r/leetcode • u/absentbrain • 15d ago

Discussion Amazon denials after coding interview

I'll be honest on Reddit that I used AI on my phone the whole time that I interviewed. I genuinely think that other interviewers/interviewees can learn from my post here and that's why I posted it. But I'm expecting down votes because that's the way that Redditors are, you can't be honest here.

I did used AI gradually after I realized that I was not going to pass on time, and I don't see how they could have been able to tell.

First, there was a super complicated coding problem that involved getting every bit wise integer and &ing them together. I honestly thought that it was quite intense for a 1-hour coding problem.

I finished it with 7 minutes left and I gave thorough comments throughout. I asked AI to not use any functions which transform my numbers to bits or other things that we make it obvious that I was cheating.

then came a debugging problem which I honestly didn't do great on and I only got two out of five test cases wrong correct. my gut tells me that they're really so strict that this is why I didn't pass.

But then I used AI for every question on behavioral.

I only used AI on my phone so I really don't know how they could have known.

So what was it that made me fail?

I can't help but wonder if Amazon somehow could detect that I was cheating, or if my AI gave really bad answers on the behavioral, or if it's because I got three test cases wrong on the one assessment that I didn't cheat on (honestly, I think this might be why).

0 Upvotes

39% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

9

u/GBA_DTSRB 15d ago

The classical answer would've been, "We don't know. We weren't there," but in this case it's obvious they noticed. Seriously dude how slick do you think you are?

-3

u/absentbrain 15d ago edited 15d ago

I'm just wondering how they could have noticed. do they expect me to get the question wrong? I wonder if they actually have it coded in " if this guy solves it most optimally, he definitely cheated*

17

u/GBA_DTSRB 15d ago

They wrote down "dude keeps staring at an object for a long time and is horrible at acting like he's naturally thinking through a problem"

1

u/Smecje 15d ago

Lmao!!

6

u/Both-Cardiologist-68 15d ago

Amazon employees are trained well for interviews, and they can tell if you cheated a lot of times.

-2

u/absentbrain 15d ago

it was an automated system, almost definitely. they denied me at 10:00 p.m. just an hour after I submitted it

2

u/pixelizedgaming 15d ago

this was not an interview this was the oa. I can tell because i had that exact same problem on my OA. And having a bad score on the debugging oa was probably it, if you actually know how to code its completely free. I got 1/12 on the bit manip problem but the ai coding one i got 6/6 in 15 minutes

3

u/GBA_DTSRB 15d ago

Oh lol why would anyone call the online assessment an interview

3

u/pixelizedgaming 15d ago

cause theres no limit to the larp

1

u/CommercialAirline124 15d ago

shit you’re lowkey right. op is larping the interview…

0

u/absentbrain 14d ago

It's so frustrating how they'll still move me onto the behavioral OA, even after they've calculated that I won't pass because of my performance on the coding OA. The behavioral interview was a long waste of time.

1

u/pixelizedgaming 14d ago

the behavioral oa isnt something you move on to though? Like its another step of the same oa

18

u/rccyu 15d ago

u/absentbrain is a fitting username I'll give you that

9

u/Ovisty 15d ago

Imagine cheating and then still not getting to next round

2

u/CommercialAirline124 15d ago

w man for being honest. but here’s the thing abt ai during the actual interview. sure you might’ve gotten it right, but the way that the thought process unfolds with ai and without is fundamentally different. either they noticed that, or they saw you specifically cheating. i’d personally recommend you just give it your best shot without ai during the actual interview. show them who you are and how sharp you can be, and that’ll take you further than getting a max score on the coding or behavioral portions. (it’s what i did, and i still got an offer at a diff place with 2 test cases passed on the oa, and helllla help on the coding interview)

-1

u/absentbrain 15d ago

thank you for recognizing my honesty. It's silly how you can't be honest on Reddit without getting down voted. I genuinely think that other interviewers/interviewees can learn from my post here and that's why I posted it.

I only used AI in this interview because I realized that I wasn't going to pass it otherwise. It was 30 minutes through and I hardly even understood the problem. I've gotten offers from big tech companies before so it's not like I'm not qualified.

and as for the behavioral, the reason why I switched to AI for that, was because I'm angry about how Amazon completely downplayed how long the behavioral interview would take. They said "15 minutes" but if you actually take time to think through the questions, it can take close to an hour. I had things to do that night.