AppSec hiring
Hire AppSec engineers who can read the diff.
OWASP Top 10 is common knowledge. The job is spotting the subtle bug in a pull request, threat-modelling a new service, and telling a dev team why it matters without being the security police.
Why this hurts
AppSec is the hardest cyber discipline to hire for.
- 01
It is half security, half software engineering.
You are hiring someone who can read code fluently in the languages your teams use. Generic cyber interviews miss this. Generic coding interviews miss the security lens. Nobody is testing the overlap.
- 02
OWASP trivia is not code review.
Reciting SQL injection categories is a minimum bar, not a hiring signal. The actual job is finding the deserialization bug in 800 lines of unfamiliar code under time pressure.
- 03
Good AppSec is diplomatic.
The best AppSec people can tell a staff engineer their design has a flaw without getting punched. That soft-skill shape is invisible to a traditional technical screen.
How we fix it
Measure the code, the reasoning, and the communication.
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Real code review tasks.
A realistic pull request in Go, Python, TypeScript, Java, or C#. Candidates find the vulnerability, explain the exploit path, and propose the fix. You see their code reading, not just their theory.
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Threat modelling exercises.
A realistic design document or architecture diagram. Candidates identify the trust boundaries, the assets at risk, and the likely abuse cases. Calibrated to junior, mid, or senior level.
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Communication baked in.
Write-up components assess how a candidate would explain the finding to a development team. You see whether they are the person who will build bridges or blow them up.
What you can actually test for
AppSec content that matches the work.
- Pull-request code review (Go, Python, TypeScript, Java, C#)
- Vulnerability identification in unfamiliar code
- Exploit-path reasoning and remediation advice
- Threat modelling against a realistic design
- Dependency and supply chain risk analysis
- API security review (authentication, authorization, rate limits)
- Secure code review under time pressure
- Communication exercise - explain a finding to a dev team
Honest comparison
AppSec hiring with CyberHire vs the usual.
| CyberHire | Trivia questions and generic coding tests | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures code review skill | Real pull requests to review | Not assessed |
| Tests threat modelling | First-class capability | Inferred from conversation |
| Language breadth | Go, Python, TS, Java, C# | One language, usually generic |
| Tests communication | Write-up assessed | Vibes in the interview |
| Cheat-resistant | Three integrity tiers | LLM in the second tab |
Stop guessing.