Can AI Interviewers Redefine Software Engineer Hiring?

While browsing online, the author noticed a job posting that likely belongs to Meituan, which has already introduced AI interviewers in its campus recruitment.

Meituan’s CEO revealed that about 52% of new code is generated by AI, over 90% of engineers regularly use AI coding tools, and the company plans to invest further in large language models.

In June, Meituan launched a product called NoCode , aimed at allowing users with no programming background to create websites and software through conversational prompts.

The AI interview includes a comprehensive set of questions—standard, scenario‑based, and system‑design—illustrated in the screenshots below.

According to the author, the AI interviewer can handle more than 60% of the interview workload, significantly improving efficiency for human interviewers.

However, the author points out a limitation: AI‑generated questions come from a preset question bank and are not tailored to a candidate’s resume, which is crucial for assessing true technical depth and thinking.

New Trend

“Vibe Coding” is a term introduced by an OpenAI co‑founder in early 2025. It describes a development method where developers use natural‑language prompts to guide AI tools to generate, refine, and debug code, emphasizing speed, iteration, and even enabling non‑programmers to describe desired functionality.

In this paradigm, the developer acts like an architect, telling the AI (the construction crew) what to build, while the AI constructs the code accordingly.

Given that AI has become an integral part of programming in 2025, the author asserts that future interviews must evaluate a candidate’s ability to collaborate with AI rather than merely recalling algorithms.

Then the Question Comes

The article proposes interview requirements for different seniority levels:

Junior developers should be able to use common AI coding tools to complete daily tasks and demonstrate basic “Vibe Coding” skills.

Mid‑level developers should independently develop complex features with AI, possess strong prompt‑engineering abilities, and leverage AI for research, design, and feasibility analysis.

Senior developers should lead AI‑driven development processes, evaluate and introduce new AI tools, and translate business problems into precise technical prompts.

The author believes that only by allowing AI in interviews can these abilities be truly assessed, and that the future of software engineering interviews will evolve into a “new eight‑legged” format—combining traditional principle testing with AI‑assisted problem solving.

Ultimately, the piece argues that Meituan’s experiment sets a valuable example, shifting interview focus from “what you know” to “how you collaborate with AI to achieve results.”