Atlassian's AI-enabled code design interview: what candidates report
Atlassian now runs an "AI-enabled" round for software engineers, sometimes called AI-enabled code design. You extend a working codebase with an AI assistant, and you're expected to plan before you prompt. Atlassian hasn't published a description, so this guide is built from candidate reports.
What Atlassian says officially
We found nothing specific as of 1 November 2026. Atlassian's blog has a 2017 post on why it uses coding challenges, which predates the AI round. Everything below is reported by candidates.
The format candidates describe
- An existing repo in HackerRank. A backend candidate was told the round would use an existing repository in HackerRank (r/cscareerquestionsOCE).
- You extend a working system. Replies describe adding a feature, such as a new API, to an app that already works.
- Plan first, without AI. A candidate who took it said you get a vague problem statement and must design your approach yourself first. Then you produce a plan with the AI, and the refined plan "should not deviate too much" from your original idea (r/leetcode).
- Then build it end to end. The same candidate said you implement a working flow and handle edge cases.
The original poster in that thread said the only guidance they had seen was "Plan first, develop next", plus a simple practice question in HackerRank.
What seems to be scored
Candidates and replies point to the same things:
- Your own design. The plan-first step suggests interviewers want to see your thinking before the AI's.
- Fitting the codebase. One reply listed clean modular code, validations, error handling and following the patterns already in the repo.
- Judging the AI's output. The top reply said to review AI code for correctness, security and complexity, and to explain what you changed.
- Treating it as a long-lived system. Another reply said to make decisions as if the code will be maintained, not thrown away.
One practical warning came up too: don't hand the agent one huge task and watch the terminal for 30 minutes.
How to prepare
- Practice extending, not starting fresh. Take a small backend project and add an endpoint that follows its existing structure, naming and error handling.
- Write your plan before opening the AI. Five bullet points: the data model change, the endpoint, validation, failure cases and tests. Then compare it with the AI's plan and explain any differences.
- Work in small steps. One change, run the tests, review the diff, repeat.
- Cover the failure paths. Invalid input, missing records and duplicate requests are easy points that AI code often skips.
- Keep some DSA prep. One reply expected little DSA in this round, but other rounds may still have it.
See also how to use the AI without hurting your score and which companies allow AI.
Sources
- r/leetcode: Atlassian AI-enabled interview (September 2026, candidate replies)
- r/cscareerquestionsOCE: Atlassian AI-enabled code design interview (October 2026)
- Atlassian: How and why we use coding challenges to interview (November 2017, predates the AI round)