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A hiring spree meant to fill junior developer roles at a tech firm has turned into a cautionary tale, as none of the 12,000 applicants made it past the final line, even after 450 interviews.
A Reddit post, now widely shared, detailed how the company’s recruitment process collapsed under the weight of AI-generated coding submissions. Despite offering salaries up to ₹20 lakh, not a single candidate was hired.
“We recently posted a job opening on LinkedIn for Junior Frontend/Backend Devs and QA roles, offering a salary range up to Rs 20 lakh,” the post read.
The company said more than 10,000 candidates were filtered out early on due to “insufficient skill sets or resumes that didn’t align with the role,” noting it aimed to avoid wasting time for both sides.
Surprisingly, the firm had allowed the use of AI tools like ChatGPT during the selection process. Yet, candidates repeatedly fell short when asked to explain the code they submitted or break down its time and space complexity.
“We even allowed candidates to use GPT to solve problems,” the post explained. “However, when we ask about time or space complexity, or an explanation of the code they just wrote, many are unable to respond.”
The team noted that most applicants were “vibe coding,” copy-pasting code without understanding the logic behind it. This left hiring managers unable to distinguish between surface-level outputs and real skill.
The outcome has forced the company to rethink its recruitment strategy. One Reddit user suggested that the firm might be switching to a quiz-based system through DoSelect, followed by Google Meet rounds.
The post sparked a flurry of reactions. Some sympathised with the company’s frustration, while others pointed fingers at the recruitment design. One commenter wrote, “Allowing AI in DSA round is more of a red flag. This seems more like a boast about how no one’s good enough.”
Another user added, “Either your recruiting team is bringing you bad devs or your process has some issue.”
Reflecting a similar emotion, a third user commented, “You seriously need to evaluate your interview process and the time wasted on interviews. Either your recruiting team is bringing you bad devs or your process has some issue. Either way wasting 450 hours to find one engineer is stupid to say the least.”
