# Are we hiring developers who can build, or developers who can prompt?

> Source: <https://dev.to/chitrajan_dhiman/are-we-hiring-developers-who-can-build-or-developers-who-can-prompt-2okp>
> Published: 2026-07-29 10:48:06+00:00

I recently interviewed some fresh graduates and noticed an interesting pattern.

The projects on their resumes looked impressive:

- Beautiful UI
- Modern tech stacks
- AI-powered features
- Clean GitHub repositories
- At first glance, they looked like strong candidates.

But when we started discussing their projects:

- Why did you choose this architecture?
- How does this API work?
- What challenges did you face?
- How would you scale this?
- What happens if this component fails?
- Many struggled to explain their own work.

This made me think:

AI has lowered the barrier to building software, which is great.

But are we changing how we evaluate developers?

Maybe a project demo is no longer enough.

The real evaluation should focus on:

- Understanding of fundamentals
- Problem-solving approach
- Ability to explain decisions
- Debugging skills
- Ownership of the work
- AI will help developers build faster, but understanding what they are building and why still matters.

Curious to hear from hiring managers and developers:

**How are you evaluating fresh graduates in the AI era?**