AI Interview Assistants and Confidential Material: NDAs, Case Packs and Code

If an employer gives you material under an NDA, such as a case pack, a private dataset or a piece of their code, do not paste it into any AI tool, including ours, unless they have said you may. Your own resume and a public job description are yours to share with an AI interview assistant. Material the employer created and marked confidential is theirs, and an NDA usually bars you from sending it to a third party, which is what any cloud AI service is. This page sets out what counts as confidential, where transcribed text goes, and a checklist to run before you paste anything. This is not legal advice.

What counts as confidential interview material

The test is simple: did the employer create it, and did they mark it or cover it with an agreement you signed? Public material and material you made yourself are fine. Employer-made material with real data is not, unless you have permission.

When unsure, the recruiter can answer in one email, and a written yes protects you later.

Why pasting into an AI tool is a disclosure

An NDA does not usually distinguish between emailing a document to a friend and pasting it into an AI chat; both send the content to a third party. Every cloud AI tool, including CoPilot Interview, processes your text on servers that are neither yours nor the employer's.

Here is exactly what happens in our app. Audio is streamed in short segments for transcription and is not stored on our servers. The transcribed text is sent to the AI model you pick to produce the answer. A text transcript is saved only in your Documents folder. Our privacy explainer and our comparison of assistant privacy policies cover how other tools handle the same text.

A checklist before you paste anything

Run these five questions before any employer material goes into any AI tool, ours or anyone else's.

1. Did the employer create this, or did I find it in public or write it myself?
2. Is it marked confidential, or covered by an NDA or candidate agreement I signed?
3. Does it contain real customer, employee, financial or unreleased product data?
4. Has the employer said in writing that AI tools are allowed for this stage?
5. Could I prepare just as well with a public substitute?

If the answer to any of the first three is yes and the answer to the fourth is no, do not paste it. If the fifth is yes, use the substitute.

Take-home assignments and case interviews

Take-home assignments are the gray zone. The task description is often generic and fine to discuss, but the starter code, data files and evaluation rubric are the employer's work and frequently carry a confidentiality notice. Our guide to take-home assignment interviews covers how to ask what is permitted and how to document the help you used.

Case interviews are usually spoken, but firms sometimes send a pre-read built on a real engagement. Treat that as confidential. For practice, build your own case from a public annual report instead; our page on assistants for case interviews shows how.

How to prepare without crossing the line

Paste the public job description and your own resume into the AI mock interview; it generates questions from them, reads each one aloud and scores your spoken answer out of 10. That is the whole preparation loop, and none of it touches employer material.

If live help is allowed in the interview and the interviewer reads a confidential case aloud, the captions will contain their words; ask first whether that is acceptable. In every case, follow your employer's rules and get the answer in writing when it matters.

Where CoPilot Interview fits

CoPilot Interview is a desktop AI interview assistant for practice first and live help where it is permitted. Its inputs are your resume, the job description and the interviewer's spoken questions; it has no feature that needs the employer's private documents, and the checklist above applies to it as much as to any other tool. Disclosure: CoPilot Interview is our product, so weigh what we say about it accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

Can I paste a job description into an AI interview assistant?

Yes. A published job description is public information, and your own resume is yours. Together they are the normal inputs for an AI mock interview. The line is employer-created material marked confidential or covered by an NDA, such as case packs, private code or internal data, which needs written permission first.

Does an NDA cover pasting text into an AI chat?

Usually yes. Most NDAs bar disclosure to any third party, and a cloud AI service is a third party whose servers process your text. Pasting is a disclosure in the same way emailing the document would be. If you are unsure, ask the employer in writing. This is not legal advice.

Where does the text go when CoPilot Interview transcribes an interview?

Audio is streamed in short segments for transcription and is not stored on our servers. The transcribed text is sent to the AI model you pick to generate the answer, and a text transcript is saved only in your Documents folder. The model provider's own terms also apply to that text.

Can I use an AI tool on a take-home assignment?

Only if the employer allows it, and only on the parts that are not confidential. The task description is often fine; starter code, data files and rubrics usually are not. Ask in writing what help is permitted, and document any AI use so you can explain it in the follow-up interview.

What should I do if I already pasted confidential material?

Stop using it, delete the conversation or transcript from your device, and tell the employer what happened and which tool it went to. Owning the mistake quickly is far better than being asked about it later. If the material was sensitive, consider asking a lawyer. This is not legal advice.