# They called him a cheat. He was a Huawei Genius Youth. He closed the laptop.

**[TRUE STORY]** — by Li Bojie · former Huawei Genius Youth · via Zhihu

Li Bojie is not the kind of candidate who gets asked to live-code. A computer science PhD and former member of Huawei's elite Genius Youth programme, he had a CV that usually speaks for itself. But when DeepSeek — one of China's most celebrated AI labs — finally scheduled his second-round interview after three weeks of silence, the interviewer did not bother with pleasantries.

The interviewer arrived late. There was no introduction. Then came the live-coding test — an unusual ask for someone at Li's level, but he complied.

Li works with a dual-monitor setup, a configuration as unremarkable among developers as a second cup of coffee. As he coded, the interviewer accused him of “constantly glancing at the left screen” and suspected he was copying from an external source. The demand was stark: prove you are not cheating, or the interview ends now.

Li Bojie said he could prove it. He was using two monitors. The interviewer was not satisfied.

So Li made a different choice. He terminated the interview himself, withdrew from the entire process, and posted the full account on Zhihu, where it detonated across Chinese tech circles. His description of DeepSeek as “the absolute peak of China’s tech industry” had curdled into something else entirely.

The post split opinion. Some called DeepSeek arrogant and the interviewer unprofessional. Others argued nobody, genius or not, should be exempt from standard assessments. Li’s verdict was simpler: “If the process starts with mistrust, the working relationship is already over.”

*Source: [Zhihu · covered by TechWeb, 21jingji](https://m.techweb.com.cn/article/2026-07-07/2977211.shtml)*
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