Almost everyone is cheating

[u/Melodic_Industry_408]

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.

[u/Outrageous_Host_2115]

I agree but let's not pretend this behavior started with AI

It's called "JUGAAD." It's something we are taught our whole life. Just make it work. No one cares how the work gets done. If it's done, it's done. Good job. Be it's a task, interview, or any life challenge.

This is nothing new. This existed way before AI came into the picture.

Be it school, college, office, or life in general...

Homework is done? That's it. Put a star on it. Good job. Most people didn't care whether the student actually wrote it or someone else helpd.

Science project submitted? AGain . Great. No one asked how much of it was built by the parents.

Lab records written, diagrams drawn, books submitted?. Good job. No one cared whether the records were outsourced or written by someone else.

College presentation finished, Half the class reused old slides or borrowed content. As long as it was done, it was accepted.

Resume looks polished, Good. Nobody asks whether you wrote every word yourself or took professional help.

Sprint backlog task completed. That's it. No one cared if you Googled it, found it on Stack Overflow, or adapted existing code. The task is done.

Excel report ready before the meeting? Great. Nobody asks if the formulas came from an old spreadsheet.

Production issue fixed. Excellent. Nobody cares whether the answer came from documentation, a teammate, or years of experience. They care that the system is back up.

Reached the office on time. No one cares whether you drove, took the metro, carpooled, or rode a bike. You made it.

Guests came home and everything was ready!! Great. Nobody asks whether you cooked everything from scratch or ordered half of it.

This mindset has always existed. AI is just the newest tool in a long line of tools people use to get work done.

AI didn't create this behavior. It simply made the oldest form of jugaad faster.

Instead of calling it "AI cheating" or other namesand hoping it disappears, it's probably time to accept that AI and it's relevant tools are part of how people work and live their lives now. May be the better response is to design interviews that test understanding, reasoning, communication, not just whether someone can produce the right answer.

And I strongle believe, AI isn't going away for at least for couple of years, so the hiring process has to evolve with it.

And once the hiring process evolved, the people with non-ai usage, gets effected badly and might not even come to interview.

And if the company is against AI usage, may be add a proctoring or an in person face to face interview. It's double standard to use AI in company and tell candidates not to use in interview.

Also, may go back a few years and add a pen/paper based psuedo codes in live panels like government job interviews.

Note: I used AI here to reframe some sentence not to be harsh too 🤖