What should you not do in an AI interview?
Do not read from a script, do not open other tabs, do not look away from the camera, and do not have anyone else in the room. Beyond outright cheating, these are the behaviours most likely to fail you or lower your proctoring score.
On the answers themselves, the two fatal habits are being too vague and saying 'we' when the question is about what you did.
Conduct — this affects your proctoring score
Many platforms record a proctoring score alongside your answers, and it influences which projects you are considered for afterwards. These are the things that lower it:
| Do not | Why it hurts |
|---|---|
| Open other tabs or windows | Tab switching is logged and reads as looking something up. |
| Look away from the camera | Repeated glancing off-screen suggests reading from elsewhere. |
| Read from a script | Detectable in your eye movement and your delivery. It also flattens follow-ups. |
| Use a second monitor or device | Frequently flagged, and it breaks screen sharing. |
| Have other people in the room | Another face or voice in the recording is an obvious flag. |
| Use AI to generate answers | This is cheating. It ends the application rather than lowering a score. |
Answers — the habits that fail people
- Do not answer in under 20 seconds. Too thin to score. Expand with specifics.
- Do not ramble past two minutes. Structure beats volume every time.
- Do not say "we" when asked what you did. The rubric is looking for your contribution.
- Do not stay abstract. "I improved performance" scores nothing; "I cut p99 latency from 800ms to 120ms by replacing the join with a materialised view" scores.
- Do not contradict your resume. Consistency between the two is explicitly checked.
- Do not claim expertise you cannot defend. Follow-up questions go deeper, and that is exactly where inflated claims collapse.
- Do not apologise for your accent or your setup. It wastes answer time on something that is not being scored.
Setup — do not sabotage yourself before you start
- Do not take it on a phone or tablet. Use a laptop or desktop.
- Do not use public or office Wi-Fi if you can avoid it.
- Do not leave downloads, streaming or calls running on your network.
- Do not leave browser extensions enabled — use an incognito window.
- Do not sit with a window behind you. Face the light, not away from it.
What to do instead → · If the interview will not run →
Related questions
Common questions
What should you not do in an AI interview?
Do not read from a script, open other tabs, look away from the camera, use a second device, or have anyone else in the room. On the answers, avoid vagueness and avoid saying 'we' when asked what you personally did.
Can AI interviews detect cheating?
They record and analyse conduct as well as content — tab switching, eye movement, additional voices and screen activity are commonly captured. Cheating typically ends the application rather than reducing a score.
Is it bad to look away during an AI interview?
Repeated glancing away can lower a proctoring score because it reads as reading from another source. Brief natural pauses to think are normal and expected.
Can I use notes in an AI interview?
Brief prompts to jog your memory are fine. Reading full scripted answers is audible in your delivery, visible in your eye movement, and tends to hurt rather than help.