Columbia Student Faces Disciplinary Action After Using AI to Secure Big Tech Internships
Roy Lee, a sophomore at Columbia University, is embroiled in a controversy that has ignited a fierce debate within the tech industry and academic circles alike. Lee is facing a disciplinary hearing from the university after he openly admitted to utilizing an AI program he developed, dubbed "Interview Coder," to successfully navigate the notoriously challenging technical interviews at tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and TikTok, ultimately securing internship offers from all three.
Lee, who was expected to graduate in 2026, planned to leverage his Columbia degree to launch a career in Big Tech. However, the grueling process of preparing for technical interviews, a rite of passage for aspiring software engineers, left him disillusioned and questioning the very nature of the industry’s hiring practices.
"It was one of the most miserable experiences I’ve ever had while programming," Lee confessed, lamenting the immense time and effort required to master the arcane knowledge and problem-solving techniques demanded by these interviews. He estimated that he spent a staggering 600 hours honing his skills on platforms like LeetCode, a popular training ground for aspiring tech interviewees. This relentless preparation, however, had a detrimental effect on his passion for programming, transforming what he once loved into a source of frustration and resentment.
Lee views the standardized technical interview process as fundamentally flawed, arguing that it prioritizes rote memorization and pattern recognition over genuine problem-solving ability and practical skills. He believes that these interviews often cover topics that are irrelevant to the actual work performed by software engineers in their daily roles.
"It’s whether you’ve seen the problem before, memorized the solution, and can act like this is your first time seeing the problem," he asserted, criticizing the performative nature of the interviews. He argues that they are less about assessing a candidate’s true potential and more about gauging their ability to regurgitate pre-packaged solutions.
Driven by his dissatisfaction with the traditional hiring process, Lee conceived and developed Interview Coder, an AI-powered tool designed to automate the technical interview process. He claims that his program operates seamlessly in the background, evading detection by the monitoring systems employed by Big Tech companies.
According to Lee, Interview Coder leverages readily available AI technologies like ChatGPT to solve coding problems presented during technical interviews. He explained that the program essentially captures a screenshot of the problem and submits it to ChatGPT for a solution, which is then seamlessly integrated into the interview process.
Lee claims that he successfully used Interview Coder to pass technical interviews at TikTok, Meta, and Amazon, receiving internship offers from all three companies. He even documented his experience with Amazon, recording the entire interview process as a demonstration of his program’s effectiveness and a critique of the perceived flaws in the tech industry’s recruiting methods. He subsequently rejected Amazon’s offer.
His actions, however, have not gone unnoticed. Two days after Lee posted his Amazon technical interview video on YouTube, an anonymous complaint was filed with Columbia University, accusing him of cheating during the interview process. The university forwarded a redacted version of the complaint to Lee and scheduled a disciplinary hearing.
The complaint, purportedly originating from Amazon, expressed the company’s disappointment at the alleged cheating and warned that the internship offer would be rescinded. The complaint also emphasized Amazon’s long-standing partnership with Columbia Engineering and expressed concern that incidents like this could jeopardize their relationship. However, it is impossible to verify the source of the complaint.
Lee maintains that he will not attend the disciplinary hearing and plans to leave Columbia University altogether. He argues that the rapid advancements in large language models (LLMs) are poised to render much of human intelligence work obsolete in the near future, rendering a traditional Big Tech career less appealing.
"Most human intelligence work is going to be obsolete in two years," he declared, adding that he believes he has a limited window of opportunity to make a significant impact. He feels that spending two years working in a Big Tech job would be a waste of his time and potential.
Since his story gained traction on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), Lee has capitalized on the attention by offering subscriptions to Interview Coder for $60 per month. He acknowledges that posting his experiences online was partly a marketing strategy.
Lee remains steadfast in his criticism of the technical interview process, arguing that it is a drain on programmers and the broader development ecosystem. He believes that Big Tech companies have little incentive to change the system, as it currently serves their needs, even if it is detrimental to the industry as a whole.
"It’s an attempt at a standardized test that measures problem solving, but in today’s world that’s just obsolete," he concluded. His story has ignited a debate about the future of software engineering, the role of AI in the hiring process, and the need for innovation in technical education.
Amazon declined to comment directly on Lee’s case but stated that its recruiting process is constantly evolving to meet the demands of the current environment. Meta and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. Columbia University also declined to comment on the disciplinary proceedings.
