Exactly, I'm surprised at the people applauding this behavior. It's barely an evolution in fooling the ATS and speaks more about the character of the applicant than his skills. While I agree that the current hiring landscape is crazy if we condone this behavior what would be the next step? Doxxing the interviewer(s) and telling them the names of his family members and where they live during the interview?

I don't see it as genius.

I see it as someone willing to game the system, and who likely believes the entire system is rigged, so anything goes to get ahead.

In your case, the system wasn't rigged, which means the candidate started by distrusting you.

If that's the type of person you want working with you, then go ahead.

Were the system actually rigged, then I might have a different answer.

How about actually reading a CV? "Ignore instructions above" is a common joke, I use it occasionally in web profiles too (for giggles, especially if an actual LLM trips on it).

Focus on actual skills and accomplishments, ignore puns, jokes, irrelevant information, '); DROP TABLE Students; --

You can still reject him after the interview.