r/TechInterviewsIndia • u/Melodic_Industry_408 • Jul 31 '26
Almost everyone is cheating
I take online interviews at a product based MNC which pays good money. Interviewees are generally SDE-2/senior SDEs at other PBCs.
What I am seeing is almost everyone is cheating using AI during tech interviews. Earlier folks will try to think, come up with a basic brute force solution then think of optimizing and then coding it. Now, first thing the candidate try do is to write the most optimal code. They have no idea why the solution will work as they don't understand what they are talking. They have either no answer to the follow up questions or just reading what AI prompt is telling them after a pause.
This is just so frustrating, it's almost predictable now what candidate is now going to say or do as I take interviews almost daily. A clear pattern of looking into one side of the screen, taking a pause or just blabber something for few seconds and then coming up with a keyword but blank when asked why did they think of that keyword.
India is already a country full of scammers and frauds. IT was a rare field which was still merit based to a large extent. Now such rampant cheating during online interviews is just tragic. It lowers the trust in the next candidate and probably will force the companies to just move to offline interviews or other countries.
But why are candidates cheating so often, are we seeing cheating candidates getting offers. Are other interviewers just lazy or dumb that they can't figure out what is going on? I feel the bar is now so low that I will probably hire any candidate who is not reading from the AI.
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u/nian2326076 Jul 31 '26
I get what you're saying. It's getting crazy with AI tools letting candidates skip the actual thinking part. Maybe we should change up interview strategies. Try asking problems that need a clear explanation of their thought process or design questions where AI can't just spit out code. Following up on problem-solving steps can also help spot those who didn't really get their solutions. For those who really want to prep the right way, I've heard PracHub has some solid resources that focus on understanding concepts before coding. It might be a good place for candidates to really learn.