Practise the talking half of a coding interview with a friend
Sergei Skrylkov, Founder, Trippi · facts checked against the product on 2026-09-30
In a coding interview, the code is only half of what is judged. The other half is talking: asking about the problem, explaining the approach before typing, saying what you are checking while you test. Solo practice sites train the first half. A friend on a call trains the second. This script gives your friend the questions to ask before, during and after you code, on one problem, in forty-five minutes.
Setup
- Problem: “Given a list of meeting times as start and end pairs, return the minimum number of rooms needed.” A common medium problem, with a simple first idea and a better second one.
- Call in Google Meet, or Zoom or Teams in the browser. Share your screen with any editor; a shared online editor also works.
- Your friend does not need to read code. The questions below are about what you say, not about whether the code compiles.
The real round is on the coding interview page; practice calls in general on interview practice.
The script for the interviewer
- 1“Here is the problem. Before you write anything, what questions do you have?” Follow-up: “Can meetings share an end and a start time?” — minute 0; answer: a meeting ending at 10 and one starting at 10 can share a room
- 2“Can you walk me through an example by hand?” Follow-up: “What is the answer for these three: 9–10, 9:30–11, 10–11?” — the answer is 2
- 3“What is your first idea, even if it is slow?” Follow-up: “How slow is it?”
- 4“Can you do better?” Follow-up: “What would you need to sort?” — minute 10
- 5“Tell me what you are writing as you write it.” Follow-up: “Why that data structure?” — during the coding, minutes 15–30; ask this if the candidate goes quiet
- 6“How would you test this?” Follow-up: “Which case are you most worried about?”
- 7“What happens with an empty list?” Follow-up: “And with one meeting?”
- 8“What is the time and memory cost of your solution?” Follow-up: “Could you use less memory?” — minute 35
- 9“If this ran on a million meetings a day, what would you change?” Follow-up: “none” — minute 40; closes the technical part
Timing
| Minutes | Stage | What the friend listens for |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | Clarifying | At least two questions before any code. |
| 5–15 | Approach | A plan said aloud, including a slow version first. |
| 15–30 | Coding | Talking while typing. Silence over half a minute gets question 5. |
| 30–40 | Testing and cost | Cases named before being run. |
| 40–45 | Scale | One sensible change, not a new design. |
| 45–55 | Feedback | When the candidate went quiet and for how long. |
What your friend should listen for
- Clarifying questions. Jumping into code in the first minute is the pattern interviewers mention most.
- Silence. Your friend notes every silence longer than thirty seconds and what you were doing. That list is the most useful feedback of the session.
- Changing the plan out loud. “This will not work for overlapping ends, so I will sort the ends separately” — a sentence like that is a strong signal in a real round.
- Tests said before run. Naming the cases first shows you know where the problem is hard.
Switching roles
Swap with a second problem of similar size, such as merging overlapping intervals. When you are the interviewer, watch someone else code in silence for thirty seconds; you will understand quickly why interviewers ask you to talk.
What Trippi Cue shows during this rehearsal
Trippi Cue hears speech in the call tab, and only that. It never reads your screen, your editor or your code, and it does not solve the problem. What it shows is your friend’s spoken questions as text — “what happens with an empty list?” — translated under each line if you want, and a short card for a question addressed to you, such as “how would you test this?”: a few points to talk through, not code. If you share your whole screen, the Cue window is visible to your friend like any other window.
It listens to the call tab after you click its icon, not to your microphone. It hears your friend and never hears you, so it cannot score or review your answer; the feedback comes from your friend. This is a rehearsal: use it to practise with a person until the answers come easily, then go into the real interview on your own. Where we stand on interviews.
FAQ
Coding, specifically.
Can someone who does not code run a mock coding interview?+
Yes. This script is about the talking half: clarifying questions, explaining the approach, testing aloud. Your friend listens and notes silences; they do not need to check the code.
Where do I find coding problems to practise?+
Any common practice problem works. For a rehearsal with a friend, choose one you have not solved before, of medium size.
Does Trippi Cue read the code on my screen?+
No. It hears the audio of the call tab. It never reads the screen, the editor or your code.
Does it tell me whether my solution is correct?+
No. It does not see the code and does not hear your voice. Run your tests, and ask your friend where you went quiet.
Read next
One problem, spoken out loud, with someone listening.
Trippi Cue is in the Chrome Web Store. One click on the icon when the call begins, and nothing before that.