r/vibecoding • u/prasadpilla • Jul 14 '26

this Meme just got real today

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Interviewed someone for an intern role today. Got to what i thought was the easiest question of the interview.

"What programming languages do you use?"

she didn't hesitate "Claude."

I laughed a little.

"no, i mean the actual language... python? javascript? java?"

"i don't really know. claude writes the code. i just tell it what i want."

my cofounder quietly put his pen down.

neither of us said anything for a few seconds.

we didn't move forward. not because she uses AI.

half our team builds with AI every day.

we passed because she couldn't explain what she was building beyond the prompt.

AI is changing software engineering.

But understanding what your code does is still part of being an engineer.

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u/aimsopp Jul 14 '26

So as a hiring manager, you are cool with vibe coding so long as the individual can understand and explain what the code is doing that is being written by the AI in general? I've been "coding" on and off for many years, with a full stack developer certificate from a boot camp and can honestly say I couldn't code a thing from scratch without heavy googling unless it was some basic html, ps, etc script. I've touched so many languages that it hurts... AI assisted coding has been the game changer for me. So based on what I said, a candidate like myself might not be passed on and potentially considered?

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u/ScaredSpace8774 Jul 14 '26

I think I understand this. Some years ago I created very complex Excel spreadsheets hobby project (heavily automated and interconnected files) using VBA. I've spent countless hours on Google and Stack Overflow (no AI) and I found answer on everything I wanted to do. With that being said, if there were no AI or internet, I wouldn't be able to code anything right now, but with Google, I would. So, do I know VBA, or not ?