The Core Argument: Why Coding Is Becoming Cheap
The speaker, a tech veteran with over a decade of experience, addresses the controversial statement "Coding is dead, engineering is not." The key distinction is that writing raw code (syntax, basic functions) is becoming automated by AI, but engineering, the ability to solve problems, design systems, and manage complexity, remains invaluable. This trend is accelerating, as discussed in resources like How AI Is Replacing Jobs: Train Your Brain to Survive the Future.
"Code is getting cheap. Engineering is expensive."
The Shift from 2020 to 2026
What Got You Hired in 2020
- Knowing React basics + CSS flexbox = huge salary
- Writing SQL queries = highly valued
- Being able to build APIs and fetch data = elite status
What Changes in 2026
- Superficial skills are dead: AI can now generate UIs, API calls, and complete components faster and more accurately
- The Claude model from Anthropic and other AI tools are producing production-quality code
- Example: A Figma-to-code task that once required a skilled developer now takes minutes with AI
- This aligns with predictions in the 2026 Design Industry Shift: AI Skills, Tools & Career Strategy Guide
Engineering vs. Coding: The Real Difference
| Coding | Engineering | |--------|-------------| | Writing syntax | Problem-solving | | Converting designs to code | System architecture | | Following instructions | Managing code quality | | Manual debugging | Code review and optimization |
"Engineering is much more than coding. Coding is a very small skill of an engineer."
Practical Advice for 2026 Developers
1. Break Free from Tutorial Hell
The biggest mistake: Watching endless tutorials without actually coding.
- If you take more than 3 months to learn a language/framework and build a project, you're learning too slowly
- Top students now learn new tech in just 1 week and ship quality projects in 10 days
- Rule: Learn fast, then build immediately. Don't copy the teacher, build something of your own on the side
- For a broader perspective on whether this path is still worthwhile, see ¿Vale la pena aprender programación en 2024? Oportunidades y desafíos
2. Use AI Smartly, Not Lazy
- Don't use AI from day zero, learn to write each line of code yourself first
- Once you understand the code, become a "code manager", review and guide AI output
- Prompting is a skill: How well you describe architecture (e.g., "Build this using MVC pattern") determines output quality
3. Read Other People's Code
- Clone 10-20 open-source repositories from GitHub
- Do "reverse engineering": analyze folder structure, component architecture, data flow
- This builds skills above coding, architecture and organization
The Three Essential Skills That Won't Change
DSA (Data Structures & Algorithms)
- Why it matters: DSA changes your thought process, you think in corner cases and optimization
- Counter-argument: "Why learn if AI can solve it?" Same reason you learn math despite calculators, it trains your brain
- Bonus: It helps even non-programmers think more clearly
System Design
- Becomes more important as coding gets automated
- You should design the system yourself, then have AI write the code
- Someone must be the "system design manager" who reviews AI's output
Core Fundamentals (Never Change)
- Database skills
- Operating system concepts
- How the internet works
- Event loops, browser optimization
- Basic programming logic (loops, conditionals)
The "Don't Be Middle Class" Strategy
The Two Safe Paths
| Go Low-Level | Go High-Level | |--------------|---------------| | Write Rust, C++ | System design | | Build core libraries | Product thinking | | Create SDKs/packages | Build SaaS products | | Work on compilers/React itself | Architecture and strategy |
The Danger Zone (90% of developers)
- Receiving Jira tickets and implementing them mindlessly
- Only converting Figma files to code
- Fixing buttons and making API calls without big-picture thinking
The AI Full Stack Engineer Mindset
- Gone: Strict front-end vs. back-end distinctions
- Required: Knowledge of front-end, back-end, DevOps, infrastructure, and internet fundamentals
- New identity: An engineer who uses AI as a core tool, not an optional add-on
- To understand the cutting-edge tools enabling this shift, check out Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex: Real AI Coding Tool Comparison and read about The Future of AI-Assisted Coding: Insights from the Cursor Team
Human Skills Still Matter
AI can't replace:
- Communication and teamwork
- Research and brainstorming
- Selling and persuasion
- Management and leadership
The New Value Formula
Your value = (Problem solved) / (Time taken)
- Speed is now a competitive advantage
- Build the same website 10x faster than 5 years ago
- Every 6 months, ask: "Am I shipping features faster than before?"
The Death of Resumes
Show, Don't Tell
- Old way: Submit resume → Wait for call → Interview
- New way: Build proof of work online → Get direct DMs from founders/HRs
What Matters Now
- Live, deployed projects (not just code on GitHub)
- Active LeetCode/Codeforces profiles
- Strong GitHub presence showing real work
- Social media activity showcasing your builds
"If you have a good GitHub profile, a project that is deployed, a live working demo, you get preference immediately."
Final Takeaways
- Code is becoming cheap, don't make it your only USP
- Engineering is expensive, focus on problem-solving, architecture, and design
- Learn DSA and system design even more in the AI era
- Avoid the middle, specialize in low-level systems or high-level product thinking
- Use AI in everything you do, from coding to debugging to daily life
- Build proof of work online and share it on social media
- Speed is your new value, get better at solving problems faster every quarter
"Be an engineer, not a coder. Be an engineer, not a programmer. Be an engineer, not a developer that just does mundane tasks."
Coding is dead, engineering is not. I posted this on X today and there were mixed reactions. There were a lot of
people who liked this but then there were a lot of many people who actually misunderstood it. Now you know I have
been working in tech industry since a decade now more than a decade and I have been teaching programming, software
engineering, coding to a lot of students, lot of students on YouTube as well as on namaste dev platform and
offline also there are a lot of things that I do around inside tech and you know I just wanted to come here and make
this video to elaborate my thought that why did I say so right what is the meaning of this statement I want to
elaborate my understanding about it and what I see is coming in near future right so that's
what I'll do in this video and this video will not be very hollow I will also give you practical advices suppose
if you are starting to code today right and if you want to do software engineering coding programming in 2026
you should definitely watch this video till the end because I am going to cover a lot of tips and tricks that I feel
will be very helpful for you as a teacher myself. Now, let me take you back to 2020. You know, remember in
2020, if you were a front- end engineer and if you knew React a little bit, right? If
you knew React, how to create components and you knew a little bit of CSS like flexbox or you were able to create good
components inside React, you were literally like a god. Trust me, you were paid very huge salaries. If there was an
engineer who understood what is use effect, how it works and uh React component life cycle, you know, React
was picking up at that point of time very well. And if you were in 2020 and you knew React a little bit of good in
CSS, then you were paid really well. You were kind of like a god in software engineering at least in front end. And
similar was the case with back end also. If you were a uh if you were a back-end engineer and if you can write good
queries inside SQL then you were appreciated a lot. If you were able to you know fetch some data from an
database and build an API to send that data to front end you were really treated like a god right and you were
very much you know appreciated but let's talk about today in 2026 what's going to happen trust me if you
are sitting on these skills superficial then you will no longer stay long in this industry
coding is really dead what do I mean by when Can I say coding is dead? See, I'm not sure how many of you are already
using AI into coding, but let me tell you that AI has made a lot lot lot of improvement into coding.
If I'm not sure how many of you are actually using AI to code or you are generating code through AI but let me
tell you people or senior engineers who have been using AI to code just go and check them out and talk to
them once you would know that AI is generating very good code at very lightning fast speed which is much much
much more accurate and going forward as we move ahead in future this is just going to become better and better. The
recent claude model from Enthropic is really very good. Trust me, just try it out once and then you will yourself
understand that how better it is. It can exactly build amazing UIs. It can write your API calls. It can do a lot of crazy
things inside coding. I'm just talking about coding. I'm not sure about other features of LLMs or code rest of the
generation inside LLMs but I'm just talking about coding as of now because I have done it myself and I have seen a
lot of people doing it and it's crazy trust me now what when I say coding is that that does not mean that you won't
be able you won't need to code anymore you will require software engineer who can code really well but you will not
actually be coding you will not be actually writing eventually the code over there you would definitely be
managing code but you might not be coding directly that's what I want to say right and uh you know that's why
people actually misunderstood this uh whole sentence that I wrote and when I say engineering is not engineering see
most of people think that coding is equivalent to computer science engineering right coding is not
engineering engineering Engineering is much more than coding. Coding is a very small uh skill of an engineer. But there
are lot more things to engineering and I'll cover that eventually in this video as well. But engineering in general
means problem solving. If you are a problem solver, not just a programmer that basically if you say that okay this
is a Figma file you just create this code out of this Figma file. Uh you create a button like this. If you if you
are doing that stuff right and if you are writing that code manually then probably you won't be needed no longer
in a year or two trust me AI is very good at doing these small task these mundane task writing such code
if you want to be smart enough then you have to upgrade yourself you have to upgrade yourself you should be a good
engineer if you want to stay in the market otherwise if you are just a programmer if you are a coder you are
you'll be gone trust me and now I am not here doing fear-mongering or something but it has really become really good
right maybe I'll if you want just comment down I'll also make a video and I'll show you exactly what all AI can do
right it actually is doing marvelous job right I have been experimenting around it a lot and that's why I'm saying it so
now let me just go ahead and also talk more about you know what you can do if you are starting to code today. So first
thing is you have to unlearn a lot of things you know the learning strategy suppose if somebody wants to become a
good programmer or want to become a software engineer what they generally do is they just end up into tutorial hell.
This is a very very very very common issue with most of the software engineers today. If they want to learn
something new they just end up into the tutorial hell. They just watch one tutorial, two tutorial, second tutorial,
third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and they will watch like endless videos on you know randomly seeing other people code
but they won't code eventually themselves. This is the major mistake. Now when I say coding is coding is dead
does not mean you should stop learning to code. You should you will eventually know you should know how to code because
you know when I say coding is dead you will you won't be you know whenever you will be building a project big project
you won't be coding yourself your AI assistant can code that for you but if you don't know how to code yourself how
will you give it instructions you won't be able to give it instructions you can't just blindly expect you to give
prompts and AI will do random thing all by itself it does not you have to be like a code manager, not actually the
person who writes the code, right? Uh you might sometimes want to interfere into that code as well, but then mostly
the the you know that joy of coding will go away. Trust me, there used to be a time when when you actually write React
code, you build a component, you put the color on the button and you go to the browser, you see that button changing
from blue to pink. when you hover it changes a little bit of reflection and it does a lot of cool crazy things.
Those things are gone. People won't be doing that anymore, right? You won't be writing code to give button a color. You
would probably, you know, u give it a design library or something and it will just create out of the box following
your design standards. You won't be doing that. So what you eventually will be doing, you will have to learn coding
first of all. You you don't stop learning to code. You should learn coding and don't get into tutorial hill
today. If you are taking more than 3 months to learn any language and building a project then you are not
learning it fast enough. Today let me tell you I have seen students who are just learning new technology learning
new stuff in just a week and within the weekend like literally in 10 days they are shipping really good quality
projects. You can do that too. But I'm still saying if you are taking suppose if you want to learn Nex.js or if you
want to learn ReactJS and you are taking more than 3 months then you are just fooling yourself. You are not learning
anything. So don't get into tutorial hell. You should be very conscious when you are learning something. Even if you
are learning NodeJS, even if you are learning ReactJS, if you if you are learning NexJS or anything in general,
right? There are lot more things that are there. So you shouldn't be taking more than 3 months because 3 months or I
would say let's say 6 months if you haven't learned something new in 6 months if you if you are still
struggling like if you want to learn nextjs and you 6 months back also you were learning nextjs today also you are
learning nextjs then you are just fooling yourself that's what I meant to say right so you don't have to go into
tutorial hell this is the biggest problem today that I see with these students you have to learn very very
fast and build what I see is a lot of people they just keep on watching tutorials, keep on watching tutorials,
seeing other people code on YouTube, but what they do is they themselves don't code. Learn quickly and quickly start to
code and don't copy that creator. Suppose if there is a creator who is teaching you, if there's a teacher who
is teaching you, don't copy them. Try to build something of your own on the side and build it fast. The sooner you build,
the better you will become eventually. Do that fast and don't underestimate prompts.
See now when you are learning to code don't directly start using AI from day zero. When you are learning to code
learn it you should be whatever code AI is giving you you should be able to write that code all by yourself as well.
You should understand each and every line of code that AI is spitting out. I have seen people making so much mistake
over here. What they do is they just blindly write prompts and they just blindly trust the code whatever that AI
has given to them. You have to be smart. You should exactly know what AI is writing. You don't have to basically
code yourself anymore, but you should be a good code manager. You should be a good code reviewer.
That's what I meant to say. Coding is dead, but engineering is not. Engineering comes you know in a major
part of engineering is maintaining that code you know it's not that software engineers all software engineers are
just whole day writing code over there they are maintaining it they are making sure that the code is good they are
reviewing that code so be good at that skill that is very very important because you just can't trust every code
that spits out uh the AI will spit out you won't right so don't underestimate prompts also. Now once you have learned
things up then you should be good at prompting also. This is a very new and amazing skill. But suppose if you want
to build a web page then there are two people who want to build a web page same web page but they would be you know
telling the AI different things. How well you can guide the AI to reach to the solution is also a very good skill
that you will have to learn eventually because see you have learned coding now you know how react works you know how
use effect works you know how use state works you know how other hooks works you know how in the back end how expressjs
works how do you make a get API call and send the response how do you access the database everything you can do but
eventually you can make AI write all that stuff but to make AI write that stuff you you should be very good at
prompts. Don't underestimate it. And then read a lot of good code. The more good code you read, the better
you become. I have learned a lot by just reading other people's code. Now you would say a where do I find a good code
to read? Oh my god. In today's era, if you want me to tell you where you should read other people's good code, then you
are already a lot behind. Find out so many projects on the internet. Today we have the most evolved version of
open-source code that is there available on the internet. Millions of projects, really good projects that are lying
around open-source for free on GitHub. Go over there. just clone that project, read what that
person has done. You know, if I were to learn React today or NextJS today, I would clone like 10 20 Nex.js
repositories, run those projects and just, you know, do a reverse engineering kind of thing. Okay, they have made
something like this. How did they uh laid out their file structure? What was the folder structure? How did they
architected the components? What are they using to pass data around? How they are doing serverside rendering? These
are not coding skills. These are skills that are one level above coding. These are skills of architecture. These are
skills of organizing your code, maintaining your code. Because see AI will be able to do all these things. But
if you can guide them that okay, I want my folder structure and repositories to be like this. Suppose if if you as a
programmer tell the you know tell the AI that okay we are going to use a model view controller pattern MVC pattern then
the then AI will be able to spit out much better code and that code will be something that you also understand.
If you will just say okay just build something but if you just prompt better and say build something using MVC
framework or build something in this models build a view build a controller write this thing in a service maybe you
can say that okay uh there are two person who can prompt like that somebody can say okay let's integrate razor pane
to our project or the other person can say okay let's create a service that integrates right Let's create a service
right let's create a service that integrates payment gateway SDK right so when you when you prompt it even better
then you will get good results out of code also otherwise you won't right otherwise uh AI will just take you
random places or it will just assume that you know a lot of things and then it will just do whatever it wants to you
should be very specific about telling it that's when you know as a software engineer you should think about corner
cases is also that's what we learn inside data structures and algorithm isn't it we'll come on to DSA as well
don't worry should you learn DSA or not again a very important question that I keep on getting
focus on deep work I can't telling this enough to new software engineers deep work learn why over how right learn why
over how let me tell you suppose if you are learning ReactJS if you have a use effect hook
You should not just know just learn you know why we use use effect hook what happens behind the scenes ask a lot of
questions you should not just know okay this is the syntax of use effect because syntax learning a syntax is no longer an
option now you should always prefer logic over language if you are focusing upon syntax when I say language I'm just
talking about syntax right no longer you need to know the syntax Syntax is AI is very good at syntax right it will not
mess up over there now I remember a time when if somebody knew the difference between splice and
slice in JavaScript then he used to be like a go developer right he knows what does slice and splice means he knows how
to do this in JavaScript no longer needed you don't need that anymore yes you should know what slice and splice do
right that's that's a good thing to know but what I'm saying that how arguments are passed the documentation level stuff
the syntax kind of stuff you don't need that anymore AI can do very good building logic is something
that is still not very good AI is not very good at it and let me tell you eventually understanding the business
requirements what you are trying to build and asking AI to build it is a skill in itself and that that's where
logic comes in and that's where humans will still stay to be there. Right? Suppose if I want to build an
application uh that application I can't just blindly tell it to the AI and build it. I will
have to you know involve myself into understanding the requirements and then prompting the AI in a good way. Isn't
it? So you need to be really smart over here. You should know the tech side of it also and the product side of it also.
You have to go deep. You should know why things work inside tech, how it works, why it works. Now a lot of people will
ask me, let's move on to the next thing that should you learn DSLGO still it is an AI era. AI can like solve any elite
code question. Should you do that? AI is very good at computer programming also. Now
should I still be doing DSLGO? The answer over here in my opinion is yes. Absolutely. Yes. See, a software
engineering engineer is a good problem solver. You don't do DSA just to crack
interviews or just because AI can you know uh just because you know it's same as just because calculators can do
multiplication and addition and subtraction why should I learn it right? It's a same argument like that. So if
calculator can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and everything, then you should also know it yourself right even
when you don't do it you are using calculator for doing it but then you should know it eventually right you
should know how it is working behind the scenes similarly same with DSLGO AI can solve all the DSA questions but when you
solve DSA questions you you know I have I can make a whole new video around DSA why you should learn DSA as a software
engineer In fact, I feel that people who are not into software engineering also should know DSA because DSA is not about
programming or something. It's like how you think. It improves the way you think. It helps you uh think in corner
cases. You become better when you use your brains. Over there you will have to use your brains. You know how data
structured, why link list is preferred over arrays, how heaps work. These are such important things to know. What is a
priority Q? You can make a try. You can make a tree. You can make a graph. Everything is very important. DSA is a
very crucial part. You in fact should learn DSA even more today. Even more irrespective of you are a front- end
engineer or a back end engineer. That's a foolish statement to make that why do front- end engineers need DSA? Don't ask
me again. I keep on getting such messages. Trust me, you should learn DSA because it it DSA
uh you know learning to DSA. When you are good at DSA, you your thought process changes. If you have done DSA
enough, anybody who has done DSA enough, anybody who is good at DSA, just go and ask them. They have a different thought
process. You think in corner cases, you think in optimizing things, right? You think in a different way. Okay? So DSA
is very important and so is the case with system design. You should learn in fact even more system design because now
when coding is not a very core skill in itself because AI can code a lot, you should be able to design systems very
well and ask AI to code those system. See you will do a system design yourself and you know eventually AI will be
cracking system design also. I'm 100% sure about it. But then again there should be someone to review that system
design and say that okay these components the pieces which are aligned in the system are fitting perfectly and
now you can go and code it. So there should be a manager over there right so you need to be that so you should know
the system design very well yourself before you ask AI to do it. Same is the way case with core
fundamentals. They will never change. Database skills, operating system skills, how internet works, how a
browser works, what is an event loop, how to optimize page speed, this will never change. The basic core programming
skills, how loops run, how ifels work, they will never change. They will stay. So learning to DSA system design and
core fundamentals becomes even more important. And what I have seen I have seen a contrary opinion. Now students
are saying that there is no point in learning DSA system design fundamentals programming because AI is coming. AI can
do all these things. Why should we learn? You are fools if you are thinking like that. Don't think like that. Trust
me you should in fact invest more time in doing it because somebody will still be needed to do all this stuff. Right?
So uh again that's my opinion out of it. And now the third thing is don't be a middle class. When I say middle class,
let me tell you what do I mean by that. You have to escape it. You don't have to be middle class. Right? Either go low or
you go high. When I say going low or high let me tell you if you are a techie, if you are a software engineer,
don't hang in middle. Either you go into low-level stuff. When I say low-level stuff, low-level stuff means going into
writing code in Rust, in C++, in building core things inside programming. Suppose somebody is building that React
library, somebody is building that Nex.js, somebody is building that core library inside a you know, npm library
or some other library or a package or something that can be used by millions. either do that low-level stuff or you go
high and do a lot of system design, a lot of product thinking, a lot of building SAS products, do a lot of high
level stuff. If you are in middle where you don't own a product, neither you know about the core language that how
react works and how eventually their tech is working behind the scenes. If you don't know that core skill and if
you don't even know the product, you are just a software developer who just develops whatever is given. Suppose you
are given a you know a Figma file and you are just converting it into code. Then that's middle class. Don't stay in
middle. Today middle class developers today almost 90% of developers are middle- class developers. They are just
u given certain Jira tickets and they are just solving those Jira tickets out there right uh that Jira ticket is like
fix that button do that thing if you are just doing these small things that okay fix that button that button should look
like this or uh if you click on that button this API make that API call if you are just coding all these stuff then
you are middle class go on either side go or go high don't hang in middle it's a good reminder to to you because if you
go high then also you can build a lot of products and you can manage the code and everything or go low right learn about
uh core languages Rust, C++, build packages, build SDKs, build a lot of uh crazy cool tech stuff. Let's move ahead.
Have a product engineer mindset. If you are into software engineering, then you no longer have to build a
random portfolio. Try to build a lot of products. When I say a product, that means that something that is usable kind
of try to build a SAS. Can you build a software that can be used by other people? Try to think like that. Try to
think in product. It's not that okay, I I am good at creating a website using React. No, you should try to build a
product. Think from that sense that whatever I'm building today will be used by somebody else. Make it usable. I have
seen a lot of projects by students. They are not they are no not usable. They have just you know prompted AI and just
generated some code. This a blank page right out there. Some functionalities are working some functionalities are not
working. I would say go one level above. build build products that are actually useful that can be used by other people.
And then let me also tell you gone are the era where there was a disting distinguish between front end engineer
core and then a backend engineer core or something like that. Yes, eventually it might exist for a few more years but
eventually as we go ahead in a couple of years now everybody is kind of like a AI full stack engineer. A full stack
engineer who knows back end who knows front end who knows DevOps who knows infrastructure who knows uh how servers
work knows how internet works everything is done by a single person who manages the code who manages everything. Uh
people will be like that. Okay. And you have to be a AI full stack engineer right you don't have to be you know you
can still have expertise onto very good expertise onto front end or very good expertise onto back end but today no
longer you can say that okay I'm a front-end developer I don't care how database works you cannot be like that
you cannot be a backend engineer and say I don't know how front end works or I don't know how that uh fetch call works
or I don't know how that button click works you can't avoid it today you have to become a AI fullstack engineer,
right? And I am writing AI in front because AI should become the core part of you as a software engineer. If you
are not appreciating AI, if you are not using AI, then you are getting late every day. Try to start adapting AI in
your daily life. Trust me, it's a big game changer. Then focus upon the human skills.
Right? See, AI can do a lot of tech stuff already. Try to learn a lot of human skills. What are human skills?
Communication, understanding, research, talking to people, right? Managing things up. These are the things that
eventually humans will definitely, you know, see if you are building a product then product will definitely be built by
humans, right? And for humans, right? I'm not sure if AIS are building product for AIS, right? That might also happen
in future. But what I'm trying to say, if you have your human skills, if you know how to communicate weather, if you
know how to work in a team, if you know how to uh sell, if you know how to communicate, if you know how to talk to
other people, if you know how to brainstorm things and uh manage stuff, right, managerial stuff, that will
eventually be very very useful. Do that human skills, right? Get that human skills, be good at it. Got it? Now comes
the most important part that you know what I personally think in future your value will be defined by the problem
solved divided by time taken. So in future we all are getting super fast into
building tech. Suppose if you have to build the same website, if you had to build the same website 5 years back,
today it takes so so so much less time to build the same thing. And even if you talk about 10 years back, there was a
huge improvement in 5 years, right? From that 10 year back to 5 years back. And now after 10 years, that time is reduced
a lot. So your value will definitely be judged by how much problem you can solve in how much time. Can you do things
fast? If suppose there are two people if you can build something very fast then you
will be valued a lot. So always see that how you can make everything that you do faster and better. Okay. So try to solve
try to you know what I'm trying to say every 6 months just try to think about that am I coding faster now am I and not
just coding am I developing things faster am I delivering or shipping features faster and that will happen
when you use AI into your day-to-day life and you know how to you know what I have seen a lot of people are using AI
but then they get lost into AI they just you know they just ask something uh to do from AI. AI spits out some code, they
don't understand it. Then they try then they ask AI to fix that code. Then they ask AI to fix that again. And they are
taking more than more time than what they used to take earlier. Right? So what I'm trying to say, you have to be
really good and check whether your speed has increased or not. Slowly slowly eventually it will take time. I know
that's a process to learn. That's a new skill in itself, right? To prompt uh AI to code better. But eventually if you
start uh developing that skill today, 6 months down the line you will become better at it. And after 6 months you
should be coding and shipping things faster than what you are today. That's when you will be valued a lot. People
who can solve problems faster will be valued. That will be your core value as a software engineer uh in future. what I
feel let's go uh on this thing right the last thing the hiring metrics now a lot of
people are always focused upon ash what will happen to jobs how will that evolve what I personally think is re rums will
eventually die now you would say a why are you saying rums will die because see today if you whatever see today when I
see rums of a lot of engineers out there I keep on seeing every Today I see a lot of résumés of my students. All of the
rums are same. Today all of the rums are same. Just by looking at rum it's very hard to say that this this person would
be better than this person. All of them look kind of like same. Eventually I personally feel and you
know today uh when I personally hire myself I never look at rums or I don't judge people. I generally look at the
proof of work. Eventually there will be a world or software engineers that will come up where you will have to show and
don't tell. I don't want to know what you are telling to me. Just show me that you can do stuff. If you can show me
that you can do stuff. I don't care which college you come from. I don't care what you are talking and what your
resume says. So rums will eventually die I feel. And your proof of work online will be the thing that will matter the
most. It's happening today. I'm not talking about future. If you have a good GitHub profile, if you have a project
that is deployed onto a website hosted somewhere, if you have a live working demo of things, you are given
preference. If you have a good lead code profile, it makes a difference. If you have a good uh code force profile,
hacker rank profile, anything that shows your efforts and your hard work in public that will reward you and it will
keep on rewarding even more and more. Today a lot of companies don't expect you to have those things but eventually
every company will expect you to have a proof of work online. You should have that online presence and just with that
online presence you will get eventually job. Today if I have to hire I just go and see who is building good projects. I
just go to their GitHub profile. I just see what projects they have built. Trust me that's what I do. I don't look at
rums anymore. And even if I look at rum what what the first thing I do is I open the rumé. There are links of GitHub
LinkedIn lead code hacker rank. I just open all those links and I'm just browsing his work his portfolio website.
I'm just interested in that. I'm not interested in what the rumé says. I hardly care because all the rums are
same today. Okay. So that's what I am saying. Show don't tell. Right? Focus upon showing your work also. Today is a
social media era. If you say that I am not a content creator, I don't want to do social media. That's foolish. Try to
share things up on social media. If you're building something, share it up. I'm not saying focus upon gaining
followers. Know how LinkedIn works, YouTube works, this works, that works. But be present on social media. Be
active. When I say be active, post things up eventually. Sometimes, right? Whenever you build something new, share
about it. If you are learning something, share about it. That makes a difference. Because today people are hiring from
social media. Trust me. Earlier there was a time when you know uh the company used to post a job you
know job application and then the candidates used to fill that job application they used to send the resume
and then companies used to see the rum and whoosh right they will call you for interviews today that's not happening if
you are being active on social media you are showing your proof of work there then there are more much more high
chances that you will directly get a call or a LinkedIn uh DM or a XDM where a founder is directly reaching out to
you and HRs are reaching out to you directly that's happening right so please utilize that and proof
of work is very very very very important you cannot ignore it now the last thing get AI into everything trust me when I
say this everything now you must be saying a are you foolish why are you saying this but trust
when I say get AI into everything now if I'm saying it so intentionally then I would say that because see if I say it
with such more pressure then only you would use a little bit of it that's why I'm just pressurizing on that point a
lot I'm focusing on this point a lot get AI into everything you do trust me that will help you if you do coding you do
debugging try to involve AI into everything you write code you write post you generate content you do anything try
to see and not just in coding in general life also try to see how AI can uh solve things as an engineer even if suppose
you are seeing some software online if you are just seeing some ad if you are seeing some uh see how AI will impact
travel see how AI will impact healthcare think about it when you get your AI into your thought process right you should
know that okay suppose if I'm creating this YouTube video over here how can AI impact this think about it when you get
AI into your thought process then because see it's a major shift right tech is evolving AI is evolving and it
will come into every sector that you see this pencil that I see will also get AI this phone that I have also will get AI
this video that I am generating will also have AI somewhere or the other the script
that you write for videos is also vetted by AI. Eventually AI will create them also and maybe tomorrow my axes avatar
will come in and that avatar will be talking to you uh with my voice with my expressions with my uh you know uh
accent and everything will happen through AI eventually. I feel that. So get AI into everything that you do and
see how you can optimize yourself. Got it? Now finally I am just ending this video by talking about the same thing
again that code will eventually become cheap. It will be very easy to generate code. Earlier
5 years back code was the most important thing. If you can write code you are valued a lot. But now that code USP USP
is no longer code. If you can code that's not a USB. Engineering is expensive. code is getting cheap. So be
an engineer, not a coder, not a programmer, not a developer that just does mundane task. Be an engineer. Try
to be a problem solver. And that's all I want to say. There are a lot of thoughts. I can just keep on talking,
keep on talking. Maybe I'll make more videos around the same topics uh same topic here and there eventually as in
when I feel like talking to you. But what I'm trying to say is all my personal opinions. I am also not sure
what will happen in 6 months or 1 year from now. But yes, this is what I see. That's what my opinion is. It's okay.
Feel free to disagree to my thought process. That's completely okay. U let's agree to disagree. If you don't uh feel
that whatever I am saying is not making sense to you, you are feel feel free to not take any advice from me. But what
I'm trying to say is these are my thought process and I personally feel that coding is dead and engineering is
here to stay. If you have watched till the end, I would request you to please share this video with your friends. If
you align with my opinion and my thought process, share it on social media. Help me reach other people, right? Uh if this
video gets reached, I'll make more videos around my thought process on the same topic. And thank you so much for
supporting my channel. Keep on watching it. Comment down below what you think about uh you know this whole topic the
AI coding engineering in general. What are your opinions on it? I would love to read it in the comments and I'm okay if
you disagree with my thought process as well. That's completely okay. Nobody knows what will happen in future but we
can talk about it. We can discuss openly. But let me tell you as a teacher my intention is always to help students
irrespective of what I say. If you even if you disagree with my thoughts or you agree with my thoughts, my intention is
always to help students. No malicious intent and uh I'm just speaking my thoughts out. Thank you so much for
watching it till the end. I'll see you in the next video very soon. Namaste.
No, coding isn't dead, but the value of writing basic syntax is dropping fast. AI tools like Claude can now generate production-quality UI code, API calls, and components in minutes. The real skill that remains valuable is engineering: problem-solving, system architecture, and code review. In 2026, getting paid for just converting Figma to code or writing simple SQL queries won't cut it.
The three critical skills are Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA), System Design, and Core Fundamentals (databases, OS concepts, how the internet works). DSA trains your brain to think in corner cases and optimization, even if AI can solve algorithms. System design becomes more important as coding gets automated. These fundamentals never change, unlike frameworks or libraries.
Start by learning to write each line of code yourself first; don't use AI from day zero. Once you understand the code, become a 'code manager' who reviews and guides AI output. Prompting is a skill—describe architecture clearly (e.g., 'Build this using MVC pattern') to get better results. Use AI in everything from coding to debugging, but always understand what it produces.
It means don't be a generalist who mindlessly implements Jira tickets or converts Figma files. The two safe paths are going low-level (writing Rust, C++, building core libraries, compilers) or going high-level (system design, product thinking, SaaS architecture). The danger zone is being in the middle, where 90% of developers sit, doing routine tasks AI can automate.
Build proof of work online. This means live, deployed projects (not just code on GitHub), active LeetCode/Codeforces profiles, a strong GitHub presence showing real work, and social media activity showcasing your builds. Founders and HRs now DM candidates directly based on what they see online. A good deployed demo with strong GitHub activity gets preference immediately over resumes.
Your value is now measured by (Problem solved) / (Time taken). You should be able to build the same website 10x faster than 5 years ago. Every 6 months, ask yourself: 'Am I shipping features faster than before?' Speed is a competitive advantage because AI lets you prototype, debug, and deploy rapidly. Focus on becoming faster at solving problems every quarter.
No, the strict front-end vs. back-end distinction is gone. The new mindset is 'AI Full Stack Engineer': you need knowledge of front-end, back-end, DevOps, infrastructure, and internet fundamentals. AI handles the code generation, but you must understand the entire stack to design systems, review architecture, and manage complexity. Think of yourself as an engineer who uses AI as a core tool, not an optional add-on.
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