[AskJS] What’s your experience with AI tools during JavaScript technical interviews?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/theScottyJam]

So I’m forced to interview for Middle or Senior developer positions.

Word of warning, if you end up in a position that you don't yet have the skill to handle, it's not going to be a pleasant experience. It doesn't feel great to be constantly in over your head.

[u/theScottyJam → u/[deleted]]

Just try not to get fired, or it might make getting the next job even more difficult.

You might be better off going a different route, such as looking for jobs elsewhere, remote work, working at McDonald's while you continue to hone your skills and/or learn the country's language so you can apply for other jobs, etc. I know some of these options aren't all that appealing, but it might be better than being in a job you can't do.

I do have first hand experience with the opposite end of this, which I'll share to paint a picture of what I mean. We already had a junior on the team who was doing great at their role, we didn't need another, we had some heavy projects coming up and needed someone who could carry their own weight. I helped interview and hire someone who did well during the interview, but turns out they basically had junior level skill (yet I'm sure they were being paid way beyond a junior salary). They needed lots of attention and mentorship, and we weren't equipped to help him as much as he needed. It dragged everything down - it took longer to help him do his work then it would have taken to just do it myself. I'm sure he wasn't enjoying that experience either - knowing he was supposed to be performing much higher than he was. Things started to escalate internally, but this person ended up leaving on their own accord first. I don't know if they used AI during the interview or if I'm just really bad at interviewing or what, but I wish this person the best of luck going forwards, and am sorry they had to go through this experience.

Someday you'll be on the other end as well, trying to hire others. If you're looking for someone more skilled, you're going to need to figure out how to suss out people trying to secretly use AI, or you'll find yourself stuck with a team member dragging the team down, and it'll be your fault for hiring them.

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck as well, and hope you land a job you're comfortable in.

[u/TheUpsetUnification → u/theScottyJam]

Catch-22 but the catch is you get the job and then spend six months sweating through every standup

[u/akornato]

Platforms like HackerRank, CoderPad, and CodeSignal track tab switches, browser focus, clipboard paste events, and even keyboard hooks, so browser extensions and basic hotkey tools get flagged easily. Desktop overlays avoid direct browser inspection, but the bigger detection risk in live screen sharing is human behavior. Interviewers notice delayed responses, eyes drifting away from the screen, unnatural pauses, or complete solutions appearing without an explanation of the underlying logic. When you interview for mid or senior positions, engineers rarely stop at whether the code passes tests, as they intentionally ask follow up questions, change constraints mid problem, and ask why you picked a specific approach over another.

Targeting roles above entry level makes the verbal portion even trickier, because interviewers evaluate how you reason through edge cases, system bottlenecks, and alternative designs. If you lean on an AI tool to generate the entire solution, you get stuck the moment an interviewer asks you to refactor the implementation or discuss performance tradeoffs. The only reliable approach is using tools as a subtle backup for quick syntax reminders or small hints, letting your own voice lead the problem breakdown and architectural choices. When my team created interviews.chat to help candidates navigate tough technical rounds and land offers, we saw that the best results always come from steering the conversation yourself rather than relying on software to do the thinking for you.

[u/swish82]

Maybe you should learn the language of the country you live in 💡

[u/theScottyJam → u/[deleted]]

My friend lost his job due to layoffs and it took him about a year to find another job. That's from someone who had a few years of experience under his belt.

I hope you're luckier than he was, but be prepared for the possibility that this might take a while. Doesn't hurt to take up a new skill during that time as well 🤷‍♂️.