I'm a 2020 Computer Engineering graduate, part of the first batch that had to navigate the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic during graduation. Even back then, I felt that the hiring process, both in India and globally, was outdated.
Now, let me clarify. I don't hold anything against people who swear by DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms), competitive programming, or LeetCode-style assessments. What I'm sharing here is simply my perspective based on personal experiences.
My Journey: Not a DSA Kid
I never got into DSA or competitive coding. Partly due to a lack of mentorship in college, and partly because I was more interested in getting my hands dirty with real technologies and actually building things.
Back in the pre-ChatGPT era, Stack Overflow and Server Fault were our lifelines. We'd spend hours debugging an issue, desperately searching for the one solution that worked. That process, though tedious, taught me how to solve problems.
When I started my career, I was rejected by a few companies in the final coding or tech rounds simply because my DSA wasn't "strong enough." Writing palindrome checkers or reversing strings never really excited me. My thought was why obsess over that when the internet already has those answers? What matters is knowing how to apply solutions to real problems.
The Problem With the Current Hiring System
Even today, the hiring process for tech roles remains fragmented and, honestly, quite outdated. I've been involved in hiring over the last few months and I've seen both sides of the equation.
When I interview, I rarely ask DSA questions. For a Node.js backend developer role, for instance, I usually ask the candidate to:
- Build a simple Express server
- Connect it to MongoDB using Mongoose
- Implement basic CRUD operations
- Handle errors and edge cases and later start with Aggregation Pipelines
They can refer to official docs or npm pages. Still, I've seen candidates struggle to even set up a basic Express
Key Insight
We're in 2025, in the age of ChatGPT, Copilot, and LLMs. Writing code has become easier than ever. What truly matters now isn't whether someone can memorize syntax, but whether they can think through problems and find the right solutions.
The Real Skills We Should Be Hiring For
1. Problem-Solving Ability
Anyone can write code with AI's help. The differentiator is how well a person can break down a problem, analyze trade-offs, and come up with a solution that makes sense.
2. Search Skills
You'd be surprised how many developers can't simply "Google" effectively. I've seen juniors write full-paragraph queries into search boxes and get frustrated with irrelevant results. Searching or "prompting" now is a real skill.
3. Reading Documentation
This is another lost art. I once sat with a junior developer (with 3 years of experience) who couldn't identify the accepted answer on a Stack Overflow page. It wasn't a knowledge problem — it was a reading comprehension problem.
A Modern, AI-Aware Hiring Process
- Post a job requirement with a short take-home challenge for front-end, back-end, or DevOps.
- Give candidates time to complete it using any tools or AI assistants they want.
- In the first interview round, ask them to run their code, make small changes live, and explain their thought process.
- Discuss scalability and problem scenarios — "What happens if traffic spikes?", "How would you handle data consistency?", etc.
- Review past projects — see how they've thought through architecture, trade-offs, and delivery.
Instead of spending endless hours on multi-round interviews, I'd even suggest hiring candidates on a trial basis for 15 days. Give them a real problem to solve. See how they perform when faced with an actual requirement, like implementing a secure login system.
What Separates Good Developers
Anyone can ask ChatGPT to generate a login page, but a skilled developer knows:
- It needs authentication checks
- OAuth requires privacy policy and ToS links
- Idle sessions should time out
- Security headers must be configured
That level of awareness doesn't come from solving string reversals, it comes from building real systems and understanding user needs.
It's Time to Rethink Hiring
We're at a point where the ability to write code isn't the bottleneck anymore. AI has taken care of that. The real test is how people think, learn, and adapt their judgment.
If companies keep hiring like it's 2015, they'll miss out on great talent that can think creatively and work smartly with AI.