Why Convex doesn't let candidates use AI in coding interviews

Convex does not permit candidates to use AI in coding interviews because the goal is to assess a person's thought process, and AI tools add noise to this signal. This policy is not a moral stance, as the company allows and expects engineers to use AI on the job to ship features effectively. The company's hiring philosophy, shaped by its CTO, emphasizes qualitative judgment over quantitative scorecards to evaluate qualities like taste and clarity of thought. This approach extends to their "deep dive" interview, which prioritizes a candidate's understanding of a project's purpose over its technical implementation details. Ultimately, interviews are viewed as a different activity from the job itself, justifying the different rules for AI usage in each context.