How I Detected a Candidate Using GPT During a Phone Interview

I recently adjusted our hiring process to conduct a quick phone screen before inviting candidates for on‑site interviews, aiming to improve efficiency and reduce travel hassles.

During one phone interview, the candidate started with a normal self‑introduction, but when technical questions began, each answer was preceded by a 5‑10 second pause, after which the response was delivered fluently, using formal, written‑style language.

Suspecting the use of GPT, I asked a basic database question: “What is an index?” After another pause, the candidate recited a textbook definition of primary, clustered, and non‑clustered indexes without hesitation.

Next, I described a table schema and asked for a specific SQL query to retrieve data. Following a ten‑second silence, the candidate replied:

select ip, count(*) as request_count from your_table_name group by ...

The phrasing, especially the alias as request_count and the placeholder your_table_name, felt unmistakably like GPT‑generated output.

To verify, I entered the same prompt into ChatGPT and received an identical query, confirming my suspicion that the candidate was leveraging AI during the phone interview.

While this tactic might help pass an initial phone screen, it is unlikely to succeed in later, more in‑depth interview rounds, and it highlights the pitfalls of relying on rote memorization rather than practical problem‑solving skills.