Candidate Using AI Freezes During Interview After Recruiter Asks Him To Share Screen: 'I Let Him Talk'

Ever since artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots became mainstream, conducting tests and interviews has become a recruiter's nightmare due to widespread cheating. Lily Zhang, a California-based tech lead and research scientist, recently shared a firsthand account of this growing problem on social media. While conducting a machine learning (ML) system design interview, Zhang caught a candidate using dishonest tactics to forge their answers instead of relying on their own intellect.

As per Zhang, she caught the candidate cheating using AI quite early in the interaction but decided to play along to see how the situation developed.

"Caught a candidate cheating at an ML system design interview today. He was talking without thinking. And I can see that from the first three minutes, but I let him talk," Zhang said in an X (formerly Twitter) post.

After the initial part of the interview, Zhang ordered the candidate to share his screen for a test, but he instantly 'froze' before ultimately exposing himself.

"We went through the entire design end-to-end. Then I invited him to share the screen and draw the architecture. He froze. Then I saw a chatbot window flickering. I had to terminate the interview," said Zhang.

"For people who cheat, what is on their mind? Why not buy more reliable cheating software? Isn't it very obvious?"

Check The Viral Post Here:

caught a candidate cheating at an ML system design interview today. He was talking without thinking. And I can see that from the first three minutes, but I let him talk.

We went through the entire design end-to-end. Then I invited him to share the screen and draw the…

— lily zhang (@lily_gpupoor) July 24, 2026

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Social Media Reactions

As the post gained traction, social media users questioned what such candidates stand to achieve when they will be exposed during the probation period.

"What I'll never understand is how do they expect to pass their probation period if they somehow do make it in," said one user, while another added: "I would have stopped it after the first red flag. Letting it play out just wastes everyone's time."

A third commented: "The flickering chatbot window is the real tell, not the freezing. means he'd given up on hiding it minutes before you actually called it."

A fourth said: "At a previous organisation, one time we had a candidate clearly typing questions as we were interviewing them, pausing to answer, and reading off of a screen. It was so blatant. Still confuses me as to how they thought they were going to get away with it."