A junior engineer's honest take on coding with AI as a daily workplace tool

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A software engineer who began their first job in early 2025 reflects on how AI has shaped their experience as a junior developer. They describe AI as a useful resource for answering basic syntax questions, understanding error messages, and analysing dependency source code without burdening senior colleagues. The author credits AI with enabling them to write more complex code and tackle problems they might otherwise have avoided. However, they also recount a cautionary incident where over-relying on AI to replicate an API response pattern across multiple services led to a flawed pull request. Their overall view is that AI is neither purely beneficial nor harmful for junior engineers, but requires critical judgment to use effectively.

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