Columbia Student reveals big tech recruitment shortcomings with ai tool, gets expelled after going viral

A student at Columbia University has stated that he employed an AI program he had developed to assist students in cheating successfully during their coding interviews to secure summer internships at tech giants such as Amazon, Meta, TikTok, and others. An intangible piece of software called Interview Coder was created by Roy Lee to assist students in passing LeetCode interviews, including algorithmic and coding problems.

Baptiste Vicini, an API pioneer and tech entrepreneur, recently shared some behind-the-scenes data on X (formerly Twitter) regarding how a 21-year-old college student made $170,000 a month "trolling" Silicon Valley.

"This is Roy Lee. He is an undergrad student who just got EXPELLED from Columbia. Not for cheating on exams. But for EXPOSING Big Tech's hiring secrets. Here's how a 21-year-old made $170K/month "trolling" Silicon Valley," his long post starts.

"Meet Chungin "Roy" Lee. 600 horrible hours of working on LeetCode (tech's toughest coding interview prep platform) nearly got him out of coding forever. Instead of throwing in the towel, though, he had a idea that would lay bare Silicon Valley's greatest weakness," this post added.

Roy Lee created Interview Coder, an AI assistant that is non-intrusive and can instantly solve any coding problem. The genius part? The screen recording software couldn't detect it. To Lee's surprise, he wasn't done yet. Something nuts was going to happen to him.

He approached the world's biggest tech companies: TikTok, Meta, and Amazon. Four interviews and 96 hours later? Each one of them gave him a job.

Lee turned them down. His real mission? To demonstrate the reality of tech hiring's mess. To show them how he duped all of them, he uploaded the interview video to YouTube. Upon 1 lakh views, Silicon Valley erupted.

Amazon executives went ballistic. They sent Columbia University an hysterical email about Lee's "alarming" conduct. All corporate offers were forthwith rescinded.

Meanwhile, Lee made $170K in one month, and Interview Coder grew 50 per cent weekly. The gadget that exposes the cracks in Big Tech's machine? It was becoming an empire of millions of dollars. But there were consequences.

First, he was suspended from Columbia University for a week. The university's disciplinary board held that he was "responsible for facilitating academic dishonesty." Lee, though, did not go quietly into the night. He posted images of university staff on the web and released recordings of his own disciplinary hearings.

How did Columbia University respond? A one-year suspension. But Lee wasn't even fazed by it. His response to becoming an internet sensation? "Update: I got kicked out!". Either way, he had no desire to go back to Colombia. Traditional routes already didn't interest him.

“Lee’s logic was bulletproof: “Everyone programs nowadays with the help of AI. It doesn’t make sense to have an interview format that assumes otherwise.” One week of coding exposed decades of outdated practices,” Baptiste Vicini’s lengthy thread also added.

In spite of being instructed otherwise, 80 per cent of students are said to be already using AI in coding exams. Large technology companies such as Anthropic, Deloitte, and Google were considering significantly altering their hiring practices.

Vicini’s tweet claims that Lee has already enlisted viral creators to assist with Interview Coder’s marketing. In addition, he is working on an enigmatic new project. Where will Lee go next? San Francisco. At the age of 21, he decided to pursue entrepreneurship instead of corporate America.