Who’s on the hook here, though? The contractor uploading the file is the actual person doing the copying. Or is OpenAI culpable for directing them to do so?
Actually two breaches, if Im not wrong then?
Sounds a lot like they're shooting themselves in the foot with this requirement.
Would you ask a prospective employee to send you code they wrote in their previous company?
Short answer: *no, I wouldn’t—and it’s generally a bad idea to ask.*
Here’s why, and what to do instead.
---
## Why you shouldn’t ask for code from a previous employer
1. *Legal and contractual issues* Most employment contracts assign ownership of code to the company. Asking for it puts the candidate at risk of violating:
* IP assignment clauses
* NDAs
* Trade secret laws
2. *Ethical red flag*
A candidate who does share proprietary code is signaling that they might do the same to your company later.3. *Biased signal* Some candidates (especially senior or well-trained ones) will refuse on principle. You’d be selecting for the wrong behavior.
4. *Low signal-to-noise ratio* Real-world code is often:
* Highly contextual
* Entangled with proprietary systems
* Hard to evaluate without full context
---## What to ask for instead (better options)
### 1. *Open-source contributions*
Ask for:
* GitHub / GitLab profiles * Public PRs or issues * Personal projects
This shows real-world collaboration without IP risk.
### 2. *A take-home or live exercise*
Design something that:
* Can be completed in a few hours * Mirrors the work they’ll actually do * Is clearly stated as theirs to own
Bonus: allow them to explain tradeoffs rather than just write code.
### 3. *Code walkthrough (descriptive, not shared)*
Ask them to:
* Describe a complex system they built * Explain architecture, tradeoffs, and failures * Talk through how they’d improve it today
This is often more revealing than code.
### 4. *Pair programming / problem discussion*
Observe:
* How they reason * How they ask questions * How they handle ambiguity
---
## When it might be acceptable
Only if *all* of the following are true:
* The code is explicitly non-proprietary * The candidate confirms they own the rights * It’s already public (e.g., open source)
Even then, I’d still be cautious.
---
## Bottom line
> *If a candidate shares proprietary code, that’s not a plus—it’s a liability.*
Strong hiring processes test:
* Judgment * Reasoning * Communication * Craft
—not their willingness to break an NDA.
If you want, tell me:
* The role (junior/senior, IC/lead) * The domain (backend, ML, frontend, systems)
…and I can help you design a fair, high-signal interview process.
I would never ask this of any employee (not that I have this power where I work), for both ethical and legal reasons.
Open ai wants to write down the problems they solved.
List the problem and the solution. Ask the Model to solve the same problem and compare the output.
Every solution may not be an invention that kicks in the copy right or intellectual property rights.
import com.sun.jdbc.odbc... import com.sun.jbdc.odbc... import com.sun.jdbc.odbc...
Java compiler was complaining about Line 2.
Took hours to find out the error.
May be, Open AI was asking similar things.
osnium123•3w ago
kevmo314•3w ago
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Msurrow•3w ago