Chapter 4: The Interview

The next morning, Zhou Yun was awakened by the ringing of his phone.

He fumbled under his pillow for a while before finding the device. The caller ID displayed a string of unfamiliar numbers.

"Hello?"

"Is this student Zhou Yun?"

"This is Zhou Yun. Who is this?"

"I am Deng Yonghua, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Qiantang University. You sent me an email yesterday. Would you be available to come in for an interview this afternoon?"

"I am available. What time exactly?" Hearing who it was, Zhou Yun felt much more alert.

"Around two o'clock, in room 224 of the Information Building—the same place as yesterday's re-examination."

"No problem."

"Very well, then. See you this afternoon."

"Goodbye, Professor."

After hanging up, he checked the time; it was already ten o'clock. Zhou Yun rubbed his eyes, realizing there was no going back to sleep, so he got up to wash.

Once he confirmed he hadn't left anything behind, he checked out of the hotel. He would have to take the high-speed train back to his undergraduate university immediately after the interview. It was currently April, so he still had over a month left at his current school.

After a quick meal, he spent two hours at a KFC until it was 1:30 PM. The south gate of the university had not yet installed facial recognition, so Zhou Yun didn't even need a campus code to enter, and the security guard didn't stop him. In fact, as long as you didn't openly announce that you were an outsider, the guards couldn't tell the difference.

At two o'clock, Zhou Yun arrived at the second floor of the Information Building, perfectly on time. He noticed five people already standing outside the door of Conference Room 224. He recognized all five; one was a senior student from Professor Deng's lab—Qiu Yan, if he recalled correctly—and the other four were from his own cohort. If it weren't for the variable that was Zhou Yun, these four would likely have all been accepted by Professor Deng. He wondered which unlucky soul would be cut.

Seeing Zhou Yun arrive, Qiu Yan walked over. "Are you junior fellow student Zhou Yun? I'm Professor Deng's student. The professor is in a meeting right now but will be here soon. If you have a resume, you can hand it to me first."

Zhou Yun smiled and shook his head. "Sorry, senior, I didn't prepare a resume."

"That's fine. Just wait a moment; the professor should be here shortly."

For him, a resume was truly unnecessary. His life up to this point could be summed up in one sentence: capable of eating and drinking, with a future that was... questionable. In short, he was just a useless, newly graduated college student. A resume would have been a blank page anyway, so it was better not to write one at all.

When the other four students saw that Zhou Yun hadn't prepared a resume, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Since they didn't know how many students the professor would take, they were all competitors for the time being; the weaker the competition, the more confident they felt.

After a few minutes, a middle-aged man with a receding hairline walked toward them, carrying a bag and wearing a smile. Just looking at his hairstyle, one could tell this man was terrifyingly powerful.

"Sorry I'm late. Qiu Yan, please make the arrangements and let's start the interview immediately."

Qiu Yan nodded and looked at the new students. "Follow me."

Inside the conference room was a long table. Professor Deng Yonghua and two senior students sat on one side, while Zhou Yun and the others sat in a row opposite them.

"Professor, here are their resumes. One student didn't bring one," Qiu Yan whispered.

Deng Yonghua remained smiling, casually flipping through the others' resumes before setting them aside and looking up at the five students.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. The official list of admitted students hasn't been posted yet, but the fact that you've been invited for an interview means you've passed the university's re-examination. Let me congratulate you all."

Zhou Yun didn't react much; it was expected. However, the other four students were visibly excited. Wasn't this the result they had worked toward for a whole year?

"Although your professional knowledge was already assessed during the re-examination, I need to test you further here. Shen Rui, please distribute these to the students."

Shen Rui, sitting to the side, nodded and handed out five A4 sheets printed with questions.

"These are some questions I had my students draft. It's not a formal exam; some might be a bit difficult. It doesn't matter if you can't answer them—I mainly want to see everyone's foundation."

Zhou Yun quickly scanned the list. There were five questions in total:

1. Please elaborate on the core principles of the Zero Trust security model and explain its main differences from traditional network perimeter defense.

2. In a complex distributed system, how can Federated Identity Management be effectively implemented, and what are its advantages?

3. Explain the essence of Software Supply Chain Attacks, their typical stages, and propose two effective mitigation strategies.

4. In cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, explain how the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism ensures decentralization and security, and discuss its primary drawbacks.

5. Analyze the advantages of behavioral analysis-based detection methods in modern Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) compared to traditional signature-based methods, and explain their role in dealing with unknown threats.

These were all very typical cybersecurity questions, which wasn't surprising given that Professor Deng’s main research direction was cybersecurity. The questions were indeed challenging; they weren't things a normal undergraduate would study, and even if they had, it wouldn't be in such depth.

The other four students furrowed their brows the moment they saw the questions. Clearly, the difficulty was far beyond their expectations.

As they worked on their answers, Deng Yonghua looked over the four resumes he had received. Those who came for the interview were somewhat confident in their abilities, and their resumes all had some substance—at least enough to make a good first impression.

Seven or eight minutes later, seeing the students put down their pens, Deng Yonghua had a general idea of the situation. "I see everyone is about finished. Don't be nervous; it's normal if you couldn't answer everything. Shen Rui, collect them and let me have a look."

The first one answered two questions.
The second, one question.
The third, two questions.
The fourth, three questions.
The fifth...

When he saw the fifth paper, his eyebrows lifted. All correct?

He couldn't help but look up at Zhou Yun. If he remembered correctly, this was the student who didn't bring a resume, right?

Not bad at all!

Seeing Deng Yonghua look up, Zhou Yun met his gaze with a smile. These topics were actually all in the relevant textbooks. Perhaps he had glanced at them inadvertently in the past, and now, relying on his formidable memory, he had retrieved the answers.

"Let's conduct the interviews in order. Student Chang Chengxuan, you go first. The rest of you, please sit to the side and wait for a moment?"

Zhou Yun and the others nodded and sat down against the wall.

Deng Yonghua pulled one of the four resumes and looked at Chang Chengxuan. "It's clear from your resume that you participated in many competitions during your undergraduate years, and your performance on the test was decent. What are your plans for the next three years of your graduate studies?"

"I have some, Professor. First, in the first year of my graduate studies..."

As the student spoke, Deng Yonghua nodded from time to time.

A few minutes later, Deng Yonghua closed the resume. "That's all for now. Please take a seat to the side."

"Thank you, Professor." Chang Chengxuan bowed slightly and sat down next to Zhou Yun and the others.

"Student Shao Shi, please."