A technical mock interview your friend can run in forty minutes
Sergei Skrylkov, Founder, Trippi · facts checked against the product on 2026-09-30
A mock technical interview works best with a friend who reads from a script, not one who improvises. This page is that script: ten questions in order, each with the follow-up a real interviewer would ask, a timing plan for forty minutes, and a short list of what your friend should listen for. Your friend does not need to be an engineer. The questions are about your projects, and most of the difficulty is in the follow-ups, which anyone can ask.
Setup: ten minutes before
- Start a call in Google Meet, or in Zoom or Teams in the browser. Cameras on; it changes how nervous you are.
- Send your friend this page and one line about the role you are practising for. Tell them to read the follow-ups even if your answer seems complete.
- Pick one project from your resume that you will be asked about. The questions below keep coming back to it.
- Have a timer visible to your friend, not to you.
The matching guide to the real round is the technical interview page; the general way practice calls work is on interview practice.
The script for the interviewer
- 1“Walk me through the project on your resume you are most proud of.” Follow-up: “What was your part, specifically, and what did others do?” — the opening; two minutes
- 2“What was the hardest technical problem in it?” Follow-up: “How did you know it was solved?”
- 3“If you started that project again today, what would you do differently?” Follow-up: “Why did you not do that the first time?”
- 4“Tell me about a bug that took you more than a day to find.” Follow-up: “What would have found it faster?”
- 5“How do you decide whether something needs a test?” Follow-up: “Give me an example of something you chose not to test.”
- 6“Explain a technology you use every day to someone who has never used it.” Follow-up: “Now explain what goes wrong with it.” — your friend plays the non-expert honestly
- 7“Tell me about a time you disagreed with a technical decision.” Follow-up: “What happened after? Were you right?”
- 8“How would you make the slowest part of your project twice as fast?” Follow-up: “What would you measure first?”
- 9“What is something in your field you are learning right now?” Follow-up: “How would you use it in this role?”
- 10“What questions do you have for us?” Follow-up: “none — your friend answers as best they can” — practise asking two real questions
Timing
| Part | Minutes | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Opening, question 1 | 5 | Two minutes for the answer, three for the follow-up. |
| Questions 2–5 | 15 | About four minutes each with follow-ups. Your friend moves on at four, even mid-answer. |
| Questions 6–9 | 15 | The explaining and judgement questions. Slower is fine. |
| Question 10 | 3 | Your questions for them. |
| Feedback | 5–10 | Your friend talks; you take notes. |
What your friend should listen for
- “We” versus “I”. If every sentence is “we built”, ask “and what did you do?” — a real interviewer will.
- Whether the follow-up got a new answer. Repeating the first answer in different words is the most common weak spot.
- Jargon without explanation. If your friend did not understand a term, a real interviewer from another team might not either.
- The ending. Did the answer stop, or did it trail off with “so yeah”? Note which questions ended cleanly.
Switching roles
Swap after the feedback, with a different project on your friend’s side. Playing the interviewer is useful practice too: you hear how long a two-minute answer feels from the other side, and you notice which follow-ups made your friend pause. Those are the ones to prepare for yourself.
What Trippi Cue shows during this rehearsal
Each question your friend asks appears in the Cue window as text, with a translation under it if you practise in a second language. For a question like “what would you measure first?”, the short card that follows gives two or three points to speak from — for example, where the time goes, how you would check it, the first change — not a finished answer. Type the project you chose into the note before the call, and the cards will refer to it. A good drill: answer once with the card, then ask your friend to repeat the question and answer again with the window closed.
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
Technical, specifically.
Does my friend need to be technical?+
No. The questions are about your own projects, and the follow-ups are written out. A non-technical friend is good practice for explaining clearly.
How long should a mock technical interview take?+
About forty minutes plus ten for feedback. Real rounds are usually forty-five to sixty minutes.
Can I practise alone with this?+
Not with Trippi Cue: it needs someone speaking in the call tab. You can read the questions aloud to yourself, but a person asking follow-ups is the point.
Will Trippi Cue tell me if my answer was good?+
No. It does not use your microphone and never hears your answer. Your friend gives the feedback.
Read next
Ten questions, one friend, forty minutes this week.
Trippi Cue is in the Chrome Web Store. One click on the icon when the call begins, and nothing before that.