{
  "id": 6235000,
  "title": "The Code Review Interview: I Hand Candidates a Broken PR",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/08/the-code-review-interview-i-hand-candidates-a-broken-pr",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-08T04:35:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/ji_ai/the-code-review-interview-i-hand-candidates-a-broken-pr-3mam"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The code review interview is a method where a candidate is given a 30-minute, 180-line pull request to review as if they were a coworker. The interviewer asks you to read, narrate, ask questions, and determine what blocks the merge. The PR typically contains a route handler, a small service class, one migration, and two tests that pass. Six issues are intentionally seeded in the PR, ordered by their potential impact in production, which is the opposite of how candidates usually identify them. The interview scores severity ranking, the ability to ask about the PR's purpose, how the comment is written, and what is omitted. Unlike LeetCode questions, the code review interview tests the actual job requirements, such as reading code under time pressure, risk judgment, and delivering bad news to a peer. Practicing for the interview involves reviewing unfamiliar PRs out loud with a timer and comparing your findings to the original maintainer's list.",
  "summary": "The candidate had thirty minutes and a 180-line pull request. Sixty seconds in, they said: \"Line 43, this variable should be camelCase.\" I wrote it down. Not because they were wrong. Because it was the only thing they said for the next nine minutes. That is the code review interview : no blank editor, no \"invert this tree,\" just a real-looking PR with real problems buried in it. I switched to it…",
  "key_points": [
    "Candidates review a broken 180-line PR in 30 minutes",
    "Six issues seeded in PR, ranked by production impact",
    "Tests real job skills: code reading, risk judgment, and feedback"
  ],
  "editors_take": "This interview method tests candidates' ability to review code under pressure, judge risk, and communicate effectively, providing a more realistic assessment of their job performance than traditional coding challenges.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}