Tech interview practice
Four questions scored on clarity and a named result.
Describe a piece of work you finished recently. What was the situation, what did you do, and what changed?
What this tool does
Tech interview practice is the same four-question round as the general mock interview, with the role label set to this tool's title so the prompt stays on software work. The rules questions are a recent piece of work and what changed, which part of the role you have already done, a constraint that changed the plan, and how you check work before handing it over. The per-answer score rewards length up to 40 points and adds 30 if you use a digit or a concrete verb such as built, reduced, or wrote. The final score is 25 for each answer over 12 words and 10 otherwise. A model, if a key is set, may phrase the note, and the page still says to review it. The round does not compile code and does not open the playground.
How to use it
Answer with a situation, what you did, and what changed. Name a system you actually worked on. Do not invent a company to sound senior. If you mention a number, it should be yours: a latency you measured, a bug count you closed, a query you sped up. Four answers end the round. Then use the SQL practice or the playground if the story you told depends on a skill you want to rehearse.
Worked example
A passing style of answer, over 12 words: “I built a pagination query because the report was reading the whole table, and the page dropped from a full scan to the index on created_at.” The rules path treats built and because as specificity. “I know Java” is under 12 words and does not name a result, so that answer takes the 10-point final step and the short-answer note. Neither answer is a hiring decision. The jobs link on this page searches HiringBuddy for published roles matching “software”. An empty list means nothing published matched. It is not a comment on the wider market. A signed-in candidate can save the attempt on their profile. Saving is not an application, and it does not show the attempt to an employer. Employers see people who apply to their own jobs.
Questions
- Does it run my code?
- No. It reads the answer you type. Code belongs in the playground or in a repo you already have.
- How many questions?
- Four, then the round stops.
- Will a short correct answer score well?
- On the rules path, under 12 words scores the lower final step. Add the situation and the result.