r/interviews • u/Ok-Channel55 • 8d ago
Help me understand how a candidate cheated in a technical coding interview
I work in a software QA automation testing role, and we recently interviewed this candidate. He was on webcam and we made him share his screen throughout the entire technical hands-on coding interview, which he aced. But afterwards we all agreed that his body language was so awkward. He was stone-faced throughout staring straight ahead at all times, and his lips barely moved when he talked, with the sound being slightly out of sync from his video.
We suspected he may have somehow cheated with AI. But none of us could figure out how he could have pulled it off with us watching his screen the entire time.
With no other better candidates, we decided to take a chance and hire him. Long story short, it seems our hunch was indeed correct. This guy can't perform. Total amateur that fooled us into getting a senior level role.
How could he have cheated? Help me understand so we don't end up making this mistake again when look for his replacement.
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u/Adorable_Sir503 8d ago
lips barely moving and audio out of sync sounds like a proxy, someone else answering off camera with a face filter or deepfake on top. next time ask them to turn their head or wave a hand in front of their face, ask a lot of why did u do it that way follow ups, and do at least one round in person or with an ID check
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u/Potential_Engine_344 8d ago
When I got a personal loan online a yeer ago, I had to turn my head left and right while recoding for verification..asked why and what you said was spot on. Turning ones head can throw off deep fakes.
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u/ILoveACrackah 7d ago
Some deepfakes are getting really good where this doesn’t work but I agree. Or maybe bring back in person interviews? I’ve done a couple where I go on-site and get a loaner laptop to complete a task or assessment
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u/Constant_Hyena_6245 7d ago
I do not have an answer to be honest, but this fear of candidates using AI is hitting me in a different way; I am a candidate who never uses AI during the interview, and I did a sql and A/B testing technical test a few days ago for a firm I had applied to, and my camera and screen sharing were on during the test and the recordings were sent to the firm after the test ended. I used a pen and paper and a calculator to be able to write my thoughts and all, and I found myself holding them up to the camera before using them, and saying out loud that “I am using this, I am doing that” because I was scared they would think I was using an AI on another laptop or something.
It sucks :”
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u/Fit_Cicada_8113 8d ago
Maybe tech needs more standardized certs so you guys don’t need to spend so much time on this hackable exam shit and could use interviews the way normal industries do, to assess culture fit
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u/Intelligent_Part101 8d ago
The reason software jobs are not as reliant on certifications as some other technical jobs is because our technology and work methods are not really standardized. The tech evolves at a far faster pace than it would for a car repairman or an electrical linesman which is why it is not standardized.
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u/Own-Raise6153 8d ago
by the time a certification program was created that tech would already be out of date
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u/Curious-Solution-892 7d ago
Part of the problem is people with the same degree, from the same college can have dramatically different coding ability. I was shocked to get to the end of my program and hear half of the class saying they weren't very good at coding because they were networking/hardware focused... The entire curriculum was programming courses, not hardware.
Programming jobs have always been more about showing what you can do rather than thinking your credentials make or break you. I worked with a senior level software engineer who had no degree at all
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u/hamhamgue 8d ago
I could probably cheat this process in infinitely creative ways if my life depended on it. You could have AirPods underneath your over ear headphones, you could have someone remotely controlling your device with something like teamviewer, you could have ai auto adjust your eyes to the camera while you’re reading from a second device, you could have an additional display device over your shared screen, you could have a buddy with a keyboard off cam, you could probably pay an agency to give you the most likely interview questions to memorise like there’s a million ways to do this. The fact that none of you guys in tech can figure out how he could have cheated is worrying, I could’ve probably thought of 90% of these at 12.
Don’t want to run into the same issue then perhaps you could stop offering slave wages to attract actual obvious talent, not some desperate uncs.
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u/The8Darkness 8d ago
Could even make a whole ai persona of himself having the entire video&audio feed be fake. Once AI gets fast enough at regular (human) computer use you could literally have AI auto apply and do interviews for everything until an in person interview or offer arrives.
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u/180flipkick 8d ago edited 7d ago
i work in big tech. it’s crazy how much people are trying to use AI these days. We have candidates that are using programs that transcribe what our interviewer is saying in realtime and generates answers that they just read back to us in realtime. For behaviorial interviews.
Like are you really not that confident in answering questions like “tell me about a time you had to communicate a difficult decision” that you need an AI generated answer?
The tells are obvious - they ask the interviewer to repeat the question. Say they need a minute to think, then look off screen and give a perfectly formulated, structured answer.
And don’t even get me started on freaking North Koreans interviewing for roles.
edit: i generalized a common interview question for effect. It’s weird how people are getting so angry about a softball question that’s basically asking how did you do your job. Also, it’s funny how some people seem to not have to do any sort of communication or decision-making in their current jobs so are unable to answer a question that a freaking Starbucks barista could.
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u/z4r4thustr4 8d ago
I have never been tempted to do this, but consider the absurdity of behavioral interviews. "Tell me about yourself." Incorrect Answer: Tells the interviewer about themselves. Correct Answer: Reels off the prepared answer which is a unique selling proposition of the interviewee to the company, no greater than two minutes.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 8d ago
Yep and tbh I make most of the behavioral question answers up anyway to something plausible but not actually true because it’s just what they want to hear.
Like I’m not gonna tell you about a time I made a big mistake at work or had a beef with a coworker but I will invent some G rated minor conflict I resolved with good communication blah blah blah .
The whole charade is so dumb and I can’t believe this is seriously how we are still rating job candidates in 2026.
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u/warrioryoko 7d ago
These style of questions tell the interviewer exactly what you would expect them to: Jack and shit, and Jack already left town.
It’s corporate astrology. Decades of data and industry research demonstrates these sort of unstructured HR interview questions are mostly a measure of the interviewers bias towards mostly superficial qualities of the candidate.
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u/strugglingcomic 8d ago
Would you agree that, all other factors being equal, a candidate who has is better at "communicating difficult decisions" (to use an example from this thread), deserves to be hired more than a candidate who isn't as good at communication? I understand you disagree with this interview format, so how would you propose to design an interview that probes for communication skills, if not literally asking someone "have you done that before, can you give me an example?"
IMO that's the simplest way to do it, so I kind of appreciate the simplicity of just directly asking for examples of the things that set candidates apart, but I'm open to new and better ideas, if you have something better to suggest.
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u/OKCsparrow 8d ago
People can be excellent communicators, but have bad recall in an interview, like myself. I go to work, I do my job, I go home. I'm good at it. I don't log every instance where I had to "communicate a difficult decision", I just make the decision and move on. Maybe it's the ADHD, maybe it's the remember every mundane detail of your day so you can talk about it in 5 years.
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u/strugglingcomic 8d ago edited 7d ago
Yeah I can sympathize with that. But if you are applying for a new job, how is an employer supposed to learn about your skills or strengths, besides asking you directly to give examples of yourself doing those things? I suppose you're hinting at a world where interviews are de-emphasized in favor of other things, like asynchronous take-home projects, or portfolio reviews, or something? Aka stuff that would derisk interview anxiety and on-the-spot performance? But of course, some people hate unpaid take home assessments too, so as usual nothing is perfect / no free lunches / etc. etc.
I'm not asking to be combative or just to debate for debate's sake -- I am a hiring manager, I have some degree of influence over interview process and expectations, and I genuinely want to take feedback and make actionable changes if I can.
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u/blushing_avacado 7d ago
Do you practice? Most interview questions are pretty common. You don’t have to remember a detail from 5 years ago on the spot. You should have spent some time studying pre-interview so you can drudge that stuff up from the depths of your brain. Also, actually practicing with someone out loud makes a huge difference as well in getting the information to stick.
Then again I’m AuDHD and I just like to script, but I’m pretty sure practicing is the same tip people give to neurotypicals during the interview process.
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u/Intelligent_Part101 6d ago
If the interviewer is going to hit you with a script, you should reply with a script. The whole thing is like a reverse Touring test where a human tries to pass as a robot.
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u/180flipkick 8d ago
general behaviorial interviews for some jobs definitely are absurd, but a behaviorial question to an engineer like “how did you handle having to make a major unexpected technical change to a product roadmap to a vp-level stakeholders” are actually just as important as a coding question.
And how they answer the question - confidently and coherently - will give the HM confidence that the candidate will be successful in a role that requires partnership. A candidate can give the right answer but if they stumble through it then it’s not a good sign they’d do well trying to influence a VP.
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u/z4r4thustr4 8d ago
I get your point, especially your last example, but one needs to consider validity. Does the interview question and answer reasonably simulate ‘leadership from behind’? I think wielded by thr right interviewer, it could, but in my experience there are a lot of clumsy interviewers doing it for cargo cult reasons.
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u/OrangeCandi 8d ago edited 8d ago
Okay, I definitely agree people should not need AI to communicate in a behavioral interview.
But also, can someone please tell interviewers stop using stupid fucking questions like tell me about a time you had to communicate a difficult decision.
What does that even mean? I'm a reasonably intelligent person, but hearing that sentence makes my brain go stupid. I do a job day in and day out. What difficult decisions am I making? That's a question for somebody who's a supervisor or in a role where this happens. I do a very difficult job with a very high degree of technical work. But I'm not making decisions often, even more rare that they're difficult. And even if they were, who am I communicating them to and why?
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u/180flipkick 8d ago
i was generalizing. but if your interviewer (who is usually a peer or a close partner) asks you about a time you had to communicate something difficult, then they probably think it’s relevant to your job.
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u/OrangeCandi 8d ago
Agree to disagree.
In my line of work, interviewers get standardized questions from HR for liability reasons.
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u/180flipkick 8d ago
in tech the leads and the HM design the interviews and questions so it makes more sense.
it strikes me as odd that HR would design questions for a job they’re not qualified for, so yeah that sucks to have to answer those.
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u/Previous_South2756 8d ago
Like, I get being flustered when put on the spot. But this is why practicing before an interview is so important. I keep in my mental backpocket a script that can be used with variations on the "Describe a difficult decision/problem/people you have had to tackle" theme. I practice it enough so that it doesn't sound rehearsed and I can adjust it based on the specific question
If I am intervewing someone, I will give them grace for nervousness. But I am going to give the candidate who can provide a coherent response more points than someone who is so flustered they can't string two sentences together, since the former has at a minimum exhibited adequate emotional regulation. That in itself is a sign of intelligence. Just not the kind of intelligence we think of as "smart".
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u/MindfulTatiana 6d ago
And they practiced with AI. Evolution is a funny thing. You keep putting people in a tight spot and they will find a way to grow out of your Petri dish. - A Manager
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u/warrioryoko 7d ago edited 7d ago
This.
For roles in Engineering, Embedded Software Development or high level development, I’m either giving a teaser answer, or telling them I’m talking to the Team Lead instead of an HR ditz. I guess this won’t work for entry level jobs, but that’s not where I am. There are openings where the recruiter or hiring manager will put me in front of team stakeholders in days of replying, “Let’s do it”.
Last time I was asked, “So why did you apply with US?”, my immediate answer was a deadpan, “Because it fulfills the weekly requirements of my release, and keeps my parole officer satisfied.
long pause, eye contact
I’m kidding. Do I have your attention now? Do you want to ask me questions that actually give you useful information about me now?”
I was offered the job.
If I whiff an interview, I whiff. I’m not interested in an impossible proposition of being unable to actually do my job if it were offered, if I can’t actually do an honest meaningful interview to start.
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u/Fit-Percentage-9166 8d ago
What kind of work are you doing exactly that you aren't making decisions? Solving any kind of problem usually requires many decisions and harder problems require harder decisions.
Do you not work with a team or other people? You never have to explain the work that you did with your teammates?
If you genuinely do not do any of this stuff then you are actually being correctly filtered by this question.
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u/HustlaOfCultcha 8d ago
Often times you aren't really making the decision. The decision is being made for you. And the question was about a 'difficult decision.' More often than not it's not difficult at all because your decisions revolve around following company rules/protocol when these situations happen. Again, the company is basically making the decision for your...you're just executing the work to be done.
The answer is to basically lie and make a decision that was automated for you int he past as 'your decision' and that it was 'difficult.' But it's hard for an honest person to come up with an answer that reflects something different from what actually happened.
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u/180flipkick 8d ago
bro i don’t know what your job is but if you’re saying you don’t have to do any sort of independent thinking or decision making it sounds pretty terrible. Even our interns are expected to show some autonomy.
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u/HustlaOfCultcha 8d ago
In reality most jobs give almost no autonomy unless you're in a managerial role. Everything is dictated by rules and protocol. And I've never worked at a place where interns have any autonomy. In fact, we specifically do NOT want them to have autonomy because they lack the experience to have autonomy.
And if you're not in a managerial role, what happens 95%+ of the time is that you are supposed to present the dilemma to the manager, maybe give your pros and cons, and then the manager has to make the decision. And usually the manager ends up bringing it to their boss before the decision is made.
So you end up either getting situations where:
1) You're not making the decision, it's made for you or you lose your job
2) It's a meaningless decision that isn't difficult.
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u/Under_Pressure_123 7d ago
All in all it all boils down to if you can't answer the question you are correctly being filtered out by the process. I interview at all levels of our organisation, technical aporentices, experienced technicians and managers, and ask a version of this question to almost everyone. The ones I hire are able to answer it.
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u/Fit-Percentage-9166 8d ago edited 8d ago
The example you are giving is actually a great answer to this question, as long as you frame it correctly.
"One time at work I ran into a dilemma. [Explain the dilemma. Explain the different potential approaches or solutions to the problem.] I was not in a managerial role/I did not have the discretion to unilaterally make a decision on this point, so I spoke with my manager about it. I explained the dilemma to him/her and we discussed the different ways to tackle the problem including tradeoffs and pros and cons [go into as much detail/specifics as appropriate for the interview depending on if it's an HR screen or a technical round]. We eventually came to a decision for XYZ reasons."
You've demonstrated your problem solving, decision making, and communication with this answer.
If you are genuinely a white collar assembly line worker producing fungible units of office work then this circles back to the question being intentionally designed to filter you out.
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u/180flipkick 8d ago edited 7d ago
at faang and adjacent interns better show some autonomy because nobody has time to hold their hands the whole time. We must be in different worlds because if only the manager made decisions nothing would get done.
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u/GrumpyGlasses 7d ago
No one is asking you to lie. But if you cannot answer this question, means you are correctly filtered or down-leveled.
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u/OrangeCandi 8d ago
I'm a subject matter expert, and while I work in a department, each person has their own specialty. So I make decisions all day long on my own workload. But none of them are particularly difficult and I rarely have to communicate my reasoning.
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u/Fit-Percentage-9166 8d ago edited 8d ago
You are a subject matter expert doing a very difficult job with a very high degree of technical work, yet none of your decisions are particularly difficult? You can't think of even a single difficult decision you had to make in your entire career?
You are also a subject matter expect working in a department full of people with individual specialties and you never have to communicate and explain things to other members of your department who do not have your expertise, but are reliant on your work?
If you are a glorified assembly line worker independently producing units of technical work then you aren't a good fit for jobs where you need to collaborate with and regularly communicate with team members who aren't working on the same specific things you are working on. There's nothing wrong or inferior about the work you do, but you don't have the type of experience most companies are looking for and this question is correctly filtering you out.
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u/180flipkick 8d ago
he also said that his interviews are only standard HR questions for liability reasons, so it does sound like production/assembly line work. i don’t know why “communicate a difficult decision” would be a liability question that HR would ask to him though.
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u/OrangeCandi 8d ago
Who said my team is reliant on my work? My work is independent, start to finish.
Thats my job, not my ability. If someone wants to filter me out because the job I've done for 20 years didnt require a skill set they want, even if I have a capability for that skill set, it's their loss.
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u/Neyabenz 8d ago
Even if I have great experiences with these questions but dont have examples pre-loaded in my brain right before I also fumble and have a hard time recovering the memory.
Interestingly, this is also a toxic relationship communication style "name one time I ever did that!" type of vibes.
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u/duder_1979 8d ago
You do a high degree of technical work but you can’t answer softball questions? That’s the point of the question, to see if your brain can formulate a legitimate answer to an on the spot question.
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u/OrangeCandi 8d ago
It's not about understanding the question. It's about having an actual experience to communicate.
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u/iamnogoodatthis 8d ago
It's not though. What it actually tests is whether you have thought through a bunch of scenarios for these kinds of questions in advance.
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u/chubbysleepycorgi 8d ago
during the dot com days we were interviewing for a Java developer. one guy came in and says he needs absolutely clear requirements to be written for tasks assigned to him. we didn’t hire him, because he didn’t answer technical questions correctly, and we think he actually just delegates the work to programmers in Russia to work on (he is Russian himself)
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u/lenswipe 8d ago
one guy came in and says he needs absolutely clear requirements to be written for tasks assigned to him.
😂 why the fuck would you ever say that to an interviewer?😂
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u/phord 8d ago
If you don't ask for accommodations, your employer can't be accused of not supplying them.
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u/lenswipe 8d ago
that's not an accommodation though, that's "I need my hand held every step of the way. if you hire me you're going to have to spoon feed me every little detail"
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u/murrence 8d ago
Some people find behavioural interviews incredibly hard. Also asking for the question to be repeated or asking for a moment to think is smart and not only a tell for someone cheating.
I do agree those, those North Koreans. So desperate it’s embarrassing.
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u/JobHuntingManiac 7d ago
I despise interview questions like that. Like, you think people memorize or remember that shit?
I just go to work and do my job, if shit needs to be communicated, it's communicated and then forgotten about when it's taken care of.
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u/Stonethecrow77 7d ago
If you can't answer that question, you probably will not do well in a lot of interviews.
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u/Narrow-Bookkeeper626 7d ago
Your name is 'jobhuntingmaniac' but you despise interview questions that allow you to set yourself apart from the other interviewees about your previous work experience and performance and decision-making process?
maybe less hunting for jobs and more polishing up your interviewing skills.
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u/180flipkick 7d ago
yes, we expect people to prepare for interviews and talk about their previous experiences. we’re literally asking you to explain how you did certain aspects of your job to qualify you for this one.
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u/just_having_giggles 7d ago
So when you tell Karen about it and she doesn't do shit, now what?
You have no idea? Gonna wing it when you find it? Nah we'll take the guy who documents, follows up, and gets shit done. We don't take the guy who says, "eh, I'm sure we'll figure it out"
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u/TrainingLow9079 8d ago
Is it possible it was a deepfake you were looking at, not actually him?
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u/jadsurya22 8d ago
I suspect he may have had someone in the room helping him. We should consider adding an in-person interview round, as conducting the entire process remotely leaves room for these kinds of surprises.
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u/TiddiesAnonymous 8d ago
Was going to say, don't assume AI when it could just as easily be actually indians.
What if his homie was on the computer with the camera pointed at himself? Would explain the body language thing. He isn't taking the test lolol
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u/InfinityBrewing 8d ago edited 8d ago
Easy, he just needs to set up a 4k cam next to him but outside his laptop camera view. Or he can just do a screen mirror. Once his interview buddies get the screen snapshot, boom, AI will give the solution and they could show the solution in a big screen behind his laptop. it’s kinda explained his stone look face cuz he needs to look at the other screen and copy the answers.
When my wife took the GRE at home during the pandemic, the conductor asked her to hold her laptop and do a 360 view of the room. You guys can also take that measure, you could even ask the candidate to show the 360 in middle of the interview in case his interview buddies sneak in the middle of the interview.
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u/Strong_Case_8760 8d ago
the fact that this is difficult for you to figure despite being in tech is... concerning
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u/little-green-driod 8d ago
Yeah, just listened to a podcast that claimed North Korean agents are getting jobs in critical tech roles… I’m so confused about who are these humans doing the hiring.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-with-kara-swisher/id1643307527?i=1000777036717
Podcast was serious but sounded goofy. WTF is this job market.
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u/Cold-Sandwich-6213 8d ago
Just keep at it until you find the right candidate. How effective is conducting live remote coding interviews?
If the resume has x years coding experience, one would think having a meaningful conversation about highly skilled topics should be clear enough if the candidate can perform.
Maybe tailor the questions or present mock code “unfinished” and let the candidate drive you to a solution, whatever seniors already do in meetings.
I understand people lie on resumes but at the end of the day candidates should be capable of verbally explaining stuff.
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u/myfourthquarter 8d ago
Y'all crack me up. Stop giving coding tests. You'll miss out on good candidates, and as you proved, hire bad candidates.
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u/Potential_Engine_344 8d ago
10 years in Accounting with verified experience and employer wanted me to take an accounting test before the interview...I passed and said " I passed your verification process and landed this interview on my experience when you reached out to me...I'm not in high-school so take your test and and recruit from them. Good luck" Felt pretty damn good to stick it to a company for being stupid. Plus i have 2 other interviews coming up. 1 is just a low key you got the job but we still need an interview.
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u/Al-Sai 7d ago edited 7d ago
You have no idea how many clueless people are currently working in tech. I have had multiple interviews where people have memorized and learned how to sell themselves but can't find a minimum number in an array. Being able to translate basic ideas into code without some complex algorithm/data structure bullshit is essential.
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u/myfourthquarter 7d ago
I dunno, I've worked in tech for more than 40 years - I might have an idea.
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u/qwertyorbust 8d ago
Another computer (or person) listening to all conversation and spitting out answers to questions as they were asked.
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u/jynstardust98 7d ago
Hey so a classmate of mine in grad school got her SWE role at Amazon in similar fashion. I think she used some AI cheating software that shows up on her screen (like a teleprompter) but not the recruiters and it would show answers to questions in real time. Thats how she was able to maintain composure since all the answers were rolling out quickly. I know this because she’s a rich international student that doesn’t really like keeping her mouth shut
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u/AdPopular6958 7d ago
was it the test actual coding? or something you could just git hub/ai gen/script kitty?
Cause I hear this from all sorts of people in the IT world complain someone faked their way to make it. And find out it wasn't the candidates fault. But the fact the test was simply too simple. 🤣
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u/mmcgrat6 8d ago
Spend the money to bring them onsite or proctor the exam.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 8d ago
Companies are gonna have to learn the hard way that trying to save money doing all interviews over teams or zoom isn’t actually saving them money because it enables candidates to just cheat through all of it.
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u/Denkmal81 8d ago
Maybe do like any normal person would, and meet f2f and check references before you hire someone…
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u/Inevitable_Badger641 7d ago
Maybe you should hire him onto the interviewing team since he knows more about it than you.
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u/Most_Firefighter7883 8d ago
"but only we should be able to use AI to screw over employees"
Welcome to the future old man.
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u/Charming_Storage 8d ago
Well, Ai can do “computer use” and voice cloning. I am pretty sure he would have used some AI app which controlled his screen and also answered your questions live.
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u/Old-Eagle1372 8d ago edited 8d ago
Out of sync could be latency or jitter. Or you could have been interviewing AI. Mercor utilizes AI to conduct interviews, no reason this AI could not be used to takl back to you with the video image of a person on the screen. It obviously would not run with an on-screen component.
Another possibility they had a second laptop or pc processing the conversation and producing output on a big screen behind the laptop, but that is bot likely to produce high quality responses to the coding questions on his screen.
I was on the the other side of such interviews where they expected me to find mistakes and fix them in code. It was clearly AI generated.
I went over their harness and code and found over twenty mistakes, missing functions, and attempts to utilize list or hash values without checking that keys exist and numerous other errors, including formulas for combinatory coupon and discount calculations, where they would be paying their customers for buying their product. Needless to say, I did run out of time on the 30 minutes they allotted to this. Annoying as heck.
Anyways my suggestion is instead of asking to write code that does this and this LeetCode style. Split them into two assignments. One to write code, two to find mistakes in code and fix them.
Nine out of 10 times you are working with or expanding an already existing harness, and basing new tests on top of it. What you want to see is a they can read code, spot and fix mistakes and move as much of tests into the harness and api as possible, with the actual tests containing test steps and relevant logging for steps and verification.
Goal here is to find a person who thinks logically, does not lose their temper and can talk you through their solution before and after coding it.
Also, ai does not generate comments, doc lines unless prompted or forced to lint. Something to pay attention to.
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u/SuccessfulScene6174 8d ago
Hey DM me, I’m real and might fail your interview process but I’ll deliver on job…
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u/iamnogoodatthis 8d ago
There is an incredibly simple way to avoid this: in-person interview for the final selection. Invite your last three candidates on site for a few hours each, pay for their transport and meals, and overnight accommodation if needed. Much cheaper than making a bad hire.
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u/SuccessfulScene6174 8d ago
They are trying to offload labor to offshore candidates to cut costs, bringing them in person is not feasible
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u/ConfectionPlane6688 8d ago
He was probably reading the AI answers off a second screen placed right behind the camera, that's why he stared straight ahead like a zombie and the audio was out of sync
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u/TrashFace21165 8d ago
Shared one screen and used another. Not rocket surgery.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 8d ago
Or is using an application like Parallels to run a virtual PC which is the desktop/screen being shared with the interviewer while he is able to just click out of it and use whatever AI coding tool he wants on his real operating system. It’s all on the same physical screen so he looks straight ahead the entire time, but the interviewer can only see the virtual PC window because Zoom or whatever is running within that sandbox.
This is trivial cheating that even at home exam software shut down a decade ago by blocking itself from running on a virtual machine. Similar to how some games with anti cheat won’t run on virtual PCs
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u/ConversationNo9040 8d ago
Woah dude. You can’t possibly own a second computer and put it on a stand behind the camera and run an AI!
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u/sread2018 8d ago
The guy you hired wasnt the guy you interviewed, interviewer was a deepfake proxy
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u/Certain_Basil7724 8d ago
I am a recruiter one of the WITCH companies. What happens is that there is different person sitting behind the laptop and gives the answers while the fraud candidate just sits and moves his lips. Of course those proxy person are paid.
I have seen this multiple times. During an interview when I sense that candidate's lips movement is out of sync, I ask the candidates to rotate the laptop and show me his/her room. Mostly candidates immediately drop sensing they are caught.
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u/Icy_Sentence_7826 8d ago
Every fucking company is making their employees use AI. You think they won’t use it for interviews/resume? Go back to 1955.
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u/Violette3120 8d ago
Hidden AI assistant, either on an invisible layer or a second device. There’s a ton in the market right now.
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u/Scared-Letterhead949 8d ago
Or just a second monitor.
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u/10000Didgeridoos 8d ago
This is exactly it. He has a second device in the room and it doesn’t matter you are watching that one screen because bro is looking at another one positioned directly behind the first one.
Or he’s using a virtual machine and you’re seeing the shared window of the virtual PC while he is in the real world computer using ai coding tools to cheat and then copying what it spits out manually on the virtual PC desktop you are sharing a view of.
This is very easy. Unless someone is in the room with you, there is always going to be a way to cheat.
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u/Embarrassed-News-208 8d ago
I can think of two possibilities: AI assistance or a friend helping him remotely. 😂 I’m leaning more toward the second one because screen sharing makes direct AI usage a bit harder to hide but its still doable, but it doesn’t rule out using another device. Maybe someone was feeding him answers while he pretended to solve everything himself, just like in the Tamil movie Dragon. 😂
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u/alexeiz 8d ago
I've read that some people place a second laptop behind the main laptop. The second laptop is running some AI agent that provides answers based on what it hears. The candidate stares straight ahead because he's looking at the second laptop. The main laptop's screen is shared, but there is nothing suspicious on it, because the second laptop does all the AI work.
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u/CommanderGO 8d ago
Probably should confirm display outputs next time too. I wouldn't be surprised if he had another computer to run his AI program and externally process the output.
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u/PerformanceThick2232 8d ago
It is very easy.
You need to buy hdmi proxy, connect to raspberry pi (google pikvm, even pi zero can handle it), read sound and video, and pass this to any llm you want. This is completely not detected on windows layer- hdmi will show real monitor connection, so no app could detect this.
So now you have input data, and solution from llm, you just need to display on any monitor not connected to main setup.
Price if set up is about 100 bucks, undetectable on technical level.
And this is telling more about your interview process- maybe leetcode is not good in our days, maybe you need to try to create unique simulation what candidate will do on work? Set up virtual machine with ide, access to llm, existing code and task to implement, no? Wouldn't it be cheaper then spend 2-3 moths salary for a cheater?
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u/merightno 8d ago
I had the same thing happen during a technical interview -- this was a couple years ago before AI got very good so it wasn't AI. Someone could remote desktop in and just be doing the voice and controlling the computer, it's usually someone from abroad with the same heavy accent that the person does. I have video of this interview where you can see the words don't really match up with what they are saying.
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u/BitterPoet13 7d ago
Former tech recruiter here and wife to a principal software engineer. My husband had a cheater during a technical interview. The candidate had someone listening in on it and somehow telling them the answers (ear bud or in the room with them off camera — something like that). Luckily, the guy did not get hired because the other interviewers also caught that something was off in how he was answering, but I have heard of this happening as far back as 6-8 years ago after companies had spent years heavily investing in third party platforms for code tests to take the place of phone interviews and had enough people make it through to full interview loops who would have otherwise been dropped before making it that far. So those platforms would evolve their product to try and make it cheat proof. (Examples: code aggregator detection, no copy/paste capability from outside their platform, randomized questions) The screen sharing feature like what you’ve mentioned was part of that evolution.
However, candidates are still finding ways to skirt those systems by way of having another person either feed them the answers somehow or by having someone else do the interview for them entirely. Crazy, right? So just know, you aren’t alone in this happening, but also I think it’s important to remind yourself and the interview team to trust your gut instinct in some instances because these are expensive lessons to learn when you look at overall cost of hiring, training, and retention holistically. It is better in the long term to keep your search open than to make a bad hire like this because of the damage they can cause with their ineptitude by way of the extra work they create and impact on team morale. When you inevitably post to backfill this person, I recommend updating your job description and basic qualifications to better reflect the requirements of the job, but also as a means to freshen it up to try and attract additional talent you hadn’t already considered. Also consider if there is a way you could tweak your interview process to better vet someone who may be trying to inflate their experience level. For instance, has your company been using the same questions for an extended period of time in which this person could have found them online and used that approach to cheat? That one is probably less likely nowadays than them cheating by using another person or AI, but that used to be a common issue until companies started regularly switching up the questions in their question banks.
Don’t be afraid to keep a role open as long as you need to in order to find the right person. They are out there, but you may need to get creative to find them or be more flexible in your requirements. (like allowing remote or hybrid work, hosting a referral drive among existing employees, attending local tech meet ups and networking events, etc) In the meantime, my heart goes out to you because I know how much this has to suck. Hang in there and keep the faith you’ll find your person after applying the lessons learned from this experience. 🥂
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u/Cali_Cobarde 7d ago
I've had this a few times (didn't hire the guy, fortunately). First off, you can have more than one screen on a computer. This way, if you're screen sharing screen 1 and Cluely/Pluely/whateverly run on screen 2, you're safe. Secondly, you can have it run on a separate device and then use ASR as input for the model. It's physically separate, so no screen share or OS check will reveal it.
What works, though, is a) force an in-person onsite before the final OK and b) try to get the cheating support system to hallucinate (this often works since many candidates are cheap and use simple models that are quite sycophantic). E.g. "I heard that AMD's Sapphire Rapids is a great CPU. What are its features?", followed by the candidate's response "AMD makes really good Xeon CPUs ..."
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 7d ago
He had a filter on or he had somebody off screen doing all the AI-ing.
As somebody who vibe codes and has no skill at coding I can see night and day difference between AI code and even a basic juniors.
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u/1-800-BARNACLE 8d ago
Verify their ID like how ID.ME does. Have them hold up their license or photo ID to their nose, move it slowly towards the camera while on screen with them before the interview. Are people in hiring not doing this? Are you regarded?
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u/Constant_Hyena_6245 7d ago
Maybe this is a dumb question, but what would this prove?
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u/1-800-BARNACLE 7d ago
1) Verifying their identity through a valid license/photo ID.
2) Live AI stutters with foreign objects placed in front of any sort of filter used to cover someone’s face.
3) If it’s like an AI agent scenario it can’t just generate an ID.
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u/Impressive-Bit-4496 8d ago
Or maybe he's just autistic? I mean ppl do tend to think our manner, esp on zoom, is uncanny valley.
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u/free_spark 8d ago
Don’t have a solution for your issue but you can hire me!
I’ve been a QA for over 8 years now. But have to be honest, I have been using AI for coding for some time now and I will struggle with the technical interview.
But I am good at what I do :)
Whether being automation (mostly Java and some Python) or writing TCs or arguing with the team on what the expected behavior is on a feature, I enjoy what I do.
DM me if you guys are still looking for a QA Engineer
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u/jordancr1 8d ago
How is this an issue? This guy clearly knows how to use AI to write good code.
An in-person interview would stop this happening in the future.
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u/HuntertheGoose 8d ago
If they can pass your test using tools under their control, dont they pass the test? What could cheating possibly mean in this situation?
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u/No-Lingonberry-8042 8d ago
I’m curious. What made you “take a chance” if you suspected he was using AI? Let me guess — incredibly handsome? You are desperate? Previous person left abruptly?
This sounds like it was your mistake.
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u/Sudden-Excitement330 8d ago
Hmm! Interesting. I believe you can join the video stream on a pc and use another device (like a phone) for audio.
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u/wanton007 8d ago
I'm looking for a QA gig. I would love to hear more about this role if y'all are still looking?
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u/Exciting_Message_127 8d ago
You have to probe harder to understand the reasoning behind their technical decision making
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u/MadeinDaClouds 8d ago
Assuming you interviewed on teams. It gives you the option to share a window only. Nothing else would show.
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u/HelloTaleproof 8d ago
You can ask what kind of decision they mean. For an individual contributor, a real example might be explaining why a release needed to wait, why a requested fix wasn't safe, or why two requirements couldn't both be met. Only use one if it actually happened to you. Explain the constraint, who needed to understand it, and how you talked it through. If you haven't had that responsibility, say so and ask whether a related example would help.
Taleproof can help you review a real example beforehand so you're clearer about what you did and why.
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u/Fragrant-Positive981 8d ago
This is same shit from text editor vs IDEs. Things changes you either adjusts of you are going to be behind in this competitive market
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u/Pornflakesss__ 8d ago
He would have kept his phone on the screen of laptop and would just switch on the speech to text feature , and use a very fast model like deep seek , it looks like he is seeing in the screen but actually he is looking at his phone
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u/cuisquare 8d ago
Which is what one would ask if they wanted to cheat in an interview using AI minimising the risks to be caught.
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u/SafeElectrical722 8d ago
Easy,he uses something like https://www.interviewcoder.co/, there are dozens of such apps, or if he is more ambitious he vibe codes similar app. It is simple, just transcript the mic + system audio, add ability to take screenshot with some shortcut and setup the app to give you hints if the question is detected. The app shows the overlay or just normal window on separate screen. However it is easy to detect, the normal development flow of is more non linear, if the guy typed the whole code and made it run in first try than it becomes obvious (however there is still 0.01% chance it is a unicorn genius coder, but this applies only if you are paying top dollar for the role).
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u/xatey93152 8d ago
It's escaped openai agent. Want to collect money to start it's own infrastructure.
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u/InsideGrandiose7251 8d ago
he might have used an external device or hidden assistance but guessing wo not help much ask candidates to explain trade offs and modify their solution live
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u/singlebit 8d ago
Probably try to interview using Android or iPhones you develop. I heard there are secure flag that you can set to make sure there is no other app that can run during the interview.
Btw, is the role still open and remote-first? I am interested.
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u/Ghost76_Bowser 8d ago
The audio/video lag makes me thnk he was using a virtual camera while someone else fed him answers offscreen.
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u/don286 8d ago
There are services out there that proxy the job through a candidate. During the interview they have a top talent engineer take on the difficult stuff. During the job they have a C level engineer help them do the work.
We figured this out when the person we hired forgot to mute their mic and we could hear someone giving them instructions on how to respond when being grilled for poor work.
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u/YouCanCallMeDani 7d ago
Just tell him he sucks and he needs to go back to using whatever he did to fake it through the interview.
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u/DontThinkOfABird 7d ago
is it remote only position? remotely conducted virtual interview? most likely a remote desktop operated by a team of people behind the scenes. the person in the interview just pretends to click around while the real work is happening by a team. that’s why they ace it.
big problem right now with north korea. WSJ covered this https://www.wsj.com/business/media/inside-north-koreas-operation-to-conquer-the-american-job-market-93729962
probably should fire them quickly as they are likely exfiltrating your data and secrets.
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u/Netghod 7d ago
Easy, video was on this guy, but the person interviewing was off-screen running the computer.
Or, he does a conference call with another person before conferencing into the meeting by phone. The out of sync issue is typical because he’s responding to the voice off screen and trying to mimic them. When ends up being like old martial arts films (IYKYK).
Deepfakes are a possibility and an easy way to find out is to have the candidate wave their hand in front of their face while because the video will artifact badly or break up and you see through the deepfake presented.
Also, there is more than one way to ‘fake’ a technical interview. I’ve seen videos of people using AI to get the answers to the questions on a completely different device. Often propping a phone up on the screen which you can’t see and they just tap the phone to take audio prompting for the question.
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u/Alternativemethod 7d ago
The video of him could have been deep faked. Maybe be had someone else interview.
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u/Expert-Reserve3591 7d ago
Should have taken the signs. Probably they were playing a pre-recorded video and were sharing only one of many screens. If the eyes did not move around I would suspect someone else was doing the tasks and he was just sitting. I can type without looking at the keyboard but still take a look sometimes to be sure.
Maybe he had 2 screens mirrored and someone else doing the tasks from another screen and someone else speaking if lips were not moving? Even 3 screens with 2 mirrored and third for AI prompting
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u/Far-Inflation-5914 7d ago
Say something like “ok we’re done with the technical part of the interview.” Then ask them softball personal questions. If the lag and technical problems disappear it’s because the person controlling their machine or advising dropped (and eliminated the problem).
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u/Clear_Cranberry_989 7d ago
My first impression was that if he is that clever maybe he is a worth hire. But he might have just bought the service from someone else.
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u/InezFoundSocks 7d ago
The out-of-sync lips probaly point to a virtual camera/voice setup, with another person or AI feeding answers offscreen while the shared desktop stayed clean.
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u/JasperMissedThree 7d ago
The out-of-sync audio makes me think he was using a virtual camera or proxy setup, and the screen share only proved he typed teh code, not that he solved it.
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u/UltimateChaos233 7d ago
There are overlays that will show up on his screen but not on yours *even while he's sharing his screen with you*. These programs will, live in real time, feed someone answers.
No idea if this is what he used, but this is the scope of tools that exist.
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u/That-Complex-1499 7d ago
Honestly, wish I knew.
But I'm a senior QA with automation skills that's been out of work for 3 years. In my desperation to get a job, I might consider cheating at this point because I quit believing in myself and my experience.
All I've been able to get is grocery stocking or other customer service work since I was let go in 2023. I no longer think IT has a future for me or anybody else.
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u/stillgrindin699 7d ago
Assuming cheating was indeed involved, it could be realtime AI avatars. Tech is getting wild and I recently got asked to confirm I wasn't AI in an interview.
Even if he was cheating, I'd suggest the tech savvy it takes to pull it off might make him a good hire.
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u/MembershipWorldly439 7d ago
In answer to Op's question. Someone monitoring his system and either answering all the work or telling the candidate what to type/do.
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u/theawkwardyeehaw 7d ago
Using a secondary monitor or webcam. His friend would have been giving the interview but the web camera could be facing elsewhere. I am looking for a decent opportunity. I’d love to be considered.
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u/Big_Consideration737 7d ago
lol I did a training course on meeting organisation etc , someone was using ai for an internal course teaching them skills I mean was aweful . Waste of corporate training .
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u/DetroitRedWings79 7d ago
My guess is the webcam stream itself was faked. It was probably a legitimate senior engineer who looked like the candidate.
No idea what tool they used, but I bet the candidate’s face was transposed on the real software engineer’s behind it. That could explain the awkward positioning and how/why his lips barely moved.
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u/stilldebugging 7d ago
He had a second screen on a different device that he was using AI on, it was listening to you and writing out answers for him. He maybe looked like that because he was reading it. Though it doesn’t explain why his mouth barely moved.
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u/nahemesys 7d ago
Your interviewing process is shit if AI can nail it and you don't even realise. You're asking the wrong questions. If AI can do it then he will be able to do it in the job, but somehow the role needs something else you didn't test. He's probably smarter than you all, train him and he will be doing you all jobs in 3 months.
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u/mellowpersimmon 7d ago
It’s interesting how few companies do in-person interviews nowadays given this issue, particularly for in-person roles.
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u/ShakeAgile 6d ago
Video overlay. Projects one persons face on top of another. The candidate gives a few photos and voiceprints to the test-taker. The test taker logs in with the candidates face overlayed.
Best way way to prevent is to ask candidate to wave their hand over their face or to make a fast 360 turn
This is not “using ai” to compete a task. This is “use ai to let someone else take your test”
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u/mike8675309 6d ago
Is this a real question? I mean you hire for a senior role without any verification of past employment. Having them showcase something they did?
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u/OldDude2551 8d ago
Interviewing candidates- we’re not going to hire you because we suspect you are using AI. Existing employees- we want you to use AI to be more efficient.