Are Vibe Coders Software Engineers?

This question is making the rounds lately. A lot of people don’t believe that vibe coders are real software engineers, while many vibe coders proudly wear the title. So, who’s right? Who’s wrong? Let’s figure it out.

First, what is software engineering?

Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

“Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop software systems that meet user needs.”

From this definition, it’s clear that software engineers don’t just build applications, they maintain them too. And more importantly, they apply engineering principles to build systems that meet real-world needs. It's not just about writing code, it's about solving problems in structured, scalable ways.

So, what is vibe coding?

According to Wikipedia:

“Vibe coding (or vibecoding) is a programming paradigm dependent on artificial intelligence (AI), where a person describes a problem in a few sentences as a prompt to a large language model (LLM) tuned for coding. The LLM generates software, shifting the programmer's role from manual coding to guiding, testing, and refining the AI-generated source code.”

In simpler terms, vibe coding is a way of creating software using natural language instead of traditional programming. You tell an AI what you want in plain English, and it generates the code for you. You don’t write code line by line, you guide, tweak, and test.

What makes someone a Software Engineer?

To settle the debate, we need to look beyond tools and techniques and ask: What really makes someone a software engineer?

It’s not just the ability to write code. It’s the ability to:

• Understand user needs
• Design scalable solutions
• Apply structured thinking
• Maintain and improve existing systems
• Collaborate with others
• Follow engineering best practices

Software engineering is a discipline, not a toolset. Whether you’re using a keyboard or a voice prompt, if you’re following engineering principles to create robust solutions then yes, you might be a software engineer.

Back to the question: Are vibe coders software engineers?

Before we answer that, let’s reflect: Were all coders considered software engineers? Is a bricklayer a civil engineer?

Exactly.

Vibe coding is just a new way to write codevjust like scripting was once new, or low-code platforms. But software engineering has never been just about code. Coding has always been a subset of software engineering. And now, vibe coding is the newest subset.

That’s why software engineers who embrace vibe coding in their workflow often become 10x more productive than traditional coders they're using smarter tools to achieve the same engineering goals faster.

That said, vibe coding alone doesn’t automatically make you a software engineer. If your focus is just on creating quick prototypes or MVPs without consideration for scalability, structure, or maintenance, you’re likely a software creator, not an engineer.

And that’s perfectly okay. Not everyone needs to be an engineer.

What does the future look like for software engineers?

In a world where anyone can create apps with a click or even a voice command what happens to software engineers? Will they be sidelined? Will they become more important? Will they be forgotten?

Here’s the truth: as the barrier to entry for software creation gets lower, the need for engineering-level thinking will grow even more. When everyone is building, who’s maintaining? Who’s securing? Who’s scaling?

That’s where software engineers will always be needed whether human or... otherwise. 😉

Vibe coding isn't replacing software engineering. It's complementing it. What might replace software engineering? I don’t know maybe vibe engineering 😂

Thanks for reading 🫡

See you in the next one