Our Philosophy
We're a team that embraces AI and we want to meet candidates who do too. We're not looking for people who have merely heard of these tools; we're looking for people who have genuinely integrated them into their work and developed a critical perspective on how and when to use them well.
Our approach rests on two principles: transparency and ownership.
Transparency means there's no need to hide how you work. If you used AI to help with a take-home exercise, a code sample, or anything else in your process with us — tell us. We won't penalize you for it. We're far more interested in your judgment about how and when to use these tools than in whether you used them at all.
Ownership means that regardless of how output was produced, you stand behind it. Whether you wrote something yourself or with AI assistance, we expect you to understand it, defend it, and take responsibility for its quality. "The AI generated it" is not an explanation — it's a starting point.
For engineering roles especially, we value technical discernment. We want engineers who bring AI into their workflow with a clear eye for security, performance, and maintainability — and who can speak concretely to how they validate its output, where they've caught it getting things wrong, and how they use it to move faster on complex problems without cutting corners that matter.
In every interview, we'll ask about your experience with AI: how you use it, what you've learned from it, and where you've learned not to trust it.
What We Encourage
Use AI as a genuine part of your workflow. We want candidates who have real, hands-on experience with these tools — not just familiarity. Whether you've used them for coding, writing, research, system design, or something unexpected, bring those experiences to the interview.
Use AI in your preparation. It's completely fine to use AI tools to research the company, sharpen your thinking on technical concepts, practice answering questions, or structure your ideas ahead of time. Great preparation is great preparation.
For engineering roles — use AI to code. We work in a world where AI coding tools are part of the job. If you use Copilot, Cursor, Claude, or similar tools in your workflow, that's a real skill. We don't expect you to pretend otherwise. Please note, there may be instances where we explicitly ask you not to use AI (for example, we’ll have a coding interview with a very simple problem where AI will not be allowed to test if people can do basic coding on their own).
Be honest and specific about how you use it. We expect candidates to articulate why and how they used an AI tool — including where it fell short. Thoughtful, critical use is more impressive than any output the tool produces.
What We Don't Want to See
AI voice assistance during the interview. Using real-time AI voice tools or earpieces that feed you answers during a live interview isn't something we can work with. It prevents us from getting to know you, and it puts you in an awkward position when we go deeper on a topic.
Submitting AI-generated work as a complete substitute for your own thinking. If you're asked to complete a take-home or written exercise, using AI as a thought partner is fine. Submitting output you can't speak to is not — we will discuss your work in depth.
For engineering roles — code you can't explain. If AI helped you write a function, that's great. But you should be able to walk us through the logic, explain the tradeoffs, spot the edge cases, and debug it if we ask. Understanding how the code works is the skill we're assessing, not whether you typed every line.
Hiding your AI use when asked. If we ask how you approached something and AI was part of it, just say so. Transparency builds trust; concealment does the opposite.
| Pre-screen Stage | Use AI to research the company and refine your application materials. However, it is prohibited for any coding tests. We want to see your raw technical skills. |
| Recruiter Interview | Feel free to use AI for prep, but no real-time voice assistance or scripted AI responses during the call. |
| Hiring Manager Interview | This stage includes technical and coding questions. AI is not allowed during the call; we want to see your raw problem-solving skills and hear about your experience directly. |
| Technical Interview | This is your chance to show off your augmented workflow. Use AI to move fast. We’re looking for how you validate and control the AI’s output. We expect you to be able to articulate logic and reasoning. |
| Cross-Functional & Final Interview | Use AI only to prepare or brainstorm. During the interview, AI is not allowed. We want to hear about your real experiences. |
| Final Interview | This is a conversation about your history, your drive, and your questions for our leadership. AI is not permitted during this call; we want your honest, unassisted perspective. While the use of AI tools isn’t allowed during this stage itself, we actually love talking about them. Engineering today means engaging with AI — experimenting, forming opinions, figuring out where it helps and where it doesn't. So don't be surprised if your interviewer asks about your experience with it: what you've tried, what's worked for you, and how you think about it. |
The Simple Test
Ask yourself: If the interviewer asks me to go deeper on this, can I?
If yes, you're in good shape, however you got there. If no, that's the gap we'll find, and it's better to close it before the interview than during it.
A Note on the AI Question
In every process, we'll ask something like: "How have you been using AI in your work or personal projects?"
There's no perfect answer but the candidates who impress us most aren't always the ones who use AI the most. They're the ones who use it well: who've formed real opinions, caught it making mistakes, and can talk about their methodology with specificity. Come ready for that conversation.
Questions about the interview process? Reach out to your recruiter.