July 7 – Igeekphone News
Former Huawei “Genius Youth” recruit Li Bojie has publicly criticized his interview experience with Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, describing the hiring process as slow, unprofessional, and ultimately “seriously offensive.”
In a series of posts on social media, Li claimed that the recruitment process was unnecessarily drawn out and that one interviewer accused him of copying code during a technical interview without evidence.
“I Felt Seriously Offended”
According to Li, he successfully passed DeepSeek’s written assessment but then waited nearly two weeks before being scheduled for an interview.
During that time, he said he had already received job offers from other companies. The interview was only arranged after he repeatedly followed up with the recruiter.
Li said the second-round interview left him particularly disappointed.
He claimed the interviewer arrived late, appeared unfamiliar with the position being discussed, and repeatedly focused on research topics instead of engineering challenges relevant to the role.
The most controversial moment came during the live coding interview.
According to Li, the interviewer noticed that he occasionally looked at a second monitor and accused him of copying code.
“Because I had two monitors during the coding interview, the interviewer said I kept looking at the left screen and accused me of copying code,” Li wrote. “He told me to stop copying and said that unless I could prove I wasn’t cheating, the interview couldn’t continue.”
Li said he immediately ended the interview, adding that the experience was far removed from the professional standards he had expected from DeepSeek.
A Well-Known AI Researcher
Li Bojie earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and was selected as one of Huawei’s first “Genius Youth” recruits—a prestigious talent program aimed at attracting top researchers and engineers.
According to his personal profile, Li has published papers at leading international computer science conferences, including SIGCOMM, SOSP, NSDI, USENIX ATC, and PLDI. He has also received the ACM China Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award and the Microsoft Scholar Scholarship.
He is currently the Chief Scientist at Pine AI, where he focuses on the development of large language models and AI technologies.
DeepSeek Expands Hiring
Li’s comments come as DeepSeek is conducting the largest recruitment campaign in its history.
Since June 25, the company has opened 33 positions across seven major departments, including AI algorithms, research and development, operations, product management, data engineering, and corporate functions.
The positions are based in Beijing and Hangzhou, with internship opportunities also available.
DeepSeek said it plans to more than double the size of every department and aims to give new hires direct access to its most important projects, helping them quickly develop into leading AI professionals.