Recent SDE switchers, how have the interviews changed?

I’m trying to understand how SDE interviews have changed in 2026, especially for people who recently switched into SDE 1/SDE 2 roles at product based companies.
If you’ve made a switch recently, I’d really appreciate if you could share your experience.
A few things I’m curious about:
What was the overall interview process like?
How many rounds did you have?
Was the focus still mainly on DSA,HLD,LLD or anything else?
Did they expect AI/LLM knowledge, AI assisted coding?
What do you think interviewers were actually trying to gauge beyond coding skills?
I’ve been hearing that some companies are changing their interview formats quite a bit, so I’m trying to separate what’s actually happening from what’s just LinkedIn buzz.
Would love to hear your experiences especially if you switched into an SDE role within the last 6 months.

Posted Jun 25, 2026, 6:48 AM UTC

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