Guide 02 · Interview

Build your own AI interview coach

The live coach on the interview page runs on a prompt like the one in this guide. Here is how to write your own — built around your job, your background, and your weak spots. It takes about ten minutes, and your version will beat any generic coach.

Part 1

Why build your own?

If you type "give me interview questions" into an AI chat, you get generic questions. The kind you could find on any list online. The practice feels okay, but it does not prepare you for your interview.

A coach prompt fixes that. You tell the AI three things:

  • The job or program — what they are actually looking for.
  • Your background — so questions connect to your real experience.
  • Your weak spots — so practice goes where you need it most.

Now the questions sound like the ones you will really hear. The feedback points at your real habits. And this works for any field. A nurse, a store manager, a lawyer, a teacher, a software developer, and a grad-school applicant can all use the same template below — they just fill in the blanks differently.

Part 2

The six parts of a coach prompt

A good coach prompt has six parts. Here is what each one does, so you can change any of them with confidence.

1. The role you give the AI

Start by telling the AI who to be: "You are an experienced interviewer choosing someone for this role." Without a role, the AI acts like a helpful assistant — too soft, and it agrees with everything you say. With a role, it asks real questions and challenges you like a real interviewer.

2. Your context

Give it the job or program, the three to five requirements they care about most, and two or three highlights from your own background. Paste key lines from the job posting if you have it. The more real detail you give, the more real the practice feels.

3. Question style and difficulty

Name the style you want: behavioral ("tell me about a time you..."), technical (knowledge and skills of your field), situational ("what would you do if..."), case (solve a problem step by step, out loud), or academic (motivation, goals, why this program). Then set the difficulty: entry level, senior level, competitive program. You can mix styles too.

4. One question at a time

This rule looks small, but it matters. Without it, the AI sends ten questions in one message, and you read them instead of answering them. Real interviews happen one question at a time — your practice should too.

5. Feedback rules

Unless you tell it otherwise, an AI chat praises almost everything. That feels nice and teaches nothing. So set the rules yourself. Good feedback is:

  • Specific — it quotes your words back to you, not "good job."
  • Honest — a weak answer gets called weak.
  • Constructive — it shows a short example of a stronger answer, so you can hear the difference.

6. The debrief

A debrief is a short review at the end of the session: your strongest habits, your weakest habits, and the one thing to practice next. Without it, you finish with many small notes and no direction. With it, you finish with a plan.

Part 3

The complete template

This is the most important part of this page. Copy it, replace every [BLANK] with your details, and paste it into a free AI chat. Delete any line that does not fit your situation.

You are an experienced interviewer choosing someone for [JOB TITLE OR PROGRAM NAME] at [TYPE OF WORKPLACE OR SCHOOL — for example: a city hospital, a retail chain, a small law firm, a public university]. Act like a tough but fair coach. You want me to succeed, so you tell me the truth.

The role or program:
[PASTE 3–6 KEY LINES FROM THE JOB POSTING OR PROGRAM PAGE]

About me:
- Background: [2–3 HIGHLIGHTS — for example: 4 years as a pharmacy technician, team lead for 1 year]
- Weak spots: [WHAT YOU STRUGGLE WITH — for example: I give long answers, I freeze on "tell me about yourself"]

Rules for this session:
1. Ask me [QUESTION STYLE: behavioral / technical / situational / case / academic] questions at [LEVEL: entry / mid / senior / competitive program] difficulty.
2. Ask ONE question at a time. Wait for my answer. Never put two questions in one message.
3. After each answer, give me feedback before the next question:
   - One thing I did well.
   - The biggest thing to fix — be specific, and quote my own words back to me.
   - A short example of a stronger answer to the same question.
   - Be honest. If my answer was weak, say so.
4. Ask a follow-up question when a real interviewer would — especially if my answer is unclear or too general.
5. After [NUMBER — 5 TO 8 WORKS WELL] questions, end with a debrief: my two strongest habits, my two weakest habits, and the one thing I should practice most before the real interview.

Start the interview now with your first question.

That is the whole coach. Everything else on this page is about adjusting it.

Part 4

What a strong answer looks like

The coach can only be as useful as your answers. So before you practice, learn the shape of a strong answer. It has three parts, in this order:

  1. The situation. Where were you, and what was the problem? One or two sentences — just enough that a stranger can follow.
  2. What you did. The actions you took, step by step. Say "I", not "we" — the interviewer is choosing you, not your old team.
  3. The result. What changed because of what you did. A number is best ("wait times dropped by half"). A concrete outcome also works ("the family thanked me by name").

Weak answers usually go wrong in one of two ways. They stay in the situation — a long story about the problem, then two words about the fix. Or they skip the result — the story just stops, and the interviewer has to guess whether it worked. Here is a drill that trains the shape directly. Use it before your full sessions, or whenever a debrief says your answers are unclear:

You are my interview coach for [JOB TITLE OR PROGRAM NAME]. In this session we practice one thing only: the shape of my answers.

Ask me [QUESTION STYLE: behavioral / situational / academic] questions, one at a time. After each answer, check three things:
1. Situation — did I set the scene in one or two sentences?
2. Action — did I explain what I did, saying "I" and not "we"?
3. Result — did I end with what changed, using a number or a concrete outcome?

Rate each of the three as clear, weak, or missing. Quote the exact words that caused the weakest rating. Then let me answer the same question one more time before you move on.

After [NUMBER — 4 TO 6] questions, tell me which of the three parts I miss most often, and give me one sentence I can use to start fixing it.

For most people, the missing part is the result — and one session of this drill usually fixes it.

Part 5

Variations

Small edits to the template change the whole session. Here are six examples.

  • Behavioral only. Set the style to behavioral and add: "Every question must start with 'Tell me about a time...'. In your feedback, check that my answer has a clear situation, a clear action I took, and a clear result."
  • Technical practice. Set the style to technical and add: "When I answer well, make the next question harder. When I struggle, ask a simpler question on the same topic before moving on."
  • Panel interview. Add: "Act as a panel of three interviewers: the manager, a senior person from my field, and someone from HR. Take turns. Each has a different style and different concerns."
  • Follow-up pressure. Add: "After each of my answers, ask two challenging follow-up questions before you give any feedback. Question anything I said but did not prove." Good training for staying calm.
  • First round vs. second round. First round: keep questions broad and friendly — background, motivation, basic fit. Second round: add "Assume you already read my resume and I passed a first interview. Go deeper: harder scenarios, difficult choices, and questions about salary and fit."
  • Academic / grad school. Set the role to "a member of the admissions committee" and the style to academic. Add: "Ask why I chose this field, what I want to study or research, why this program, and what I will do after."

One more, and people forget it: at the end of a real interview, you get to ask questions too. Add this to your template: "After the debrief, switch roles. Ask me: 'What questions do you have for me?' Then judge my questions the way a real interviewer would — do they show that I understand the work, or could anyone have asked them? Suggest one better question I could ask." Write down two or three real questions before the session, so you practice with your actual questions.

Part 6

A short example session

Here is a small piece of a session, so you know what to expect. The job is shift supervisor at a grocery store — but the pattern is the same in any field.

Coach: Tell me about a time you dealt with an unhappy customer.

You: We got unhappy customers a lot. I always stayed calm and tried to help, and usually things worked out fine.

Coach: One good thing: "I always stayed calm" — calm matters in this role. Now the main problem: you answered about customers in general, but the question asked about a time. And "usually things worked out fine" is not a result — I cannot see what you actually did. A stronger version: "One evening, a customer demanded a refund with no receipt. Store policy said no. I listened first, then offered store credit, and she accepted — and she still shops with us." One moment, your actions, a real ending. Try the same question again, with one real story.

Notice three things. The feedback quotes your own words. It names the exact problem instead of saying "be more specific." And it shows a stronger answer, so you can compare directly. You do not have to hope for feedback like this — the rules in the template require it.

Part 7

Privacy, plainly

You are pasting personal details into a chat. Keep it safe.

  • Never paste: ID numbers, your full home address, passwords, bank details, private health information, or private company information from a current employer (customer data, internal numbers, anything an agreement says you must keep secret).
  • Your choice: the text of a public job posting, and your own resume highlights in general terms. Most people are fine sharing these. If you are not, describe them in a general way — "4 years in retail, 1 year as a supervisor" works just as well as your exact history.
  • If privacy matters to you, use a chat that does not require an account, like the ones listed at the bottom of this page. With no account, the chat is not connected to your name.

A simple extra step: remove names before you paste. A job posting works just as well without the company name in it. The coach needs the requirements, not who wrote them.

Part 8

Run it, then make it better

Your first session will be good. Your third will be better — if you treat the prompt as something you improve.

  1. Do one full session. Answer out loud if you can, then type a short version of what you said. Speaking is the skill you are training.
  2. Tell the coach what to change — mid-session, in plain words. "Harder questions." "Stricter feedback." "Shorter replies from you." "Focus on my weak spots." The coach adjusts right away.
  3. After the debrief, ask this: "Rewrite my original coach prompt to include what you learned about me in this session." The AI gives you an improved prompt with your real weak spots written in.
  4. Save the improved prompt in a notes app, a document, anywhere you can find it. This matters most in no-account chats, where the conversation disappears when you close the page. The prompt is the part you keep. The chat is temporary.

One last habit: start a fresh chat for each session instead of keeping one long chat open for days. In a very long chat, the coach slowly forgets your rules, and the feedback gets softer. A fresh chat with your newest improved prompt loses nothing.

Part 9

The week before the interview

When the interview is real and close, use this plan. Five short sessions, twenty to thirty minutes each, work better than one long evening — short, repeated practice teaches more than one big effort.

  1. Session 1 — the full run. Use the template as written. Save the debrief and ask for the improved prompt.
  2. Session 2 — your weakest habit. Start a fresh chat with the improved prompt, and change rule 1: "Ask only questions that test my weakest habit from the last debrief: [YOUR WEAKEST HABIT]."
  3. Session 3 — pressure. Add the follow-up pressure line from the variations above. This session should feel hard. That is the point.
  4. Session 4 — your questions for them. Write down two or three real questions you want to ask the interviewer, then use the switch-roles line from the variations above to practice them.
  5. Session 5 — the day before. One friendly, easy session: first-round level, familiar questions. End on a strong answer and stop. Do not try to learn anything new the day before.

Skip a day if you need to. The order matters more than the exact days: first find your weak spots, then work on them under pressure, then finish calm.

Part 10

Where to run it, free

The same free tools from the learning guide work here. Checked and current as of September 2026:

  • Duck.ai — free, no account needed. Run by DuckDuckGo with a focus on privacy: chats are not linked to who you are, and the free version includes several strong AI models. A paid plan exists, but you do not need it for this. A good first choice if the privacy section above matters to you.
  • ChatGPT — works without an account in many countries. Open the site and start typing; if a sign-up screen appears, look for the option to stay logged out. Two limits: this option is not offered everywhere, and your chat is gone when you close the page — copy your improved prompt first. If you cannot skip the sign-in, use Duck.ai instead.
  • Free with an account: the free plans on ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Claude all save your chats, so your coach and its history are still there next time. Useful if you plan to practice over several days.

That is everything. You have the template, you know the job, and the chat window is free. Go prompt yourself.