Ask HN: How do you deal with obvious AI assistant usage in interviews

I've been interviewing for technical candidates in my current role, and I'm seeing what I believe is a relatively high rate of AI assistants/overlays during interviews. The role I'm hiring for is a Sr. Release Engineer, and even (what appear to be) qualified candidates are showing up obviously reading from prompts. I say obviously for two reasons:

1. I can SEE them reading. Their eyes go back and forth, and it's clear they are reading.

2. They NEVER stop talking. Normally getting answers out of engineers requires a legitimate question with a sound purpose. I'm getting _immediate_ answers with well thought out, multi-point rationale.

So...I'm rejecting all of those candidates the instant I detect it. How are everyone else doing this?

3 points | by stackdestroyer 10 hours ago

7 comments

  • allinonetools_ 5 hours ago
    I have noticed this too. One thing that helps is asking follow-up questions that go deeper into their past decisions or tradeoffs — it is much harder to fake real experience there. You can usually tell pretty quickly who actually understands vs who is just reading.
  • stackdestroyer 10 hours ago
    To be clear, I have started asking absurd questions, and seeing what the reaction is. Those using AI assistants never balk at these.
  • edwardsrobbie 7 hours ago
    If I think this happening I'll ask them to close their eyes.
    [-]
    • rboyd 7 hours ago
      they'll just click the "close eyes" filter button soon enough
      [-]
      • chistev 2 hours ago
        What's this?
        [-]
        • shinryuu 1 hour ago
          I think that's a joke. You know how you can apply filters with different backgrounds etc.

          Instead there would be a filter where it looks like you have closed your eyes.

  • behnamsherafat 4 hours ago
    Honestly, just start asking them about the bugs you once introduced in prod. AI can’t replicate that panic.
  • moomoo11 6 hours ago
    In person interviews

    If that’s too expensive then maybe you should just have more AI agent adoption so you don’t need to hire third rate developers.

  • bigyabai 10 hours ago
    Are you telling them upfront that AI usage is forbidden? If not it's fair game.
  • AbanoubRodolf 5 hours ago
    [dead]