I'm junior engineer myself, 22, just graduated from a bachelor degree in AI, and I think that one junior can beat a senior with a Max plan.
I think it all comes down to what the they did during their studies and how they've spent their time. So I'd judge them based on the things they've built and their experience using AI tools. These days you literally have top US companies like Sierra asking their candidates to vibe coding a project as the coding interview.
I personally spent a lot of time and money building with Claude Code and Cursor. Probably more than you would at most companies, especially an intern: full days (weekends included) and about $5,000 in 2 years on tokens. During my sophomore year, I went so hard building agents with AI, I skipped all my classes and barely passed my subject, which got me Tier-1 VC inbounds. So the junior engineers in their early 20s can be more proficient than senior devs.
I think it all comes down to what the they did during their studies and how they've spent their time. So I'd judge them based on the things they've built and their experience using AI tools. These days you literally have top US companies like Sierra asking their candidates to vibe coding a project as the coding interview.
I personally spent a lot of time and money building with Claude Code and Cursor. Probably more than you would at most companies, especially an intern: full days (weekends included) and about $5,000 in 2 years on tokens. During my sophomore year, I went so hard building agents with AI, I skipped all my classes and barely passed my subject, which got me Tier-1 VC inbounds. So the junior engineers in their early 20s can be more proficient than senior devs.