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Abdulla Ababakre risked concentration camps just to learn how to code on YouTube in China.

He's Uyghur. That meant using a VPN could get him, his parents, and three generations of his family sent to camps.

But he did it anyway. And at 19, he landed a job at TikTok earning a 100-month salary.

Then he walked away from it al. Bribed officials for a passport, flew to America, and ended up sleeping in his car doing Uber shifts at night just to survive.

No family. No money. No way back.

Now he's the CEO of Interview Coder, a million-dollar AI startup helping people pass technical interviews.

In this video, Abdulla breaks down:

- Why the interview process is broken (and how AI will force companies to change)

- How he built a startup while living in his car in San Francisco

- The 007 culture at Cluely and Interview Coder (and why it works)

- What it's like working at TikTok (and how ByteDance pays insane money)

- The difference between TikTok in China vs USA

- Why China has "everything apps" while America focuses on niche verticals

- How he's using live interview data to build the best question database in the world

- The truth about VPNs, surveillance, and being Uyghur in China

- Why he's rebranding Interview Coder to go after a market 100x bigger

Find Abdulla on X: https://x.com/abdullaababakre

Try Interview Coder: https://www.interviewcoder.com/?ref=florian

Chapters:

0:00 - Intro

1:17 - Breaking the Law to Learn Code in China

3:48 - Where Did the Courage Come From?

5:08 - Was It Worth the Risk?

6:19 - How YouTube Put Him Light Years Ahead

7:46 - Getting Hired by TikTok Without Finishing School

10:32 - What He Did at TikTok (Location-Based Ads)

11:04 - The Truth About TikTok's Algorithm in China vs US

12:38 - Why He Left TikTok and China for America

15:16 - Living as a Uyghur in the US

16:08 - Where His Ambition and Courage Come From

18:05 - How He Became CEO of Interview Coder

19:53 - Arriving in the US: The First 6 Months

21:37 - How to Network in San Francisco as a Nobody

22:43 - Building Startups in China vs Building in America

24:22 - The "Everything App" vs Niche: China vs US Strategy

25:45 - What Interview Coder Actually Does

27:13 - The Future of Technical Interviews in the AI Era

29:28 - Removing Everything That Needs to Be Memorized

30:13 - What's Next for Interview Coder

32:00 - How Interview Coder Works: Invisible AI Assistance

33:48 - Running a Million-Dollar Startup Solo

35:34 - Productivity Hacks: How He Gets So Much Done

36:43 - The 007 Work Culture at Cluely and Interview Coder

37:43 - TikTok's Insane Compensation

39:56 - The Goal: Reaching $10M Revenue

41:12 - Rock Bottom: Sleeping in His Car to Build This

44:03 - Why He Can Never Go Back to China

45:10 - What 14-Year-Old Abdulla Would Think of Him Now

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Find me on X: https://x.com/floriandarroman

Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florian.darroman/

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