AI Tools in Data Engineer Interviews: Banned, Allowed, or Scored?

On November 3, 2026, the AI section of DEV Community published a piece titled 'AI tools in data engineer interviews: ban them, allow them, or grade them?

' The author, who sat on a recent hiring panel, recalls an episode in which 4 senior engineers spent 40 minutes arguing about whether a candidate had cheated. The candidate had used an AI assistant on a take-home SQL exercise, and nobody had written down beforehand whether that was allowed. Half the room called it fraud; the other half pointed out that all 4 of them had used AI tools that morning to write the code they shipped before lunch. The author says this argument is happening at every company right now, with the result being a mess for candidates. The piece also notes that companies have not standardized their policies on whether data engineering candidates may use AI assistants during hiring, and that regardless of the policy, the core capability that matters most is still the ability to quickly and clearly verify whether code is correct. The source text is cut off at this point, and no further follow-up reporting on the matter is available yet.