alt Hacker NewsAgentic coding doesn't make any sense for a job interview. To do it well requires a detailed specification prompt which can't reliably be written in an interview. It ideally also requires iterating upon the prompt to refine it before execution. You get out of it what you put into it.
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As someone that agenticly codes A LOT. Detailed specs are not required, but certainly one way to use the systems.
If you are going to do a big build out of something, spec up front at least to have a clear idea of the application architectural boundaries.
If you are adding features to a mature code base, then the general order of the day is: First have the Ai scout all the code related to the thing you are changing. Then have it give you a summary of its general plan of action. Then fire it off and review the results (or watch it, less needed now though).
For smaller edits or even significant features, I often just give it very short instructions of a few sentences, if I have done my job well the code is fairly opinionated and the models pick up the patterns well and I don't really have to give much guidance. I'll usually just ask for a few touchups like introdusing some fluent api nicities.
That being said, I do tend to make a few surgical requests of the AI when I review the PR, usually around abraction seams.
(For my play projects I don't even look at the code any more unless I hit a wall, and I haven't really hit a wall since Opus 4.5, though I do have a material physics simulator that Opus 4.5 wrote that runs REALLY slow that I should muck around in, but I'm thinking of seeing if Opus 4.6 can move it to the GPU by itself first.)
So if I were doing an interview with an interview question. I would probably do a "let's break down what we know", "what can we apply to this", "ok. let's start with x" and then iterate quickly and look at the code to validate as needed.
>which can't reliably be written in an interview
Why not? It sounds like a skill issue to me.
>It ideally also requires iterating upon the prompt to refine it before execution.
I don't understand. It's not like you would need to one shot it.
How about bug fixing? Give someone a repo with a tricky bug, ask them to figure it out with the help of their coding agent of choice.
In the UK the driving test requires a portion of driving using a satnav, the idea being that drivers are going to use satnavs so it's important to test that they know how how to use them safely.
The same goes for using Claude in a programming interview. If the environment of interview is not representative of how people actually work then the interview needs to be changed.