Perfect interview performance. Solved every LeetCode problem. Impressive resume. But when they started? They couldn't explain why their AI-generated code worked. Couldn't debug when it broke. Couldn't adapt when requirements changed.
Cost: $15K in recruiting fees, 40+ hours in interviews, 3 weeks of lost velocity, and team morale.
Here's what I learned after 10 years and hundreds of technical interviews:
We're hiring for the wrong skills.
Traditional coding interviews test whether someone can solve algorithmic puzzles under pressure. That made sense in 2015. In 2025, every developer has access to AI that writes better code than most humans.
The skill gap isn't coding anymore. It's:
Understanding what AI-generated code actually does
Debugging when AI makes subtle mistakes
Knowing when to trust the AI vs when to question it
Reasoning through problems AI can't solve yet
I've watched teams hire "perfect" candidates who couldn't do any of this. And I've seen us pass on people who would've been amazing because they fumbled a binary tree question.
The real question isn't "can you code?" It's "can you think?"
Can you read AI-generated code and spot the bug? Can you explain why a solution works? Can you break down a complex problem when ChatGPT gives you garbage? Can you adapt when the spec changes?
These are the skills that separate developers who ship from developers who struggle.