Currently, Cipher is basically just leetcode but with a chatbot to help you answer questions. However, I was wondering if I should shift in a different direction, which would be more helpful to have an AI assistant (i.e., AI mock interviewer), or if optimizing the current idea is best.
Also, any suggestions on either a) features to add and b) feedback in general would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance!"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep"],"value":"Show HN: CipherAI \u2013 Technical interview prep platform with LLM to assist you"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.cipherai.dev/"}},"_tags":["story","author_cipheraidev","story_40940922","show_hn"],"author":"cipheraidev","children":[40941057],"created_at":"2024-07-11T21:51:20Z","created_at_i":1720734680,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"40940922","points":4,"story_id":40940922,"story_text":"Hi HN, I'm working on a technical interview prep platform that uses AI to help you. As of now, the platform is missing a lot of features and only has a few problems, but I wanted some feedback on the idea.
Currently, Cipher is basically just leetcode but with a chatbot to help you answer questions. However, I was wondering if I should shift in a different direction, which would be more helpful to have an AI assistant (i.e., AI mock interviewer), or if optimizing the current idea is best.
Also, any suggestions on either a) features to add and b) feedback in general would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance!","title":"Show HN: CipherAI \u2013 Technical interview prep platform with LLM to assist you","updated_at":"2024-09-20T17:25:47Z","url":"https://www.cipherai.dev/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"wa5ina"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["technical","interview","ai","leetcode"],"value":"LeetCode wasn't actually preparing me or anyone else for the pressure of a real technical interview.
Most platforms just give you a text box and a compiler. I wanted something that actually simulates the back-and-forth of an interviewer pushing you on time complexity, asking follow-up questions, and pointing out edge cases you missed.
> The Stack:\nI built the backend with nestjs, prisma, postgresql, Webrtc for real time back and forth conv and [socket.io](http://socket.io) events in panel like code run etc\u2026. claude-haiku-4-5 for conv and anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6 for interview scoring.
> Where it still falls short:\nIt\u2019s not perfect. Sometimes the AI gets overly pedantic about syntax instead of focusing on the core algorithmic logic. I\u2019m still tuning the prompts to make it behave more like a senior engineer and less like a strict compiler.
I'm currently trying to stress-test the system. I\u2019d love for you to try breaking the AI interviewer or tell me why this approach is flawed. Happy to answer any questions about the stack or the prompt engineering."},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep","ai"],"value":"Show HN: I built an AI-powered technical interview prep tool"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://crackr.dev/"}},"_tags":["story","author_wa5ina","story_47317236","show_hn"],"author":"wa5ina","children":[47317275,47327546],"created_at":"2026-03-09T23:32:17Z","created_at_i":1773099137,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"47317236","points":1,"story_id":47317236,"story_text":"LeetCode wasn't actually preparing me or anyone else for the pressure of a real technical interview.
Most platforms just give you a text box and a compiler. I wanted something that actually simulates the back-and-forth of an interviewer pushing you on time complexity, asking follow-up questions, and pointing out edge cases you missed.
> The Stack:\nI built the backend with nestjs, prisma, postgresql, Webrtc for real time back and forth conv and [socket.io](http://socket.io) events in panel like code run etc\u2026. claude-haiku-4-5 for conv and anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6 for interview scoring.
> Where it still falls short:\nIt\u2019s not perfect. Sometimes the AI gets overly pedantic about syntax instead of focusing on the core algorithmic logic. I\u2019m still tuning the prompts to make it behave more like a senior engineer and less like a strict compiler.
I'm currently trying to stress-test the system. I\u2019d love for you to try breaking the AI interviewer or tell me why this approach is flawed. Happy to answer any questions about the stack or the prompt engineering.","title":"Show HN: I built an AI-powered technical interview prep tool","updated_at":"2026-03-12T08:27:50Z","url":"https://crackr.dev/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"robertnp"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep","ai","leetcode"],"value":"Hey HN,
Check out our technical paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.15627 and the video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op8hyLW7Z84
I\u2019ve been obsessed with the art of the interview since I was in college. In my career I interviewed over 100 people and was interviewed from tech companies from startups to big tech and hedge funds.
I built Neuraprep because I noticed something missing \u2014 while software engineers have leetcode.com and finance folks have quantquestions.com, other engineering domains (like ML, data science, MLOps) don\u2019t have a go-to platform to prep for interviews. Sure, there\u2019s Kaggle and Coursera, but nothing unified.
So I spent a summer collecting 400+ real interview questions and built detailed answers for each. I drew from academic sources, online communities, and LLMs to refine the content. Then I used this dataset to build an AI that mimics how a human interviewer evaluates responses.
Here\u2019s how it works:
\u2022 The reasoning engine extracts core ideas from the user\u2019s answer.\n\u2022 It compares them to the expected ideas from the database.\n\u2022 If something is missing, the conversation continues \u2014 just like a real technical interviewer would do.
With recent voice and reasoning model advancements (thanks Sesame, O3), it now runs on-demand phone interviews that feel surprisingly real."},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["technical","interview","ai"],"value":"Show HN: I built an AI tool to practice technical interviews with"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://neuraprep.com/"}},"_tags":["story","author_robertnp","story_43870679","show_hn"],"author":"robertnp","children":[43877609],"created_at":"2025-05-02T14:57:13Z","created_at_i":1746197833,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"43870679","points":12,"story_id":43870679,"story_text":"Hey HN,
Check out our technical paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.15627 and the video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op8hyLW7Z84
I\u2019ve been obsessed with the art of the interview since I was in college. In my career I interviewed over 100 people and was interviewed from tech companies from startups to big tech and hedge funds.
I built Neuraprep because I noticed something missing \u2014 while software engineers have leetcode.com and finance folks have quantquestions.com, other engineering domains (like ML, data science, MLOps) don\u2019t have a go-to platform to prep for interviews. Sure, there\u2019s Kaggle and Coursera, but nothing unified.
So I spent a summer collecting 400+ real interview questions and built detailed answers for each. I drew from academic sources, online communities, and LLMs to refine the content. Then I used this dataset to build an AI that mimics how a human interviewer evaluates responses.
Here\u2019s how it works:
\u2022 The reasoning engine extracts core ideas from the user\u2019s answer.\n\u2022 It compares them to the expected ideas from the database.\n\u2022 If something is missing, the conversation continues \u2014 just like a real technical interviewer would do.
With recent voice and reasoning model advancements (thanks Sesame, O3), it now runs on-demand phone interviews that feel surprisingly real.","title":"Show HN: I built an AI tool to practice technical interviews with","updated_at":"2025-08-23T12:42:24Z","url":"https://neuraprep.com/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"leetpro"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep","ai","leetcode"],"value":"Hey HN \u2014 we\u2019re University of Waterloo grads, and we\u2019re building LeetPro (https://tryleetpro.com). LeetPro is Leetcode but for soft skill-based questions and cases. In other words a platform designed to help you nail behavioral, product, and case-based interviews just like Leetcode does for technical interviews. We\u2019re combining AI-driven mock interviews with community-driven content to create a comprehensive preparation tool for systems design, product, and business interviews.\nWe came up with this idea just last week, and we've already launched an MVP that\u2019s worth checking out if you\u2019re interested https://tryleetpro.com
Why you ask? (Eric) As I started pivoting from software engineering to product management, I noticed a HUGE difference in the structure between preparing for technical roles versus product management, business, and finance roles. Leetcode made technical prep straightforward, but there\u2019s no equivalent for the soft-skill-heavy interviews in the finance, business analyst, and product management spaces. That\u2019s where we\u2019re hoping LeetPro comes in.\nIn the future, we\u2019re hoping to build LeetPro into a product that allows users to browse a wide range of community and internally sourced interview questions, cases, and prompts. From there, you can conduct a mock interview with a realistic AI interviewer that mimics the experience of a real interview. Afterward, you receive a detailed score and breakdown of your performance, along with precise feedback on how to improve. We\u2019re also planning future iterations that will analyze non-verbal cues like confidence, personality, and body language.
If you\u2019ve ever struggled with preparing for a behavioral or case-based interview or know someone who is, we\u2019d love for you to give LeetPro a try. We only built this in the last 48 hours and we\u2019re hoping to just understand whether this is a product that people are interested in! \nWe\u2019re eager to hear your feedback and answer any questions in the comments!"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["interview","leetcode"],"value":"Show HN: Leetpro \u2013 LeetCode but for soft-skill interviews"}},"_tags":["story","author_leetpro","story_41499653","show_hn"],"author":"leetpro","children":[41499935,41506000],"created_at":"2024-09-10T11:24:15Z","created_at_i":1725967455,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"41499653","points":5,"story_id":41499653,"story_text":"Hey HN \u2014 we\u2019re University of Waterloo grads, and we\u2019re building LeetPro (https://tryleetpro.com). LeetPro is Leetcode but for soft skill-based questions and cases. In other words a platform designed to help you nail behavioral, product, and case-based interviews just like Leetcode does for technical interviews. We\u2019re combining AI-driven mock interviews with community-driven content to create a comprehensive preparation tool for systems design, product, and business interviews.\nWe came up with this idea just last week, and we've already launched an MVP that\u2019s worth checking out if you\u2019re interested https://tryleetpro.com
Why you ask? (Eric) As I started pivoting from software engineering to product management, I noticed a HUGE difference in the structure between preparing for technical roles versus product management, business, and finance roles. Leetcode made technical prep straightforward, but there\u2019s no equivalent for the soft-skill-heavy interviews in the finance, business analyst, and product management spaces. That\u2019s where we\u2019re hoping LeetPro comes in.\nIn the future, we\u2019re hoping to build LeetPro into a product that allows users to browse a wide range of community and internally sourced interview questions, cases, and prompts. From there, you can conduct a mock interview with a realistic AI interviewer that mimics the experience of a real interview. Afterward, you receive a detailed score and breakdown of your performance, along with precise feedback on how to improve. We\u2019re also planning future iterations that will analyze non-verbal cues like confidence, personality, and body language.
If you\u2019ve ever struggled with preparing for a behavioral or case-based interview or know someone who is, we\u2019d love for you to give LeetPro a try. We only built this in the last 48 hours and we\u2019re hoping to just understand whether this is a product that people are interested in! \nWe\u2019re eager to hear your feedback and answer any questions in the comments!","title":"Show HN: Leetpro \u2013 LeetCode but for soft-skill interviews","updated_at":"2024-09-20T17:49:58Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"throw1235435"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep","ai","leetcode"],"value":"I'm talking about what I perceive to be the median salary/conditions with big tech being only a part of that. My point is more that I remember back in that period good salaries could be had outside big tech too even in the boring standard companies that you state. I remember banks, insurance, etc paying very well for example compared to today for an SWE/tech worker - the good opportunities seemed more distributed. For example I've seen contract rates for some of the people we hire haven't really changed for 10 years for developers. Now at best they are on par with other professional white collar workers; and the competition seems fiercer (e.g. 5 interviews for a similar salary with leetcode games rather than experienced based interviews).
Making software easier and more abstract has allowed less technical people into the profession, allowed easier outsourcing, meant more competition/interview prep to filter out people (even if the skills are not used in the job at all), more material for AI to train on, etc. To the parent comment's point I don't think it has boosted salaries and/or conditions on average for the SWE - in the long run (10 years +) it could be argued that economically the opposite has occurred."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Professional software developers don't vibe, they control"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14012"}},"_tags":["comment","author_throw1235435","story_46437391"],"author":"throw1235435","comment_text":"I'm talking about what I perceive to be the median salary/conditions with big tech being only a part of that. My point is more that I remember back in that period good salaries could be had outside big tech too even in the boring standard companies that you state. I remember banks, insurance, etc paying very well for example compared to today for an SWE/tech worker - the good opportunities seemed more distributed. For example I've seen contract rates for some of the people we hire haven't really changed for 10 years for developers. Now at best they are on par with other professional white collar workers; and the competition seems fiercer (e.g. 5 interviews for a similar salary with leetcode games rather than experienced based interviews).
Making software easier and more abstract has allowed less technical people into the profession, allowed easier outsourcing, meant more competition/interview prep to filter out people (even if the skills are not used in the job at all), more material for AI to train on, etc. To the parent comment's point I don't think it has boosted salaries and/or conditions on average for the SWE - in the long run (10 years +) it could be argued that economically the opposite has occurred.","created_at":"2025-12-30T22:56:16Z","created_at_i":1767135376,"objectID":"46439123","parent_id":46438833,"story_id":46437391,"story_title":"Professional software developers don't vibe, they control","story_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14012","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:16:24Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"neilv"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep","ai","leetcode"],"value":"Yes. I've seen a few in the last couple years: one hard science/tech company, one tech infrastructure company taking on a huge established player, one AI-ish company (but suddenly had a shakeup with senior exodus to hotter AI companies).
Non-AI, I got a written offer (for a key T-shaped hands-on technical role in a special unit of a financial institution), for which TC was (put very roughly) about halfway between Google L6 and where non-FAANG IC TC generally tops out.
Since you're asking about "non-FAANG", a few comments about that, using one offer as an example...
First, requirements: making a lot of money now is higher priority for me than it has been in the past (since I'd previously made money way too low of a priority, and now catching up to do), and FAANG-like TC is a solution, but aspects of culture and mission are still also very important.
Some ways that particular financial institution offer was more attractive than FAANG:
1. Every single person I talked with seemed genuine, honest, smart, and down-to-earth, and like they'd be great to work with, not mercenary/arrogant/oblivious like I've seen from some FAANG people.
2. The interview process was collegial and two-way. And some asked some very good questions, including questions that I think would never occur to Leetcode interviewers to ask, and the "correct answer" wasn't in the FAANG interview prep books for people to memorize/practice.
3. A higher executive themself met with me for a substantial meeting, was very smart and straight-talking about everything, and then also brought up growth opportunity they had in mind.
In hindsight, I probably should've accepted, but three of the main reasons at the time that I declined:
1. Leadership of my then-employer assured me that a showstopper organizational issue I raised would be fixed, and I felt an obligation to my colleagues to stay and help fix it. (That was my values-based choice, given the information I had at the time.)
2. The compensation was structured in a convoluted way (more complicated than FAANG TC), and the net effect was that there'd be almost no financial quality of life improvement for close to a year. So I'd be working like crazy, like at a startup (but without a startup lottery ticket), yet, although I'd be working for a big financial institution with a gazillion dollars, I wouldn't immediately have enough money and sense of income security to upgrade from a problematic early-startup-grade apartment in a VHCOLA. Buying a fleet of Brooks Brothers no-iron dress shirts would feel like an investment towards the future bonuses, and I'd just have to make sure my old radiator didn't burst and ruin everything in my closet again, until I could find a sufficiently low-risk way to upgrade lifestyle. :)
3. Once the offer was in writing, I got handed off to dealing directly with large corporate HR processes, which had a very different feel from the people I'd been talking with, and my spidey sense (battle scars) tingled. (Not potentially Kafkaesque bureaucracy for bad reasons, like some companies, but maybe the effect of decades of evolution of highly-regulated large business bureaucracy.) Not the kind of thing you want to see, right after you see that the TC structure still isn't going to make you feel financially comfortable anytime soon. This was intuition rather than hard information, but I hadn't yet gotten that disconcerting feeling from Google (where they'd grown up with a Summer Camp for Stanford Students focus on employee happiness, and where I imagine I might be able to find a progressive policy or person who is able help with a bureaucratic machine dilemma, if ever needed).
When asking about maximizing your TC, consider whether that's your only requirement, and what qualities of FAANG or FAANG-like-TC companies you have to accept to get that money."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?"}},"_tags":["comment","author_neilv","story_41042123"],"author":"neilv","comment_text":"Yes. I've seen a few in the last couple years: one hard science/tech company, one tech infrastructure company taking on a huge established player, one AI-ish company (but suddenly had a shakeup with senior exodus to hotter AI companies).
Non-AI, I got a written offer (for a key T-shaped hands-on technical role in a special unit of a financial institution), for which TC was (put very roughly) about halfway between Google L6 and where non-FAANG IC TC generally tops out.
Since you're asking about "non-FAANG", a few comments about that, using one offer as an example...
First, requirements: making a lot of money now is higher priority for me than it has been in the past (since I'd previously made money way too low of a priority, and now catching up to do), and FAANG-like TC is a solution, but aspects of culture and mission are still also very important.
Some ways that particular financial institution offer was more attractive than FAANG:
1. Every single person I talked with seemed genuine, honest, smart, and down-to-earth, and like they'd be great to work with, not mercenary/arrogant/oblivious like I've seen from some FAANG people.
2. The interview process was collegial and two-way. And some asked some very good questions, including questions that I think would never occur to Leetcode interviewers to ask, and the "correct answer" wasn't in the FAANG interview prep books for people to memorize/practice.
3. A higher executive themself met with me for a substantial meeting, was very smart and straight-talking about everything, and then also brought up growth opportunity they had in mind.
In hindsight, I probably should've accepted, but three of the main reasons at the time that I declined:
1. Leadership of my then-employer assured me that a showstopper organizational issue I raised would be fixed, and I felt an obligation to my colleagues to stay and help fix it. (That was my values-based choice, given the information I had at the time.)
2. The compensation was structured in a convoluted way (more complicated than FAANG TC), and the net effect was that there'd be almost no financial quality of life improvement for close to a year. So I'd be working like crazy, like at a startup (but without a startup lottery ticket), yet, although I'd be working for a big financial institution with a gazillion dollars, I wouldn't immediately have enough money and sense of income security to upgrade from a problematic early-startup-grade apartment in a VHCOLA. Buying a fleet of Brooks Brothers no-iron dress shirts would feel like an investment towards the future bonuses, and I'd just have to make sure my old radiator didn't burst and ruin everything in my closet again, until I could find a sufficiently low-risk way to upgrade lifestyle. :)
3. Once the offer was in writing, I got handed off to dealing directly with large corporate HR processes, which had a very different feel from the people I'd been talking with, and my spidey sense (battle scars) tingled. (Not potentially Kafkaesque bureaucracy for bad reasons, like some companies, but maybe the effect of decades of evolution of highly-regulated large business bureaucracy.) Not the kind of thing you want to see, right after you see that the TC structure still isn't going to make you feel financially comfortable anytime soon. This was intuition rather than hard information, but I hadn't yet gotten that disconcerting feeling from Google (where they'd grown up with a Summer Camp for Stanford Students focus on employee happiness, and where I imagine I might be able to find a progressive policy or person who is able help with a bureaucratic machine dilemma, if ever needed).
When asking about maximizing your TC, consider whether that's your only requirement, and what qualities of FAANG or FAANG-like-TC companies you have to accept to get that money.","created_at":"2024-07-23T15:52:11Z","created_at_i":1721749931,"objectID":"41047343","parent_id":41042123,"story_id":41042123,"story_title":"Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T17:28:21Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"weatherlite"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["technical","interview","prep","ai","leetcode"],"value":"> The majority of engineers, in my hiring experience, failed very simple tests pre-AI
Did you consider tech whiteboard / leetcode interviews are unnatural stressful environments ? Have you gone through a mid/difficult technical appraisal yourself lately ? Try it out just to get an idea how it feels on the other side..."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tech employment now significantly worse than the 2008 or 2020 recessions"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://twitter.com/JosephPolitano/status/2029916364664611242"}},"_tags":["comment","author_weatherlite","story_47278426"],"author":"weatherlite","children":[47280072,47280138,47280335,47281406],"comment_text":"> The majority of engineers, in my hiring experience, failed very simple tests pre-AI
Did you consider tech whiteboard / leetcode interviews are unnatural stressful environments ? Have you gone through a mid/difficult technical appraisal yourself lately ? Try it out just to get an idea how it feels on the other side...","created_at":"2026-03-06T19:21:26Z","created_at_i":1772824886,"objectID":"47279782","parent_id":47279458,"story_id":47278426,"story_title":"Tech employment now significantly worse than the 2008 or 2020 recessions","story_url":"https://twitter.com/JosephPolitano/status/2029916364664611242","updated_at":"2026-03-09T15:13:10Z"}],"hitsPerPage":20,"nbHits":7,"nbPages":1,"page":0,"params":"query=technical+interview+prep+AI+leetcode&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":29,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":18},"afterFetch":{"format":{"total":1}},"fetch":{"query":18,"scanning":9,"total":28},"total":29},"query":"technical interview prep AI leetcode","serverTimeMS":31}