You’re not just hiring developers anymore. You’re hiring developers plus AI.

Like it or not, the best engineers are already using tools like Cursor, Copilot and ChatGPT to write, debug, and optimize code — and they’re doing it fast.

The old-school coding screen? Dead on arrival.

Because you’re not evaluating human performance in a vacuum anymore — you’re evaluating how well someone works with the machines. 

The New Developer Stack

Today’s top candidates are:

• Writing boilerplate in seconds with Copilot

• Asking ChatGPT for quick architecture scaffolds

• Using their knowledge to create

• Adding tweaks and accelerating with different tools

And guess what? That’s not cheating! That’s the job now.

It’s a blend.

Good Software Developers are multidimensional. 

So if your interview process penalizes them for using the same tools they’ll use on day one, you’re not testing ability; You’re testing obedience. You’re slowing yourself down.

What Traditional Interviews Miss

Let’s say you ask a candidate to implement a rate limiter from scratch and they use GPT-4 to scaffold the code. They make a couple edits and tweak it to fit your requirements.

Are they cheating?

Is that a red flag?

No. It’s a green one.

It tells you they:

• Know how to prompt

• Understand how to verify AI output

• Can adapt base solutions to specific contexts

In 2025, those skills are just as valuable to find as raw coding ability.

But here’s the thing. Traditional coding interviews weren’t built for this reality.

They assume a closed-book, AI-free environment. But that’s not how real development happens anymore.

So What Should You Be Testing?

You still need signal. You still need to know if they’re any good.

That signal should come from:

• How they interact with AI (not if they use it)

• How they break down problems

• How they verify outputs and debug

• How they communicate tradeoffs in a pull request

That’s how engineers work now. And those are the skills that’ll separate a productive dev from one who fakes it.

How Prova Solves This

Prova’s assessments are designed for the real world. That means:

• Candidates can use AI tools

• They work in their own IDE

• They solve scoped challenges that reflect actual team tasks

• They ask an applicant to explain their decision making

Then we give you a breakdown that includes:

• The candidate’s process

• Their judgment

• Their reasoning

• The quality of the end result

• An interactive demo of their build

It’s not about detecting whether they used AI.

It’s about seeing how well they work with it.

You can make the hiring decisions. We just get you deeper insight. 

Don’t Penalize Great Candidates for Being Efficient

If you’re filtering out every candidate who uses ChatGPT…

You’re probably filtering out great candidates.

Because today’s best developers don’t fight the tools — they integrate them.

Your interview process should, too.