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The division of labor between you and the model — what to delegate, what to keep, and why saying the split out loud is the clearest seniority signal available in the round.
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Sign in to continueWhere Does Your Judgment Live?
Could you answer these today? Tick what you already know.
Complement Drills
Drill 1 — Split before you start. Before your next AI-assisted task, write two lists: mine and the model's. Then work to them. Notice where you are tempted to cross the line, and which direction the temptation runs.
Drill 2 — The defense test. After finishing, pick three decisions embedded in the result. For each, state the alternative and why you did not take it. Any you cannot defend was delegated when it should not have been.
Drill 3 — Narrate the split. In your next mock or recorded practice run, say the split out loud every time before prompting. It feels unnatural for about two sessions and then becomes automatic — which is exactly what you want under pressure.
Drill 4 — Predict the probe. Before you delegate anything, ask: what will they ask me about this? Keep whatever you name.
Two candidates solve the same problem. Their final code is nearly identical. One is rated senior and the other mid-level, and the difference is entirely in which parts each of them decided to write.
That is this dimension. Not how well you use the tool, but what you point it at — and, just as importantly, what you refuse to hand over.
The line is not about size or difficulty. Plenty of hard code should go to the model, and plenty of trivial code should not.
The line is reversibility of judgment.
| What Goes Where | |
|---|---|
| Delegate to the model | Keep for yourself |
| Mechanical transformation — restructuring, renaming, threading a parameter through | Any decision where two good engineers would reasonably disagree |
| Boilerplate with one obvious correct shape | Anything that determines how the system behaves under failure or load |
| Code you could write but would take ten minutes of typing | The choice of data structure, when it constrains everything downstream |
| Filling in around a test or interface you defined | Interface and API shape — what other code will have to live with |
| Explaining unfamiliar syntax or idioms | Anything you would be asked to defend in code review |
A useful test: if you would expect a follow-up question about it, keep it. Interviewers probe trade-offs. If the model made the decision, you will be reading your own code for the first time while answering.