Mock interview

Part 1: SQL (50 points). Two questions like the ones in real technical interviews: the top three customers by spend last quarter, and the month-on-month change in orders. Your SQL runs in your browser on a small, invented online-shop database. We compare your result with the right answer, so any correct way of writing it scores full marks. Common slips, such as including cancelled orders or forgetting LIMIT, earn part marks and tell you exactly what to change.

Part 2: Competency (50 points). Two “Tell me about a time…” questions picked from eight common ones, such as explaining data to someone non-technical, finding a mistake, a tight deadline or learning a new tool quickly. You answer in four short boxes: Situation, Task, Action and Result.

What we check in your answers:

• whether each STAR part is there, and has enough detail
• whether you say what you did (“I”) rather than only what the team did (“we”)
• whether your result is measurable, with a number such as time saved or errors fixed
• the length: about 150 to 350 words, which is roughly two minutes spoken
• filler words such as “basically”, “just” and “kind of”

Each answer gets a concrete tip on what to change first. If the site’s AI check is switched on and you choose it, your written answers also get a score for each STAR part, an overall mark out of 10, strengths, improvements and a tip, and your score for each answer blends the two.

Scoring. Each of the four questions is worth 25 points. 75 or more is “Strong foundations”, 50 to 74 is “Getting close” and under 50 is “Not yet”.

Its limits. Writing isn’t speaking: in the room, pace, eye contact and follow-up questions matter too, and we can’t check whether your story is true or relevant to a particular employer. The questions are general practice questions written for the Toolkit, not taken from any company’s interviews. Treat your score as a guide to what to practise, not a prediction.