AI has fundamentally changed how engineers work, but most hiring processes haven't changed at all.
Coding assistants can generate solutions in seconds. System design answers can be refined with prompts. Candidates walk into interviews with powerful AI tools at their side. Yet many companies are still evaluating engineers as if AI didn't exist.
So how do you actually assess engineering ability in this new reality?
After interviewing hundreds of engineers at Elementor, I redesigned my hiring process for the AI era. Instead of trying to prevent candidates from using AI, I changed what we evaluate. Today we test how engineers think, how they collaborate with AI, and how they apply judgment when AI-generated solutions are incomplete, incorrect, or misleading.
In this talk, I'll share what changed in our hiring process and what actually works in practice:
how we evaluate coding ability when AI is involved, which system design questions reveal AI orchestration skills, and what behavioral signals distinguish high-impact engineers from candidates who rely on AI to mask gaps.
Whether you're hiring engineers, preparing for interviews, or leading an engineering organization, you'll leave with a practical framework for evaluating engineering talent in the AI era.
This talk has been presented at React Day Berlin 2026, check out the latest edition of this React Conference.
