Thinking of preparing for a job interview with AI? This candidate got caught lying with a simple question

In today’s competitive tech job market, many candidates are turning to AI tools to prepare for interviews, even during live video calls. But as one recruiter from the software startup Kapwing discovered, relying too heavily on artificial intelligence can backfire—spectacularly. A seemingly strong candidate applying for a software engineering position L3 was exposed after struggling to answer a follow-up question about his own experience.

A flawless start followed by total silence

According to recruiter Eric Lu, the interview began smoothly. The candidate gave a convincing explanation of a technical challenge he supposedly faced while building a notification app for a daycare. He mentioned implementing backend rate-limiting, lazy loading, and pagination for DynamoDB—terms that initially seemed impressive and relevant to Kapwing’s tech stack.

But things quickly unraveled when Lu dug deeper into the problem the app supposedly faced. The candidate claimed Twilio’s API couldn’t handle sending SMS messages to 30 parents at once, a technical issue that didn’t hold up. When asked why he implemented pagination in DynamoDB, the candidate paused. Then he paused some more.

The AI-generated story crumbles

After two minutes of uncomfortable silence, Lu pressed further: “Can you tell me the truth? What did you really work on?” The candidate admitted that the technical story had been mostly fabricated with the help of AI. Although he had some real experience, his claimed achievements were generated by artificial intelligence, not his own work.

This case highlights the growing concern among tech recruiters. Tools that simulate real technical responses can be helpful, but when used dishonestly, they risk damaging a candidate’s credibility—and future opportunities.