DoorDash's AI-assisted working session
DoorDash wrote publicly in 2026 that it is rebuilding its engineering interviews around AI. The new session looks more like a normal working hour than a puzzle: your own machine, your own editor, your own AI tools and code you have not seen before.
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What is known about the real round
Traditional coding rounds are being replaced by a 60-minute AI-assisted working session on your own machine, with your own editor and AI tools.
DoorDash described the change on its careers blog in March 2026. Candidates work in their own IDE with the AI coding tools they normally use; the post says free tiers of mainstream tools are enough. The session is meant to show navigating unfamiliar code, making pragmatic trade-offs, handling ambiguity, validating AI output and explaining your reasoning. Prep sites report that the rollout differs between loops, so confirm the format with your recruiter.
Formats change between hiring cycles. Ask your recruiter what your round will be, and see the policy tracker for other companies.
Format overview
In a March 2026 post on its careers blog, DoorDash said it is replacing traditional coding rounds with a 60-minute AI-assisted engineering working session.
Candidates work on their own machine in the IDE they prefer, with AI coding tools; the post says free tiers of mainstream tools are enough. The stated reason is that when a standard prompt can be solved by AI in seconds, an interview either turns into proctoring or pretends engineers do not use these tools.
Prep sites report that the rollout differs between loops in 2026, so confirm with your recruiter which format your interview uses.
What is evaluated
- Navigating an unfamiliar codebase (stated by DoorDash).
- Making pragmatic trade-offs and handling ambiguity (stated by DoorDash).
- Validating AI output rigorously (stated by DoorDash).
- Communicating your reasoning (stated by DoorDash).
Example task types
- Working inside existing code you have not seen before.
- The full loop of editing, running, debugging and iterating with AI tools.
How the practice round runs
Placed runs its own version of this format with a voice interviewer. The code and the tasks are Placed's, not DoorDash's.
- Step 1Orient yourself
The Placed round starts with an unfamiliar project. Say what each part does before you change anything.
- Step 2Fix and extend with the assistant
Use the assistant to move faster, and check its work by running the code. The report records what you asked for and what you verified.
- Step 3Explain the trade-offs
The interviewer asks why you chose this approach over another. Pragmatic, explained choices score better than clever ones.
What gets scored in practice
Every Placed round ends with a report that scores each rubric criterion from 0 to 10, including how you prompted the assistant and checked its output. On Pro, each score comes with the moment in your session it is based on. How grading works.
Where people lose the round
- Arriving with an untested setup.
You use your own machine. Make sure your editor, AI tool and language runtime work, with screen sharing on, the day before.
- Trusting the AI tool to understand the codebase for you.
Ask it to explain a file, then check the explanation against the code before acting on it.
- Optimising for a perfect solution.
An hour is short. Get something working, say what you would do next, and explain the trade-off you made.
A prep plan: three sessions before the real one
- Sit one Placed codebase round with the assistant open and read the Output Validation score.
- Do a code comprehension round, so reading unfamiliar code gets faster.
- Rehearse once on your own machine with the exact tools you will use, out loud.
Questions people ask
Can you use AI in DoorDash interviews?
DoorDash said in March 2026 that it is replacing traditional coding rounds with a 60-minute AI-assisted working session where candidates use their own IDE and AI tools. Prep sites report the rollout differs by loop, so confirm with your recruiter.
Which AI tools does DoorDash allow?
DoorDash says candidates use their preferred IDE with integrated AI tools, and that free tiers of mainstream tools are enough.
What does DoorDash evaluate in the AI-assisted session?
DoorDash lists navigating unfamiliar codebases, making pragmatic trade-offs, handling ambiguity, validating outputs rigorously and communicating reasoning.
Keep going
- The AI-enabled coding interview: how to prepare, with every company guide in one place
- DoorDash practice pack, 4 Placed rounds in order
- Meta's AI-enabled coding round
- Google's code comprehension round
- Canva's AI-assisted coding interview
Sources
Placed is not affiliated with DoorDash. Company names are used to describe publicly reported interview formats.