Raizen Blog

Research-backed essays on proof-of-work hiring, AI fluency in interviews, and how engineering teams evaluate real skill in 2026. Written by Jagan Yetukuri.

Browse every post, or jump into the guides that hiring leaders ask for most often:

• The coding interview is dead. Here’s what replaces it. — 48% of technical candidates trigger cheating signals in live interviews (Fabric, 2026). LeetCode-style screens measure the wrong skills. Here’s the research-backed replacement: proof-of-work hiring with defense sessions.
• Stop trying to catch AI in interviews. Start measuring how candidates use it. — AI fluency is measurable: direct, supervise, and verify AI agents toward shippable work (HackerRank, 2026). Here’s the Plan/Build/Review rubric, research-backed scoring, and why proof-of-work beats proctoring.
• Proof-of-work hiring, explained — The definitive 2026 guide to proof-of-work hiring: research on skills-based assessment, comparison tables, step-by-step implementation, AI-era rubrics, and how verified sandbox profiles replace resume proxies.
• How I’ve won every pitch competition I’ve entered — Four wins, ~$15,000 pre-revenue, and the research method behind it - plus the exact prompt I use to prep. Founder story from EduVerse, now Raizen.
• AI fluency is now a hiring requirement. Here’s how to actually test for it. — 71% of hiring leaders now screen for AI skills. Practical rubrics for measuring collaboration - Plan, Build, Review - not prohibition or cheat detection.
• Why credentials don’t predict engineering performance — Degrees and brand-name employers are weak proxies for on-the-job engineering. What predictive validity research says - and what to measure instead.
• Take-home tests in the AI era: keep them, redesign them — Take-homes are not obsolete - unstructured ones are. How to redesign engineering take-homes with scope caps, AI policy, rubrics, and defense sessions.
• How to hire your first engineer as a non-technical founder — Scope the role, gather proof-of-work signal, and evaluate engineers when you cannot read every line of code yourself.
• How to prove your skills as a developer without a traditional resume — Portfolio, sandbox proof, and verified output - a 2026 playbook for developers who want to get hired on demonstrated ability.
• AI-generated resumes broke your top of funnel. What now? — Application floods and perfect-looking CVs are the new normal. How hiring teams filter for signal when everyone looks polished on paper.
• Why “did this candidate cheat?” is the wrong question in 2026 — The detection arms race is unwinnable. Reframe technical hiring around judgment, ownership, and how candidates work with AI.

New here? Start with Proof-of-work hiring, explained, then see how Raizen works and the live developer leaderboard.

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