Paste an answer and see how many seconds it takes to say

Sergei Skrylkov, Founder, Trippi · facts checked against the product on 2026-09-30

A good interview answer usually runs between one and two minutes out loud: long enough for a situation, what you did and the result, short enough that the interviewer still has time for a follow-up. “Tell me about yourself” sits near ninety seconds, and the factual questions on a recruiter screen are shorter. The problem is that nobody can hear the length of their own answer on paper. Paste it below and the page turns the words into seconds at the pace you pick.

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Your answer, as you would say it

In my last role I was the analyst on a team of four, and our weekly sales report took two days to build by hand. The numbers came from three systems, and every Monday someone copied them into a spreadsheet. My manager asked me to make it faster before the end of the quarter, which gave me about six weeks. I started by listing every step in the report and timing each one. Most of the time went into matching customer names between two systems, so I wrote a small script that matched them by account number instead. Then I moved the report into our dashboard tool, so it refreshed on its own every morning. I also sat with the two people who used the report most, because I did not want to change something they relied on without asking. The first version had one mistake in the regional totals, and a sales manager found it. I fixed it the same day and added a check that compares the totals with the finance system. In the end the report took twenty minutes a week instead of two days, and the team used the time to start a monthly forecast. What I learned is to talk to the people who use a report before I change it, not after.

Speaking pace

Runs in this page. What you paste stays in your browser; the script makes no network request.

How long an interview answer should be

The ranges below are conventions: what recruiters, university career services and interview coaching guides repeat to candidates, and what interviewers tend to expect. They are not the result of a study, and no interviewer is holding a stopwatch. Treat them as the length at which most answers stop feeling too short or too long to the person listening.

Question	Usual length	Why that length
Behavioural: “Tell me about a time…”	1–2 minutes	The common advice for a STAR answer (situation, task, action, result). Under a minute the action and result usually get lost; over two minutes the interviewer starts to wait for the end.
“Tell me about yourself” / “Walk me through your background”	about 90 seconds	The number most career guides give for the opening answer. It is long enough for three moves in order and short enough to leave them room to pick one.
Recruiter screen: salary, notice, location	10–30 seconds	These are fields on a form. A number and one condition is a complete answer.
Recruiter screen: “Why this role?”	30–45 seconds	One sentence about what pulls you to the role and one about why you are leaving. The recruiter is filling in a line, not judging depth.
Technical explanation or design question	longer, in steps	This is a conversation, not one answer. Stop about every two minutes and check: “Should I go deeper here, or move on?”
One-way video (recorded) question	most of the slot	Aim to finish before the timer ends; ninety seconds of a two-minute slot is a common target.

How the estimate works

The script counts the words in the box and divides by the pace you chose. That is all. It does not listen to anything and has no model behind it.

140 words per minute is the default because it is close to the pace commonly given for relaxed English conversation and for presentations, usually quoted as somewhere between 120 and 160.
Pick 120 if English is your second language and you speak carefully, or if you pause between sentences. Many second-language speakers are slower, and that is fine: the answer still has to fit.
Pick 160 if you know you speed up when nervous. Most people do, which is why an answer that fits at 140 in your kitchen can run short in the real call and feel rushed.

The honest check is still a phone timer and your own voice. Read the answer out loud once and compare the result with the estimate; after that you will know which pace is yours.

If your answer runs long

Cut the situation first. Most long answers spend half their time on context. One or two sentences of situation is enough; the interviewer can ask for more.
Keep the action and the result. That is what the question was about. In the sample above, the matching script and the twenty minutes a week are the answer; the rest supports them.
End with one sentence of learning, not three. A single line about what you would do differently is stronger than a paragraph.
Leave a door open. Stopping at ninety seconds and letting them ask “and how did you test it?” is better than covering the test yourself at minute three.

If your answer runs short

Under a minute on a behavioural question usually means the answer has a situation and a result but no action: it says what happened, not what you did. Add the two or three steps you took, in order, with one detail each. For a factual question, short is correct; do not stretch a notice period into a story.

What Trippi Cue does, and does not do, with answer length

Trippi Cue listens to the call tab after you click its icon, not to your microphone. It hears the interviewer and not you, so it cannot time your answer, tell you that you are running long, or grade what you said. During a call it shows each line the interviewer says, with a translation under it if you want one, and a short card when a question is addressed to you: two or three points to speak from, not a script to read. Short cards are one reason answers stay in range, but the length is yours to manage.

The best place to use this timer is before a practice call with a friend: time the answer here, then say it to a person and ask them where it dragged.

FAQ

About the timer.

How long should an interview answer be?+

For most questions, one to two minutes out loud. About ninety seconds for “tell me about yourself”, and much shorter for factual questions such as salary or notice period. These are conventions, not rules.

How many words is a two-minute answer?+

About 280 words at 140 words per minute, or 240 at a slower 120. A one-minute answer is roughly 120 to 160 words.

Is what I paste sent anywhere?+

No. The timer is a script in this page and runs in your browser. It makes no network request.

Why does my real answer take longer than the estimate?+

Pauses, repeated words and “so, um” add time the script does not count. Read the answer aloud once with a phone timer and choose the pace that matches you.

Can Trippi Cue time my answers during an interview?+

No. It does not use your microphone, so it never hears you. It shows the interviewer’s lines and a short card for questions addressed to you.

Ninety seconds, out loud, to a real person.

Trippi Cue is in the Chrome Web Store. One click on the icon when the call begins, and nothing before that.

Add to Chrome — it’s free