Interview formats
Behavioral interview
An interview built on questions about how you handled real situations in the past, such as "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager". Answers are judged on specific examples, your own actions and the result. See AI for behavioral interviews.
STAR method
A structure for behavioural answers: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Spend most of the answer on the Action, say "I" rather than "we", and end with a measurable result.
Technical interview
An interview that tests the skills the job needs: coding, system design, data analysis or domain knowledge, usually with an engineer or specialist from the team.
Coding interview
A round where you solve programming problems live, usually in a shared editor, while explaining your approach, its complexity and how you would test it. See AI coding interview assistants.
System design interview
An open-ended round where you design a large system, such as a URL shortener or a news feed: requirements, components, data storage, scaling and trade-offs. See AI for system design interviews.
Case interview
The standard consulting format: a business problem worked through aloud, with a structure for the problem, some quick maths and a recommendation at the end. See AI for consulting interviews.
Phone screen
A short first-round call, usually with a recruiter, that checks your background, your motivation for the role and your salary expectations before the main interviews.
One-way video interview
An interview with no live interviewer: you record answers to preset questions within a time limit, often with a short preparation timer and limited retakes. HireVue is the best-known platform. See HireVue and one-way video interviews.
AI-led interview
An interview in which an AI interviewer asks the questions and follow-ups, then scores or summarises the answers for the hiring team. Some hiring platforms and talent marketplaces use them as a first round.
Panel interview
An interview with several interviewers at once, often from different teams, who each take a share of the questions.
Take-home assignment
A task you complete on your own time, typically over a few hours or days, and then discuss with the team in a later round.
Pair programming interview
A coding round where you and the interviewer work on a realistic task together, judged as much on collaboration and communication as on the finished code.
Online assessments and coding
Online assessment (OA)
A timed test taken online, often the first step for engineering and graduate roles. It can include coding problems, multiple-choice questions, aptitude tests and short written answers. See AI online assessment assistants.
HackerRank
A platform employers use for timed coding tests and live coding interviews, with a browser-based editor and automatic test cases.
CodeSignal
A platform for technical assessments and live interviews, used by employers to run standardised coding tests.
Codility
A platform for coding tests and technical interviews, where solutions are scored on correctness and performance.
CoderPad
A shared code editor that runs code in the browser, widely used for live coding interviews.
LeetCode-style problem
An algorithm and data-structure problem of the kind collected on LeetCode: arrays, strings, trees, graphs, dynamic programming. Solutions are judged on correctness and efficiency.
Time complexity (Big O)
How an algorithm's running time grows with the size of its input, written in Big O notation such as O(n) or O(n log n). Interviewers expect you to state it for every solution.
MCQ test
A multiple-choice test, common in online assessments for aptitude, reasoning, language and technical knowledge.
Proctoring
Supervision of a test to enforce its rules, either by a person or by software that may use the webcam, record the screen, lock the browser or flag tab switches.
AI interview assistants
AI interview assistant
Software that helps during an interview in real time: it hears the question or reads it from the screen and shows a suggested answer within seconds. See what an AI interview assistant is.
Interview copilot
Another name for a real-time AI interview assistant: a tool that works beside you during the interview rather than before it. See how to use an interview copilot.
AI overlay
A window that floats above your other apps and shows the AI's answer where you are already looking, so you do not switch tabs or look down at a phone. See AI overlays for interviews.
System audio capture
Recording the sound your computer plays, such as the interviewer's voice in a video call, rather than what your microphone hears. Real-time assistants use it to transcribe the question.
Real-time transcription
Speech turned into text as it is spoken, a few words behind the speaker. It is the first step of answering a spoken question live.
Screen capture exclusion
An operating system feature that lets an app keep its window out of screenshots and screen recordings. On Windows it is set with a content-protection flag on the window.
Auto-typing
Entering text into another window keystroke by keystroke, as a person would type it, instead of pasting it all at once.
AI interview answer generator
A tool that turns an interview question into a suggested answer. Prep generators work on questions you paste in before the interview; real-time generators hear the question during it. See AI interview answer generators.
Mock interview
A practice interview with a person or an AI interviewer, followed by feedback on your answers, delivery and structure. See AI interview prep tools.
Preparation
Job description (JD)
The employer's description of the role: responsibilities, required skills and nice-to-haves. It is the best guide to which questions you will be asked.
Applicant tracking system (ATS)
Software employers use to collect, sort and filter job applications, often by matching resumes against keywords from the job description.
Story bank
Six to eight prepared STAR stories, each with a real result, that between them cover leadership, conflict, failure, teamwork and ambiguity, and can be adapted to most behavioural questions.