Systems Thinking Lab Newsletter: Build with AI so it sharpens you.

What the interview was really testing

The heart of a coding interview was never the code. It was to see how someone solves a problem without all of the inputs handed to them, and how they explain their thinking as they go.

AI changed what missing inputs means, because anyone can paste a puzzle into a chatbot. The skill underneath did not move. Given an open question and a codebase with no context, what does a person do first? How do they shrink the problem when nobody has said where it ends?

That ability is built by reducing messy problems yourself, many times, not by reading about it.

The inputs can be pasted in; deciding which ones matter cannot.

Kay

P.S. Play the building block game, a short design puzzle where you decide with missing information, and it is free. https://systemthinkinglab.ai/building-block-game/