For years, the coding interview process has been the subject of countless jokes and frustrations.
Just last year, a developer shared a Medium post describing how their code worked perfectly in multiple interviews, yet they still got rejected as they “seemed to overcomplicate it,” even though it handled real-world scenarios correctly. The story hits close to home, as many candidates have sat through coding interviews where they type out solutions under constant observation, wondering if they are being judged more for performance than actual thinking. It starts to feel less like problem-solving and more like a high-pressure coding exercise for interviews that barely reflects the job itself.
Does this whole process truly prove we are great engineers? Most would agree, not really.
As developers, we have played along because that is just how the system works, but now AI is starting to reshape how coding interviews are done. This shift brings us to something more practical and human. Live coding tests bring a fresh approach that mirrors real-world problem-solving.
In this article, we’ll explore why live coding tests outperform traditional methods and how platforms like the HackerEarth Interview FaceCode shift technical hiring.
Traditional Coding Interviews vs. Live Coding Tests
Most of us who have ever prepared for coding interviews know the silent pressure that builds when a recruiter drops a whiteboard problem on you. You try to stay calm, but your mind goes blank, and you don’t get to show how you really solve problems in a real environment. Many modern hiring managers are starting to question whether this traditional format even works.
A recent 2025 survey found that 42% of HR leaders plan to replace traditional interviews with skill‑based tests that reflect real job performance, and that 72% of employers say skills predict success better than resumes or traditional interviews. It shows why the industry is moving toward live coding interviews that feel closer to actual work.
Let’s look at how traditional methods compare against real‑time coding assessments and what this shift means for hiring.
What are traditional coding interviews?
A traditional coding interview is an approach that relies on formats like whiteboard problems, theoretical questions, or take-home assignments. Interviewers often ask candidates to solve algorithmic problems in isolation, without tools or context.
This approach creates several issues:
- Candidates cannot use real-world tools like IDEs or documentation
- Interviewers depend heavily on personal judgment
- Time pressure affects performance more than actual skill
- Feedback often lacks consistency across candidates
A 2023 study illustrates this problem clearly. Researchers had participants go through simulated interviews with eight traditional and eight structured questions under two conditions:
One where they were instructed to present themselves honestly, and another where they were told to act like a “strong applicant.”
The results showed that candidates’ ratings improved significantly more in the traditional interview portion than in the structured portion simply by performing or presenting themselves strategically. This suggests traditional interviews reward impression management (IM) over real skill, meaning a candidate’s ability to “perform well” often outweighs their actual coding ability.
Take-home assignments attempt to fix this gap, but they create new problems. On the one hand, candidates spend hours on tasks without guaranteed feedback. On the other hand, recruiters struggle to review submissions at scale.
Put simply, traditional coding interviews often test memory instead of real problem-solving. This disconnect leads to poor hiring decisions and frustrated candidates.
What are live coding interviews?
A live coding interview is a type of technical assessment in which candidates solve programming problems in real time within a shared coding environment. It allows interviewers to observe their problem-solving process, coding approach, and decision-making as it happens.
Here’s what makes live coding effective:
- Real-time collaboration between the candidate and the interviewer
- Access to coding tools and environments
- Immediate feedback and clarification
- Clear visibility into the problem-solving approach
- AI-driven remote proctoring to maintain test integrity and fairness
In fact, our 2025 Technical Hiring Landscape Report suggests that the share of companies using proctoring grew from 64% in January to a peak of 77% in July. By the end of the year, nearly 2 out of 3 events (64.5%) were proctored.
Live coding also supports standardized coding exercises for interviews, which helps companies compare candidates fairly. This shift transforms coding interviews into a practical and data-driven process.
Why Live Coding Interviews are the Future of Recruiting
Coding interviews have followed the same script for years, and most candidates can see right through it. They memorize patterns for coding interviews, rehearse common problems, and walk into interviews ready to perform rather than think. That approach might test preparation, but it rarely reflects how engineers actually work.
So, if traditional coding interviews feel disconnected from real work, what replaces them?
Live coding interviews are stepping in as the more realistic, more human alternative. Mitchell Kosowski, VP of Engineering at Vouched, captured this shift perfectly in a recent LinkedIn post:

Here’s why they are the future of recruiting:
Increased accuracy in assessing problem-solving skills
When candidates solve problems live, you get a front row view of how they think. You see how they break down ambiguity, respond to feedback, and adapt when something does not work the first time.
In live coding interviews, AI can analyze not just the final solution, but the entire problem-solving journey. It can track how a candidate explores different approaches, how efficient their logic is, and how they improve along the way. This level of insight helps teams understand whether a candidate can handle real engineering challenges, not just textbook questions.
In fact, AI-driven interview analytics are already improving hiring accuracy by up to 40%, which shows how much deeper this kind of evaluation can go compared to traditional methods.
Eliminating bias in candidate evaluation
Traditional interviews often leave too much room for subjective judgment. Two interviewers might assess the same candidate very differently based on personal preferences or unconscious bias. Candidates often feel frustrated when their skills are overlooked because subtle factors like video quality or background influence the assessment. In fact, around 45% of interviewers admit that such factors affect how they rate candidates during virtual interviews.
Live coding interviews handle this problem in a simple but powerful way. Every candidate works through the same coding challenges in real time, which gives interviewers a clear, shared view of their problem-solving approach. AI for coding interviews adds another perspective by looking at coding patterns, efficiency, and decision-making as the candidate works.
As a result, companies can focus more on actual ability and less on factors that should not influence hiring in the first place.
Real-time collaboration and candidate engagement
A big part of engineering is collaboration, yet traditional interviews often feel like solo exams. Candidates sit in silence, trying to impress, while interviewers observe from a distance. In fact, around 77 % of candidates who have a negative experience will share it with their networks, which can affect your employer brand and future recruiting efforts.
Live coding changes that dynamic completely. It turns the interview into a conversation. Candidates can ask questions, clarify requirements, and explain their thinking as they go. This creates a more natural environment where both sides engage with each other. Candidates feel more comfortable showing how they work, and interviewers get a clearer picture of how they would fit into the team.
It also makes the candidate experience more memorable, as candidates walk away feeling like they were part of a real discussion.
How FaceCode Improves the Coding Interview Process
Hiring teams are rethinking how they evaluate developers, and the shift is hard to ignore. Data shows that companies using AI for hiring grew from 26% in 2024 to 43% in 2025.
At the same time, about 68% of candidates say they prefer hybrid or in-person interviews over fully virtual ones. This tells a clear story. Candidates want interviews that feel real, and teams want signals they can trust.
The Interview FaceCode brings both together. As part of the HackerEarth ecosystem, it gives teams a way to run structured, collaborative interviews that reflect how engineers actually work. Instead of relying on memorized patterns or static questions, it creates an environment where candidates can think, communicate, and solve problems in real time.
AI tools for coding interviews
With FaceCode, interviewers and candidates collaborate inside a shared code editor while staying connected through HD video. Here’s how it helps:
A] Diagram boards for systems design interviews
Diagram boards make system design discussions more visual and easier to follow, so ideas are clear to everyone. The platform supports panel interviews with up to 5 interviewers, which helps teams evaluate both technical depth and collaboration without switching between multiple tools.
This leads to better conversations and more complete feedback.
B] AI interview agent
The AI-powered Interview Agent adds another layer to this process. It follows structured rubrics, adapts questions based on candidate responses, and generates consistent scores that reduce subjectivity.
Instead of relying on memory or scattered notes, teams get a clear view of how each candidate performed.
C] Interview recordings & transcripts
FaceCode also records sessions and generates transcripts, so nothing gets lost after the interview ends. Teams can revisit specific moments, compare candidates more easily, and make decisions with more context.
The ability to mask personal information adds another level of fairness, which supports more inclusive hiring practices.
D] ATS integrations and compliance
Behind the scenes, FaceCode integrates with tools like Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, and SAP, which makes it easy to fit into existing workflows.
With GDPR compliance, ISO 27001 certification, and high uptime, it supports both fast-growing teams and large enterprises without friction.
E] Global developer community
HackerEarth extends this experience further through its global developer community of over 10 million. Teams can engage talent through hackathons and hiring challenges, which creates a more interactive path to discover and evaluate candidates.
This approach helps companies build a candidate pipeline that cuts their cost and time to hire while keeping the process engaging.
Customizable coding exercises and templates
Every role is different, and FaceCode reflects that. Teams can choose from a large library of over 40,000 questions or create their own tests based on real-world scenarios. This makes it easier to match the interview to the role instead of forcing candidates into generic problems.
The broader HackerEarth suite supports every stage of hiring, from candidate sourcing to upskilling. Teams can run hiring challenges, screen candidates with AI-driven assessments, and engage developers through competitions that spark interest and participation.
This structure supports skill-based hiring, where decisions come from what candidates can actually do rather than what their resumes claim. Project-based questions, custom datasets, and role-specific test cases give teams a clearer picture of how someone will perform on the job.
All of this comes together inside one system, which makes FaceCode stand out among online coding interview platforms.
Code playback and interview replay
Great hiring decisions often depend on small details, and those details can fade quickly after an interview. FaceCode solves this by storing full recordings and transcripts that teams can revisit at any time.
It includes CodePlayer, which lets you watch the entire coding session as a video. You can watch how the code was written from start to finish instead of only looking at the final result. Additionally, you can see where a candidate paused, what they tried first, and how they corrected mistakes. This makes it easier to understand how they think.
Teams can go back to the same session and review it together. The option to hide candidate details keeps the focus on skills and supports fair evaluation.
📌Also read: Your Guide to Performance Review Templates
How to Prepare for Coding Interviews with FaceCode
Preparation becomes much easier when you know what to focus on and how to practice it in a real coding environment.
Must-know algorithms and patterns for coding interviews
Strong fundamentals still make the biggest difference in coding interviews. Most problems are built on a few core concepts, so once you understand them well, you start recognizing patterns instead of solving everything from scratch.
These include:
- Sorting: You should be familiar with Merge Sort, Quick Sort, Heap Sort, and Counting Sort, along with when to use each one. These show up in real scenarios like sorting products by price or ranking users on a leaderboard,
- Search algorithms: Binary Search is essential for working with sorted data and significantly reduces time complexity. Breadth- and Depth-First Search are just as important when dealing with trees and graphs. They are widely used in systems like search engines, navigation tools, and even AI-based applications.
- Hashing: Hash tables help store and retrieve data quickly using keys, which makes them useful for tasks like checking duplicates or mapping values efficiently. Once you get comfortable with hashing, many problems become easier to approach.
These patterns help candidates solve problems efficiently.
Practice with live coding tests on FaceCode
Once the basics are clear, practice builds confidence. FaceCode offers role-based coding tests that reflect what companies actually expect in interviews.
You can practice across data structures, algorithms, system design, and even newer areas like GenAI. The platform also includes psychometric tests to help you understand how you approach problems.
As you keep practicing in a live environment, interviews start to feel more familiar and easier to handle.
📌Suggested read: Guide to Conducting Successful System Design Interviews
The Future of Coding Interviews Starts Here
Coding interviews are changing, and you can already feel it. AI tools can now solve many of the problems candidates used to spend hours preparing for, which makes you stop and think about what these interviews are really testing.
If AI can get through them so easily, then the issue is not the candidate. It is the way the interview is set up. And that naturally changes what you look for in a great developer. Interviews now reveal how someone reasons, approaches a problem, and works through challenges in real time.
Once you see it that way, the bigger question becomes simple: How do you make interviews feel more real, more fair, and more useful?
This is where the Interview FaceCode starts to make sense. It creates an environment where candidates solve problems in real time, share their thought process out loud, and collaborate naturally. It also gives teams a clearer way to evaluate.
If you want to upgrade your hiring process or improve your preparation strategy, now is the time to act. Try FaceCode today and see what a more practical interview process feels like.
FAQs
What is FaceCode, and how does it improve coding interviews?
FaceCode is a live-coding interview tool that helps teams run structured, collaborative technical interviews. It improves the process by letting candidates solve problems in real time while interviewers observe their thinking. This makes evaluations more practical and closer to real work.
How does FaceCode’s AI-powered matching work?
FaceCode uses AI to assess candidate performance based on predefined criteria and role requirements. It analyzes how candidates approach problems and matches their skills with the right roles. This helps teams identify stronger fits without relying only on resumes.
What are the advantages of live coding interviews over traditional methods?
Live coding interviews show how candidates think and solve problems instead of testing memorized answers. They create a more interactive experience where candidates can explain their approach. This gives teams a clearer and more accurate view of real skills.
How can FaceCode help reduce hiring bias during coding interviews?
FaceCode supports fair evaluation through structured interviews and consistent scoring criteria. It also allows teams to hide candidate details during assessments. This keeps the focus on skills and reduces the influence of personal bias.
Can FaceCode integrate with my existing ATS (Applicant Tracking System)?
FaceCode integrates with popular ATS platforms like Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, and SAP SuccessFactors. This allows teams to manage interviews without changing their existing workflow. It helps keep the hiring process smooth and organized.
























