Table of Contents
A Clever Student’s Big Tech Hack
A Columbia University student named Roy Lee is in hot water. He built an AI program to help him get internships at huge companies like Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. But now, Columbia wants to punish him for it. Roy says he’s done with school and plans to leave. He thinks his program proves Big Tech jobs are old news.
Why Big Tech Jobs Are Tough
Getting a job at a company like Amazon or Meta is super hard. These companies, often called FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google), make people do tons of interviews. The worst part? Technical interviews. In these, you solve tricky coding problems live on camera while someone watches. It’s stressful, and Roy hated it.
Roy’s Breaking Point
Roy is a sophomore at Columbia. He’d finish school in 2026 if he stayed. But training for those coding interviews crushed his love for programming. “It was miserable,” he said. He spent 600 hours practicing on a site called LeetCode. And it made him hate coding. “It’s crazy that this is how they test people,” he added.
Roy says these interviews don’t even match real programming jobs. Instead, they’re like a show. You just memorize answers and pretend it’s new. So, he decided to fight back.
The AI That Fooled Everyone
Roy created a program called Interview Coder. It does the hard work for you during technical interviews. And guess what? Big Tech couldn’t tell he used it! “It’s simple,” Roy said. “You snap a picture of the problem, and ChatGPT solves it.” He even put it on GitHub for others to see.
Roy used his AI to pass interviews at TikTok, Meta, and Amazon. All three offered him jobs! He recorded his Amazon interview to prove it worked. “The hiring process is broken,” he said.
Trouble Knocks
Two days after Roy posted his Amazon video on YouTube, someone tattled to Columbia. They said he cheated. Columbia set a hearing for March 11. The complaint claimed Amazon was mad and would take back its offer. But Roy isn’t worried. He’s not going to the hearing. “I’m leaving,” he said. He even booked a one-way ticket out of town.
Amazon wouldn’t talk about Roy. But they said they’re okay with AI tools—as long as you don’t sneak them in. Columbia stayed quiet, too, because of privacy rules.
Roy’s Big Idea
Roy thinks AI, like ChatGPT, will change everything. “In two years, most smart jobs will be gone,” he said. So, he’s skipping Big Tech and betting on himself. His video went viral, and now he sells Interview Coder for $60 a month. “It started as a stunt,” he admitted. But he believes technical interviews hurt programmers everywhere.
“They’re outdated,” Roy said. “Big companies won’t fix it because it works for them. But it’s bad for the world.”
What’s Next?
Roy’s story is blowing up online. Kids like you are talking about it! He’s not sorry, and he’s ready to take risks. Will his AI idea change how we get jobs? Only time will tell.
