[jjice]

Anecdotally, I've never read a cover letter as someone who's interviewed a good chunk of engineers, but not nearly as many as a lot of the folks on HN. I have however had a much better initial response experience from companies that I added a cover letter for. I think some larger companies that have a resume and cover letter upload on their site just might prioritize those who wrote a cover letter as well. That's just a guess though.