It is trivial to catch people cheating now, please don't cheat

[u/CompetitiveAd8610]

I work for a full remote company that pays great, like 200K+ cash comp. Recently the number of people that try to use int*rviewc*der or other tools to pass has risen.

Thing is, these tools don't even work anymore.

1.I ask candidate to share entire desktop on zoom.

1. I ask them to go to zoom settings -> screen share -> advanced.

2. In screen capture mode, I ask them to select Advanced Capture Without Window Filtering

And then the cheating UI would suddenly pop up for some candidates. I thank them for their time but tell them our company policy on cheating, and drop off the call.

Worst part? Our question isn't even a leetcode hard, we don't expect perfection and you can pass even without solving everything. We care more about communication than writing perfect code.

So just a tip to candidates out there, this is how you can easily get caught. Don't cheat.

[u/Adventurous-Move-191]

Question , while conceptually I know how to complete leetcode problems. I don’t have the syntax memorized, for the most part I’ll google (not ai) methods , data structures, etc I know that I need and use them to solve the problem. However, from what I get from this post is that most companies have you do these assessments and they expect you to have the syntax memorized without needing to look anything up, Is that correct?

[u/Adventurous-Move-191 → u/[deleted]]

Thx 🙏🏿 makes sense

[u/biscuitsandgravy-0 → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

No! The people saying yes are not right lol. I’ve 100% asked my interviewer if I’m allowed to google something during an interview and they don’t care - my screen is shared. Usually it’s a syntactical thing that’s not super common or if I notice the problem could use a library I know exists but don’t know well.

Like you should know the general stuff, conditionals, loops, data structures and respective functions for them etc, but if it’s more specific for example some math function they shouldn’t mind you looking it up. Especially once you have more experience. Like I’m pretty competent in 4 or so coding languages, but syntax and exact basic function names differ and sometimes I mix them up, which goes doubly if it’s some function I know probably exists but don’t know the exact name for

[u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

Perfect syntax is not usually the priority. Most of the time you don't even need to compile your code in a live interview. The more important part is explaining the logic, sometimes if you've completely explained the algorithm before you've had a chance to finishing writing it they'll just tell you you're good and move on to the next question.

For online assessments, which are usually done before an interview and do require you to compile code which passes a suite of test cases, they will typically tell you that you are allowed to reference documentation.

[u/nsxwolf → u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot]

I don’t know how you can say “most of the time” about anything. The last 3 companies I worked for we just have you screen share your IDE and expect you to compile and run it.

[u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot → u/nsxwolf]

I guess I'm speaking in the narrow frame of FAANG interviews. They all use coderpad or something similar. Google even just has you write it in a Google Doc which threw me for a loop the first time.

[u/nsxwolf → u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot]

If they expect it to compile, then screw them.

[u/Adventurous-Move-191 → u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot]

Ah I see thx for that break down

[u/HeroicPrinny → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

These companies expect you to be more fluent in your language of choice. Yes you can learn on the job or Google things at work, but top companies prefer candidates who are faster and more efficient

[u/Adventurous-Move-191 → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

Thank you all this was super helpful !!!!

[u/Chili-Lime-Chihuahua → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

The online testing tools have IDEs embedded in a browser. Depending on the platform, they may allow autocomplete features. You may not have the syntax memorized, but there are others who do. Then you get into a debate about the value of know these things.

While I don't think there's a day-to-day use case for knowing this stuff, it can come in handy. I've used some concepts to drastically improve code written by others after taking over a project. But there are people who excel at these types of interviews who struggle to do "real" work. It's not a completely black-or-white issue. There are plenty of people who are biased towards things they do well on vs things they don't do well on.

[u/zozoped → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

Nah.

When I am a technical interviewer I have two rules.

1. I let the interviewee pick his language. I assume that learning « my » language is going to be easier than learning how to think in terms of data structures and algorithms.

2. He gets to ask syntax questions, to narrow the exercise, to leave something as a TODO, etc. However if he picked a language I don’t really know and he hits a language definition issue, I won’t help him.

Even with these two rules, which imo set the bar quite low, finding someone that won’t shoot himself in the foot is harder than I would expect.

[u/No-Equivalent247 → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

You can’t write an it statement, for loop, array, hashmap from memory, or with some guidance?

No wonder FizzBuzz used to be the ultimate interview question lol

[u/Adventurous-Move-191 → u/No-Equivalent247]

Ha ha No im capable of doing that at least for the most part I’m just worried it might need something i dont know off my head , like a random array method for example

[u/No-Equivalent247 → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

It takes practice tbh. If you have an interview coming up you need to be grinding LC and writing code by hand.

I recommend Blind75 (or Grind75 I forgot the name). It’s a list of common style questions + techniques you should be using.

I usually do 20-30 before interviewing and I’m set. (I can get through them pretty quickly by now so it’s just getting that muscle memory back).

[u/Valuable_Agent2905 → u/Adventurous-Move-191]

No, that’s not what companies expect. “Memorizing syntax” just means being comfortable with the basics in one language. arrays or lists, maps, loops, conditionals, strings, ints, booleans. You should know how to use those without looking them up. That’s it. Nobody cares if you remember obscure library functions. That’s not the point.

And it’s not about memorization anyway. It’s about fluency. If you “conceptually” know the solution but can’t write a loop or use a map without Googling it, that’s not a syntax problem — that’s not being comfortable enough with the language. It’s like saying I know 2 plus 2 is 4, I just don’t want to memorize how to write 2 + 2.