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Why One Engineer Replaced Algorithm Interviews With a Broken Pull Request

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A software engineer describes switching to a code review interview format three years ago, where candidates are given a realistic 180-line pull request containing six seeded defects and asked to review it aloud. The exercise evaluates how candidates prioritize issues by severity rather than simply counting bugs found. The sample PR adds a email verification endpoint and hides critical flaws including user enumeration, an unthrottled spam vector, and a broken rate limiter that never resets. Deployment-order hazards and an N+1 query are also buried in the code, while minor style issues serve as deliberate traps to test judgment. The author argues this format more accurately reflects real on-the-job skills than traditional algorithm or whiteboard coding questions.

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Why One Engineer Replaced Algorithm Interviews With a Broken Pull Request · ShortSingh