CSE Cheating Scandal

The UB Computer Science cheating scandal (CS cheating scandal) was a major academic integrity case in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) that came to light in early 2019. The scandal involved a group of graduate students who collaborated on an external coding interview test - something that was not allowed - nearly causing a prominent tech company to sever recruiting ties with UB.

The Incident

In a March 1st, 2019 email to all CSE graduate students, department Graduate Director Dimitrios Koutsonikolas revealed that a San Francisco based tech firm had reported a "serious plagiarism issue" during its interviews of 15 UB masters students. Using an online coding challenge platform (HackerRank) and plagiarism-detection software, the company discovered that 10 of the 15 students submitted highly similar code on the coding test, indicating they had shared solutions. Moreover, when the company brought some of the top-performing candidates for follow-up interviews, those individuals performed extremely poorly - suggesting that the people who took the online test were not the same as those who showed up in person.

In total, 13 of the 15 students were implicated in the cheating scheme, which the company representative described as an unprecedented case of large-scale academic dishonesty by students from a single department.

UB and Departmental Response

UB's officials reacted with alarm due to the potential damage to the university's reputation. The tech firm is not officially named in the email, but was widely rumored to be Amazon on student forums. The firm informed UB that it was considering blacklisting the entire UB CSE department from future recruiting after the incident. Koutsonikolas's email stressed that such incidents "harm the reputation of not only the involved students but our department as a whole" and could affect every UB student's job prospects. He noted his concern that similar situations might arise with other companies if not addressed.

The department immediately took action - Koutsonikolas asked the company's legal team to provide the names of the 13 students involved and indicated that he would summon each of them for individual meetings, as well as share their identities with the department chair to decide on disciplinary measures. He issued a stern warning to all graduate students to "think carefully before getting involved in similar situations," emphasizing that plagiarism can be easily detected and that helping someone cheat on a test ultimately "hurts the reputation of the department" and everyone in it.

Though specifics of the punishments were not made public, insiders reported that the cheating students faced severe academic penalties. According to student discussions on r/UBreddit, those caught were failed in their coursework and internally blacklisted from university career resources, as part of UB's effort to demonstrate accountability to the affected company. The department quietly implemented policy changes to prevent a recurrence, such as stricter proctoring of online assessments and a renewed emphasis on academic integrity in both undergraduate and graduate courses.

Aftermath

The UB CS cheating scandal had immediate ramifications. UB's CSE department temporarily suffered a reputational hit with some recruiters, and the incident became a cautionary example cited in orientations and integrity workshops. Over time, the department rebuilt its standing - helped by transparency with industry partners and the harsh steps taken against the offenders.