AI Tool Helps Columbia Student Land Internship Offers From Amazon, Meta And TikTok

A Columbia University student has developed an AI tool called Interview Coder that he claims helped him secure summer internships at top tech companies, including Amazon, Meta, TikTok, and more. Notably, Roy Lee's tool is designed to assist candidates in acing coding interviews by providing invisible support. Mr Lee recently showcased his achievements on LinkedIn, revealing that he landed multiple internship offers and would choose one if the others were rescinded.

"The funniest thing about all of this is that people think @InterviewCoder only works for Amazon. LOL. no one is safe," he wrote on X. 

See the tweet here:

funniest thing about all of this is that people think @InterviewCoder only works for Amazon. LOL. no one is safe.https://t.co/d98c3qNQyH pic.twitter.com/IjRm6usZkQ

— Roy (@im_roy_lee) March 1, 2025

He even posted a YouTube video that allegedly shows him taking a live LeetCode interview for Amazon and using his Interview Coder tool to solve the coding challenges in real time. After the video went viral, he shared an email allegedly from Amazon to Columbia University, expressing concerns about his behaviour and use of an Interview Coder to cheat during the interview process.

Mr Lee responded to Amazon's email, claiming he had already declined the internship offer and had no interest in working at Amazon. "Point of the software is to hopefully bring an end to Leetcode interviews. This tool took me a week to build and a better engineer could've built it in half a day," he said.

amazon execs r so mad LOLLL maybe stop asking dumb interview questions and people wouldn't build shit like thishttps://t.co/RMwouy3enr pic.twitter.com/sBdWTx2aFJ

— Roy (@im_roy_lee) February 28, 2025

He received similar emails from Meta and Capital One rescinding the internship offer.

oops pic.twitter.com/fhLqjteJC3

— Roy (@im_roy_lee) March 2, 2025

oops again https://t.co/YC3j5cHZar pic.twitter.com/VAKkNtLwjO

— Roy (@im_roy_lee) March 2, 2025

Mr Lee revealed that his true intention was not to land an internship but to expose the flaws in the LeetCode interview process used by top tech companies. He wanted to demonstrate the effectiveness of his AI tool, Interview Coder, and ultimately, to bring about change in the way companies conduct technical interviews.

Reacting to his post, one user wrote, ''You are legendary. Not because I want to cheat on a technical interview but because I've wanted to destroy and eliminate them for years."

Another said, "This will eventually force big tech to mandate in-person interviews or make the candidates go to a Pearson VUE centre. Eventually, this hurts the less privileged Americans and foreign workers who now must travel to be interviewed."

A third commented, "I don't understand why this would upset them. the point of AI is to make people more efficient. calling it cheating is a little reductive. tech companies/ those hiring engineers should be cool with this idk. Before AI everyone googled code anyway. the baseline skills are there."