👨💻 Roy Lee: Fooled Big Tech, Got Expelled from University, and Made $3M
In the fall of 2024, Columbia University student Chungin "Roy" Lee and a friend created Interview Coder in just 10 days: a stealthy AI assistant designed to help with job interviews on LeetCode, a platform widely used in tech to evaluate candidates' skills.
➡️ The tool worked. Within a few months, Chungin used Interview Coder to land job offers from Meta, TikTok, Capital One, and Amazon.
➡️ In February, a video of his Amazon interview went viral. Amazon took the video down within days and pushed Columbia University to expel Roy. The university warned him, calling Interview Coder a tool for cheating on exams. Roy denied this and took the controversy public.
➡️ Columbia suspended Roy in early March until May 2026, then expelled him a week and a half later for "violating university policy."
➡️ But in April, Roy revealed that Interview Coder's subscriptions had already generated $3 million in annual revenue.
💲 In under three days, he secured $5.3 million for his new project, Cluely. Cluely is based on Interview Coder, but it can now be used for more than just interviews, including exams, business meetings, and dates.
Now boldly encouraging people to "cheat on everything," Roy isn't fazed by criticism: he made his stance clear in his response to Amazon.
"Maybe stop asking dumb interview questions and people wouldn't build shit like this," posted Roy
Do you agree with Roy?
❤️ — yes, I hate dumb interview questions
🔥 — no, he's a cheater!
