How would you improve AI-generated code?
Company: Shopify
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Software Engineering Fundamentals
Difficulty: easy
Interview Round: Technical Screen
During a pair-programming interview, you wrote the rover simulator code using an AI coding assistant. The code works for the basic examples, but the interviewer asks:
“Assume this code was largely generated by AI. What would you improve before shipping it?”
Provide a structured code review plan and concrete improvements covering:
- Correctness and edge cases
- API design and readability
- Test strategy
- Maintainability/extensibility (e.g., multiple rovers, 3D)
- Performance and failure modes (invalid inputs, boundaries, collisions)
Be specific about what you would change and why.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates software engineering competencies such as code review, correctness and edge-case reasoning, API design and readability, test strategy, maintainability and extensibility, and performance and failure-mode analysis within the Software Engineering Fundamentals domain.
