AI in interviews: banned, allowed or expected

Ask five employers or platforms whether you may use an AI assistant in a coding round, and you get three answers. Google says AI tools are not permitted during its interviews. Microsoft encourages responsible use while you prepare but expects your own skills in assessments and interviews unless a round explicitly permits AI. Canva expects its backend, machine learning and frontend candidates to use AI tools in technical interviews. The rule also changes with the stage, so the real question is whether AI is allowed in this stage, by this employer, in writing.

Employers’ and platforms’ own pages answer it stage by stage, and official pages also cover rounds that allow AI, how assessments flag unauthorised tools, how laws treat AI that screens you and where honest preparation ends.

Banned, allowed or expected: the rule depends on employer and stage

The pages quoted here give one of three answers, and some give different answers for different stages:

Employer or platform	Preparing	Assessments	Live interviews
Google	Not covered here	Not covered here	Not permitted
Meta	Not covered here	Not covered here	No unauthorised outside help, AI tools included
Microsoft	Encouraged, used responsibly	Your own skills, unless explicitly permitted	Your own skills, unless explicitly permitted
Canva	Not covered here	Not covered here	Expected for backend, machine learning and frontend roles
CodeSignal’s GCA	Not covered here	Not allowed, even for syntax look-ups	Not covered here

Banned means the round tests you without help: Google’s tips put it as wanting your thoughts, not those of the internet, your friends or AI. Allowed means allowed only where a round says so, as Microsoft’s page does. Expected means the round is built around the tools: Canva redesigned its questions to be more complex, ambiguous and realistic. Of the five, three forbid AI in the stage they describe, one allows it only with explicit permission, and one expects it. A cell that the page does not cover is a question for the recruiter, asked before the stage, in writing.

What comes next builds on the table. In a round that allows AI, the evidence is your judgement over its output. Assessment platforms say they flag unauthorised tools and actions such as switching tabs. Laws in some places regulate AI that screens candidates, and honest preparation with AI has a clear line: it may train you, never stand in for you.

Ask for the rule of each stage, in writing Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

In this part:

• A round that allows AI: plan, prompt, read, test, explain
• How assessments flag tools they do not allow
• When AI screens you: what the law and the employers say
• Preparing with AI, honestly
• Practise: twelve scenarios
• Interview questions
  • May you use AI tools in a coding interview?
  • A round lets you use an AI coding assistant. The interviewer says they care about your engineering, not your prompting. How do you run the round so they can see it?
  • In a round that allows AI, the assistant suggests an overlap check for bookings that looks right and passes your first example. How do you decide whether to trust it?
  • A take-home brief says nothing about AI tools. You used one to write test scaffolding before realising the rules were unclear. What do you do?
• Key takeaways

1 diagram · 3 interview answers · about 26 minutes

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Terms in this lesson

bias audit

An independent evaluation of whether a hiring tool treats groups of candidates unequally, for example by sex or by race and ethnicity.