Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition, started with math and programming competitions as a kid.
Rohan Paul Twitter · Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai) · 2026-05-20
Cognition CEO Scott Wu describes in a new interview how childhood competitive math and programming shaped his thinking and led him to build Devin, an AI software engineer designed to handle complete end-to-end engineering workflows.
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Extraction
Topics: ai-software-engineeringcognition-aidevinfounder-profiles
Claims
- Scott Wu's childhood background in math and programming competitions directly informed the design philosophy behind Devin.
- Devin is positioned as an AI agent that handles full engineering workflows rather than narrow code completion tasks.
- Cognition's vision for autonomous software engineering is rooted in the founder's experience with high-stakes, end-to-end problem solving.
Key quotes
Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition, started with math and programming competitions as a kid.
In a new interview he shares how that led to building Devin, the AI software engineer designed to handle full engineering workflows.