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I was asked to participate in an interview with a candidate for a junior programmer job within the company I work in. The interview includes a colleague of mine an HR representative.

Studying the solutions provided to the problems (the initial test), I have noticed that one of them looked quite advanced for a newbie and felt it was not solved by the candidate. I could quickly find the exact solution (same indentation, same structure, just a few variable names changed, so it's clearly copied).

The coding platform explicitly states that completely copying a solution is not allowed (only API documentation, StackOverflow etc. can be used)

I have already told the other colleague about what I found, since the job opportunity is within his department and I recommended to favor candidates that provided their solutions, even if they have less points.

I am wondering how should I react to this during the interview.

  • tell the candidate - this would clearly embarrass him and might also make him cheat more elaborately in the future
  • do not tell the candidate - this could be interpreted as unfair (feedback is incomplete)

Question: How to deal with a candidate that copied at the test?

[EDIT]

Thank you all for the constructive comments and answers. Indeed the process is not OK, as most of the coding problems are at least 2 years old. Unfortunately, I cannot control the process, but I can make a suggestion to my manager to change it (i.e. ensure that problems are changed/updated).

The interview - the candidate showed a modest knowledge and he was unable to demonstrate he grasps the concepts required by the code he has written. My colleague suggested that we think he might have used some code from somewhere else and he was surprised that we figured it out.

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    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – Monica Cellio
    Jan 17, 2018 at 2:53
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    How long was the snippet of code?
    – Nacht
    Jan 17, 2018 at 4:14
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    Only API documentation, StackOverflow etc. can be used ehm... thats what he did?
    – EpicKip
    Jan 17, 2018 at 8:44
  • Precisely. The candidate looked things up within the scope of the allowed sources. The question is: does the OP understand how the code works.
    – Andy
    May 29, 2022 at 21:04

7 Answers 7

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You're making assumptions here, we have no guarantee that the candidate did cheat, just a very large suspicion that they did. Rather than confronting them, since you already have an interview with them, ask them to walk you through their solution. Make sure they understood what they wrote and how it works. This should quickly highlight if the person cheated or not.

There is always a chance that they either managed a very similar answer, or are the user who answered the question on SO, and calling someone out when you could be in the wrong isn't the best way to go. It's better to investigate and prove that you are right.

You never know, maybe they are that good and came up with the same answer? If so, you have a strong candidate for the job (Assuming the answer was good) and you haven't burnt any bridges by outright calling them a liar.

If it turns out they did cheat, they should be able to understand they were caught from your questioning. Just let them go with a thanks, but no thanks and leave it at that. Confrontation, especially in an interview setting is not the way to go.

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    Philosophically speaking, I have no guarantee that he did cheat, but having virtually no experience (from CV) on Web development and writing a convoluted JS code that is virtually the same as an SO answer is extremely unlikely.
    – Alexei
    Jan 16, 2018 at 17:27
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    Indeed it is, however innocent until proven guilty. You don't know who originally wrote that SO answer, it could be your applicant. It's most likely not and they will fall over on the first query into their code, but better to let them make the mistake rather than you accuse them
    – Draken
    Jan 16, 2018 at 17:29
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    "Innocent until proven guilty" only applies to courts of law. The rule for interviews is "No Hire until proven Hire."
    – stannius
    Jan 16, 2018 at 19:57
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    When I was taking an intro programming course in junior high, the instructor was positive my best friend and I were cheating. For tests, he would seat us in opposite ends of the room, write the questions on the board (so we couldn't somehow see mimeographed questions ahead of time), and watch us like a hawk. Still, our answers can back letter-for-letter identical -- even things like comments and variable names. He never figured it out: we were just very similarly minded and solved the same problem the same way.
    – Michael Lorton
    Jan 16, 2018 at 20:49
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    @Draken There is no decision in your company that affects your bottom line more than the hiring process. In terms of risk per minute, interviews are the riskiest behavior you do at work.I would rather erroneously reject a good candidate than erroneously accept a bad candidate. And I wouldn't waste time on someone that appears with high confidence to have cheated.
    – corsiKa
    Jan 17, 2018 at 2:10
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How to deal with a candidate that copied at the test?

I would not waste your time telling the candidate anything, they will of course deny they cheated. If you are sure he cheated, let the hiring manager know, and recommend he look at other candidates.

If someone will cheat, what else will they do if you hire them?

Short answer: Forget about the cheater and move on to other candidates.

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    But what if he got it from stack overflow?
    – Sandra K
    Jan 16, 2018 at 18:06
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    @SandraK Is that an attempt at a joke because we're currently using Stack Exchange, or do you think it matters?
    – Matthew Read
    Jan 16, 2018 at 18:10
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    @MatthewRead OP said "copying a solution is not allowed (only API documentation, StackOverflow etc. can be used)". What if the candidate got the solution from Stack Overflow is what I meant. I did not get your comment.
    – Sandra K
    Jan 16, 2018 at 18:13
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    If that's exactly what it said, it's ambiguous as to whether you can copy a solution from StackOverflow. As written, it's not just ambiguous, it's baffling. If it's trying to say that you can't copy solutions from any site but can use StackOverflow the same way you can use any other site, why mention StackOverflow at all? It's not an exception or additional restriction.
    – David Schwartz
    Jan 16, 2018 at 20:01
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    @DavidSchwartz Schwartz No, it's not ambiguous at all. The poster obviously meant that they're allowed to use the site as a resource. That obviously doesn't include copying an answer directly. It's a matter of common sense and parlance. When someone says you may look something up on StackOverflow they are not telling you it's okay to copy an answer directly; they're telling you it's okay to use the site as a resource to learn a concept you were otherwise unfamiliar with. Trying to find a loophole to get around what everyone knows is obviously cheating doesn't make it okay.
    – BooleanCheese
    Jan 16, 2018 at 21:51
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From what's written (in the question and in comments that were later moved to a chat), it seems the rules presented to the candidate said that using SO is allowed, they found the solution on SO. Therefore, it doesn't appear to me that they cheated, and it would be unfair to disqualify the candidate. But it would depend a lot on the exact wording of the rules were as they were presented to the candidate.

In comments you said,

SO and/or other documentation can be used for small things (e.g. how to efficiently sort some array or list in some language)

Surely this isn't the exact language that was presented to the candidate? If it wasn't explicit what is a "little thing" and what is a "big thing", it seems to me the candidate used resources that were explicitly allowed.

It's your company's obligation to present a question that can't be answered by copy & paste from SO, if you want to allow candidates to refer to SO, but not to copy & paste.

Your best resolution at this point is to use your face to face interview time with this candidate to find out whether they actually have the required knowledge for the position, and revise your screening questions before you present them to the next candidate.

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    Agreed, he found an advanced solution that worked well. Do you want a candidate that would come up with an inferior solution when a better one is easily available?? If you want to avoid copy/paste, then give a task where full copy/paste would be impossible. If you don't so that and reject the good solutions, then I guess you deserve your average developers.
    – akostadinov
    Jan 16, 2018 at 21:18
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    You've hit on the big issue here: this was a bad screening question. "Open book" tests should be more advanced than a simple SO question can answer. Moreover, how would you know if another candidate just paid someone to write his answer? Chalk it up to bad screening and interview him. I applaud him for knowing the answer was right. I would still ask him to walk me through his solution, since I don't want programmers who copy/paste from SO without understanding why the answer is what they need.
    – Bloodgain
    Jan 17, 2018 at 0:11
  • If this is what happened (and I suspect it is), their biggest fault is probably not including an appropriate CC-by-SA acknowledgement. If they can adequately explain the code (whether they wrote it or lifted it), you might want to mention that in the future.
    – TripeHound
    Jan 17, 2018 at 9:41
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    @BloodGain obviously the why the answer is what I need is because it worked. lol
    – BirdLawExpert
    Jan 18, 2018 at 16:25
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If your company is looking for genius level coders - then select from other candidates who fill the criteria.

If not, you need to redefine your concept of cheating - is it cheating to surf Stackoverflow, API docs, Github to find solutions to problems?

What legal repercussions of this alleged cheating exist? Will the company be sued? Then this candidate is not for you.

Is your source code open? Every reason to hire them as they've proved they're very apt at problem-solving.

If you have any doubts consider that this 'newbie cheater' got the highest scores. What will they do in 5 years time given the opportunity to work with other professionals in a team that can guide them...

And be straight-up in your discussion: let them know that they exceeded expectations (score wise) but voice your doubts and concerns - you'll both learn something new. Diplomacy is a difficult trade -perhaps let the HR rep handle that. Do the good cop bad cop routine.

Imho, if a candidate is code-lit enough to get you what you need then he will definitely be an asset, maybe even take your job when you retire.

The interview could also include a live code test as specified in the comments to assess the junior programmer's understanding of the required languages.

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  • We just had to endure some "Ethics and compliance" lectures. It seems in future you can't sell code you produced if it contains copied material, even if it's from a help site and intended to be copied. We have inspectors who come and actually do a web search on portions of code, to see if it has been plagiarised. Copied code has to be credited properly, and licenced if necessary. Or else you really can be sued.
    – RedSonja
    Jan 19, 2018 at 9:56
  • @RedSonja Is this status quo regarding the legal aspects for Closed source-code products? What about GPL or MIT (to name but two) licensed code? As far as I know, it is valid (read legal) to utilize freely licensed code in proprietary licensed software
    – NexusInk
    Jan 19, 2018 at 15:50
  • @RedSonja Are you in the US? This is absolutely not the case in the US
    – Kyeotic
    Jan 20, 2018 at 5:59
  • I am not a lawyer so I don't know much about copyright law. But in the lecture we heard it was stated that you have to have a valid licence where relevant - we can all agree with that. Even free code has some restrictions if you read the small print. They like you to credit it. Now we have customers who buy the source code from us, not just the executable, and use of copied code is a sensitive area. We state that it's all our own work, and then it isn't. Yes, it's tricky.
    – RedSonja
    Jan 22, 2018 at 8:11
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It seems that most people here, make the implicit assumption that moral should be determinant to choose the right candidate. I believe this is a wrong approach. In a job selection process, your goal is to select the candidate which will be the most profitable for the company.

Now, I'm not saying that the moral question (to cheat or not to cheat) shouldn't be determinant. I'm just saying that this question shouldn't considered obvious.

Edits :

  1. The Photon objected that an employee who would cheat in pursuit of profits puts the company at risk of legal and other hazards.

Yes, this is the general people reasoning, but the candidate may believe it wasn't cheating or he wouldn't cause real harm and would know where to stop in real life situation (maybe).

  • We should ask ourselves if all people who ever cheated a school exam in their life, are a danger for their company;
  • also the capability to take risks is desirable for the position;
  • even in some cases the benefits for of cheating are larger for the company than the drawbacks; or even
  • the company would benefit from having someone to bear the blame in their place for some actions (in software prod. for an example : there are known cases of companies having stolen GPLed code in their software. They might be glad to have someone to fire when it is discovered).

For sure, I would not recommend such malpractices, but I just want to illustrated that one shouldn't see thing in black and white. There is much gray in real life situations and one should probably examine such case with a broader point of view than just stick to morals.

  1. If the candidate cheats on a well-designed test (I don't think this one is) then you lose the chance to evaluate their skills.

Maybe, a well designed test would be one that take this thinking in account, and a candidate able to cheat such a well designed test, might be considered smarter that the test design itself.

More edit : As a conclusion, I would add, that IMO, for those reasons but depending on your needs, the wisest choice might be to confront him with your observations and give him the opportunity to justify his action.

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    1. An employee who would cheat in pursuit of profits puts the company at risk of legal and other hazards. 2. If the candidate cheats on a well-designed test (I don't think this one is) then you lose the chance to evaluate their skills.
    – The Photon
    Jan 16, 2018 at 23:04
  • Yes, this is the general reasoning, but the employee may do that believing he wouldn't cause real harm and would know where to stop in real life situation (maybe). Are all people who ever cheated a school exam in their life, danger for their company ? also in some cases the benefits are larger than the drawbacks, or even the company would benefit from having someone to bear the blame in their place for some actions (in software prod. for an example : there are known cases of companies having stolen GPLed code in their software. They might be glad to have someone to fire when it is discovered).
    – Camion
    Jan 17, 2018 at 4:48
  • For sure, I do not recommend such malpractices, but I just want to illustrated that one shouldn't see thing in black on white. There is much gray in real life situations and one should probably examine such case with a broader point of view than just stick to morals.
    – Camion
    Jan 17, 2018 at 4:48
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    Oh and, about the "cheating on a well designed test", I would add that a well designed test would be one that take this thinking in account (e.g.: to evaluate the capability to take risks) , and that an employee able to cheat a test, might be smarter that the test itself.
    – Camion
    Jan 17, 2018 at 5:00
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    "a candidate able to cheat such a well designed test, might be considered smarter that the test design itself." Anybody else immediately think of Capt Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru ? Reboot version, of course.....
    – Dragonel
    Jan 17, 2018 at 22:43
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Assuming that you are right about him cheating. I think that you should act depending of what you are looking for in the candidate:

  • Programmers should solve problems. If your concern is to be productive, I believe the candidate is perfect since he didn't try to solve a problem that has already been solved but he used an existing solution.

  • If you are worried about the candidate has the knowledge or not, you can setup another interview to ask him about his solution.

  • If you are looking for someone with high ethics then you can start thinking about discarding him, or ask him to do another test to see if he tries to cheat again.

Personally I don't think about this as an issue because I find someone who can use an existing solution more helpful than someone who spends more time writing new code, fixing, trying several approaches...

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  • Realistically how many situations as a programmer are you in when you can't just copy and paste from SO. You should be having a follow up interview anyway where developers should defend their design decisions at which point you can ask him his thinking for this. He's either going to explain the code to you or he's going to explain the code to you and tell you it was faster than writing it. People assume all Jr Devs are the same. Some people have better coding brains. Jr. Dev is just a title for an entry level programmer
    – BirdLawExpert
    Jan 18, 2018 at 16:30
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Are you sure he cheated? If yes: The idea it is not about "finding solution on problems already solved", or "productivity" or "has enough knowledge". It is also not about if he could be tested or not, because of what he did... no.

He cheated. He broke a principle. If he doesn't have the principle of correctness should he be a part of the company? Cheating is stealing. If he steals for a gain, what he will steal next time(from your company)?

If no:

If you really think he is good, tell him that you suspect him of cheating at test and offer him another chance with a different test. But a good programmer doesn't need to cheat. And a good programmer doesn't become good by cheating.

In the end, it is your choice. My advice is to look not only at the results which would qualify him for the job. It also matters what kind of person you hire.

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