Databricks engineer Yuchen Jin and researcher Delip Rao argue LeetCode interviews are obsolete and encourage age discrimination in the AI era · Digg

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Databricks engineer Yuchen Jin and researcher Delip Rao argue LeetCode interviews are obsolete and encourage age discrimination in the AI era

They advocate replacing memorization tests with AI-assisted real-world engineering evaluations.

Story Brief

They advocate replacing memorization tests with AI-assisted real-world engineering evaluations.

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Anoy@AnoyroycTECH

@Yuchenj_UW hard agree, leet code never once predicted how good someone actually builds

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ⲨΛSH | AI Engineer@buildwith_yashTECH

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unknown@unknowncode369TECH

@designwkarthick @Yuchenj_UW 💯💪

Yuchen Jin@Yuchenj_UW

Sentiment

Positive81.8%18.2%Negative

Positive Read

Many users endorsed ditching LeetCode for real-world tasks like debugging codebases in AI hiring because it fails to predict actual building skill, while others defended the format for assessing problem-solving or attacked the advocates.

Based on 15 visible X reactions from 119 accounts; directional sample.

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@Yuchenj_UW I agree. I'd rather debug a real codebase than reverse a binary tree

Alby Dürers doppelganger, an artistic remora!@christo45970188TECH

@Yuchenj_UW lotta senior idiots out there.

unknown@unknowncode369TECH

@Yuchenj_UW I agree in this regard!

TECH

I’ve been talking to some young AI talent recently. Many dislike companies that still use LeetCode interviews. The logic is simple: LeetCode mostly tests memorization. In the AI era, even 3B LLMs can solve these problems faster than any human. The tech industry should move toward AI-assisted, real-world problem-solving coding interviews.

Delip Rao e/σ@delipraoTECH

Yes, Leetcode tests (or incentivizes) memorization, a capability that’s strongly correlated with younger applicants. Since age-based hiring is illegal, Leetcode presents an opportunity to do that using a correlated variable that appears like merit, i.e., proxy discrimination. https://twitter.com/yuchenj_uw/status/2074543329665233236