions after finding that the questions provided no useful signal in its hiring process. The change applies to the team he has led on Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop; the available report does not say Anthropic has removed coding interviews across the company.
The development was reported by The Pragmatic Engineer, which cited a blog post by Rieseberg. In the post, he said his team had stopped asking candidates coding questions. The report describes the discarded format as data-structures-and-algorithms interviews, often shortened to DSA interviews.
The stated reason is about the interview’s value as a hiring tool: the team found it generated zero signal for assessing candidates, according to the report. That is an account of this team’s experience, not independently presented evidence about coding interviews generally or a published companywide evaluation.
The source identifies Rieseberg as a hiring manager who has led work on Claude Cowork and Claude Desktop. It does not provide details about what exercises, interviews, or assessments the team uses instead, nor does it specify when the change began or how many candidates have been interviewed under the revised process.
A Different Test for Engineers
The change speaks to a practical question for software job candidates and employers: whether familiar coding puzzles help predict performance in the work a role actually requires. If one team concludes that these questions tell it little about candidates, dropping them could shift attention toward other parts of the hiring process. The report, however, does not say which methods replaced them, so it cannot establish what the team now considers a better measure.
The development may draw interest because Anthropic builds AI coding products and is hiring engineers in a field where the work itself is changing. That does not show that AI tools caused the interview change. The reported explanation is narrower: the team said its DSA questions produced no useful signal. Whether other teams at Anthropic or other AI-focused companies will make a similar change remains open.
For applicants, the immediate takeaway is limited but relevant: a candidate interviewing with this team may no longer face the coding questions it previously used. The source does not describe a new standard for all Anthropic roles, so candidates should not assume the change applies across the company.
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A Team-Level Hiring Change
The source places the hiring news in The Pulse, The Pragmatic Engineer’s coverage of developments in technology companies and startups. Its roundup also covers AI spending at incident.io, Amazon’s expectations for software engineers and managers, and Microsoft exit offers. Those items are separate developments and do not provide evidence about Anthropic’s interview policy.
The Anthropic item centers on Rieseberg’s account of his team’s process. The report’s headline says Anthropic “kills the coding interview,” but the detail provided is more specific: a hiring manager says his team stopped asking coding questions. That distinction matters because the available material does not document a companywide decision or an announcement from Anthropic’s central recruiting organization.
The Scope and Replacement
The available report does not say whether Anthropic has changed its hiring process companywide, whether other teams are considering the same move, or whether the decision applies to every software engineering role on Rieseberg’s team. It also gives no start date for the change.
It remains unclear what assessments have replaced coding questions, how the team judges candidates’ technical ability now, or whether its conclusion is based on formal analysis, recruiter feedback, or interviewers’ experience. The claim that DSA interviews provided no signal is attributed to the team’s assessment; the supplied material includes no underlying data or response from Anthropic’s broader recruiting organization.
Whether Other Teams Follow
The next point to watch is whether Anthropic or Rieseberg provides more detail about the team’s revised process and the reasoning behind its assessment. Any broader announcement would clarify whether this is a local experiment or part of a wider recruiting change.
Until then, the confirmed development is limited to one team’s reported decision to stop asking coding questions. The source names no rollout, timetable, or formal review, so it is not possible to say whether other teams or AI-native startups will follow.
Key Questions
Has Anthropic ended coding interviews for every engineering candidate?
The report does not establish that. It describes a change by a team led by hiring manager Felix Rieseberg, not a companywide policy.
Why did the team stop asking coding questions?
According to The Pragmatic Engineer’s report, the team found that data-structures-and-algorithms interviews provided no useful signal when assessing candidates.
What interview format has replaced the coding questions?
The supplied report does not say. It provides no details about replacement exercises or assessments.
Does the decision mean coding interviews are ineffective everywhere?
No. The account describes one team’s experience and does not include evidence establishing how well coding interviews work at other companies or for other roles.
Source: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
