Landing a job for a Big Tech company is a nightmare.
The most hated part of the process is the technical interview.
During a technical interview, programmers solve esoteric coding problems.
© Roy Lee
Often, they have to do it live on camera while an employee from the company watches.
Lee is a sophomore at Columbia, hed graduate in 2026 if he stuck around.
He planned to get a degree from the college and use it to get a job in Big Tech.
Training for the technical interview killed his passion for the job.
It was one of the most miserable experiences Ive ever had while programming, he told me.
I felt like I had to do it.
It made me hate programming, he said.
According to Lee, these interviews often cover topics no one will ever see on the job.
Instead, its a performance for executives.
The answer to a lot of these problems is so algorithmic.
Theyre also just not representative at all of what you do as a programmer on the job.
So Lee wrote a program calledInterview Coderto help him and others bypass the process.
In reality, the product is really simple, he said.
Literally, thats the entire product.
Someone could probably build a working prototype version of this that works in less than 1,000 lines of code.
Dont take his word for it.
He said they all gave him offers.
Meta and TikTok did not return Gizmodos request for comment.
Lee recorded his entire technical interview with Amazon and posted the whole thing, uncut,on YouTube.
Then they made him an offer.
Amazon would not comment directly on the matter.
Lee shared various materials from Columbia with Gizmodo that verified the disciplinary hearings are real.
Lee told me he wont be attending the hearing.
He said that LLMs have made getting a job at big tech pointless.
Maybe its stupid of me to say this, he said.
Most human intelligence work is going to be obsolete in two years.
So I have two years to make something happen.
The attention has been good for him.
Hes selling subscriptions to Interview Coder for $60 a month.
I didnt really have the balls to do something like this until quite recently, he said.
But he was adamant that the technical interview process was a drain on programmers and the world.
Big tech companies dont have an incentive to change, he said.
Its an attempt at a standardized test that measures problem solving, but in todays world thats just obsolete.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
The Funniest Memes About JD Vance Killing the Pope
“Sowwy I made you dead.”
Two banks say Amazon has paused negotiations on some international data centers.
Pacific Rims TV Show Drifts to Prime Video
Good news for giant robot fans.
Meta Pissed Off Everyone With Poorly Redacted Docs
Meta is being very transparent on accident.
