How to run an AI-assisted interview, where candidates use AI.
Give them a real task from the job and let them use the AI tool they already use. Then read their conversation with the AI, and spend the interview on one moment in it.
Should you allow candidates to use AI in interviews?
If the person will use AI in the job, yes. In 2025 Meta started letting some candidates use an AI assistant in a coding interview (Business Insider).
Why banning AI in interviews fails
It tests a way of working the person will not use in the job. And it is hard to enforce: tools that feed answers in real time exist, and they are hard to spot on a call.
Why allowing AI without reading the conversation fails
AI makes almost everyone’s finished work look good. If you only see the result, you cannot tell who did the thinking, or whether they noticed when the AI was wrong.
How to run an AI-assisted interview, coding or not, in five steps
- 1Pick a real task from the job.Something the person would do in their first month: a bug to fix, a campaign to plan, a number to explain. Not a puzzle. With AI, it should take one to three hours.
- 2Give it one place where AI tends to go wrong.Real work has them: a number that has to match a source, a brief with a gap, a fix that looks right and is not. This is where you see who checks.
- 3Say in the brief that AI is expected.And let them use the tool they already use, such as Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT or Claude. People who are unsure whether AI is allowed hide how they work.
- 4Collect the conversation, not only the result.The finished work shows what was handed in. The conversation with the AI shows who did the thinking: what they asked, what they checked and what they changed.
- 5Spend the interview on one moment.Pick a turn in the conversation and ask about it. Why they trusted that number. Why they rewrote the brief. It is hard to answer for work you did not do.
What to look for when candidates use AI: six skills
The same six skills in every role. What a weak and a strong answer look like for each:
| Skill | Weak | Strong |
|---|---|---|
| Understand Do they understand the task before handing it to AI? | Asks for the answer first. Takes the brief as given. | Reads the material first. Breaks the problem down. Spots when the brief is wrong. |
| Brief Do they give AI what it needs? | Pastes everything and says “do this”. | Gives context, limits, examples and what done looks like. Keeps the judgment calls. |
| Check Do they catch it when AI is wrong? | Ships what looks finished. | Tests against the source. Catches the made-up fact and the wrong number. |
| Correct Do they fix it when it isn’t working? | “Try again”, “make it better”, on repeat. | Says what is wrong and why. Changes approach early. |
| Sign off Is what they hand over ready to send? | Filler, too long, claims nobody checked. | Ready for the reader. Says what was checked and what was not. Keeps confidential data out. |
| Reuse Do they make it repeatable? | Redoes the work by hand each time. | Saved prompts, skills, workflows and automations. The next run is faster and the same. |
Live AI-assisted interview or AI-allowed take-home test?
Both work. They show different things.
| Live, AI allowed | Take-home, AI allowed | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | On a call, sharing their screen | On their own computer, in their own setup |
| How long | 45 to 60 minutes | A deadline, usually a few days, and one to three hours of work |
| What you see | How they work under time pressure, as it happens | How they work when nobody is watching, read afterwards |
| Interviewer time | The whole session | Reading the conversation, and a shorter interview |
| Best for | A final round, or a short task | A task close to the real job, before the final round |
Interview questions to ask after an AI-assisted task
Ask about a specific moment, and ask for the detail. A vague answer is the signal.
- 1Where was the AI wrong, and how did you notice?
- 2What did you tell it before you started, and why?
- 3Which part did you decide yourself instead of asking the AI?
- 4What did you check before you handed it in, and what did you not check?
- 5If you had to do this again next week, what would you keep?
Questions about AI-assisted interviews
Is it cheating if a candidate uses AI in an interview?
Only if the rules said not to. If the job uses AI, the fair test is one where they use it openly, and you judge how. Cheating then means someone else doing the work, which the conversation and the follow-up question make hard.
How long should an AI-assisted task take?
One to three hours of work for a take-home, or 45 to 60 minutes live. Give a deadline of a few days rather than a strict timer, so people can work the way they would in the job.
Does this work for roles outside engineering?
Yes. A marketer can plan a campaign with ChatGPT, an analyst can explain a revenue drop, a product manager can write a spec from customer feedback. The skills you look for are the same; the task changes.
Which AI tools should candidates be allowed to use?
The ones they would use in the job. Most people are fastest in the tool they already know, and forcing a new one tests the tool, not the person.