A Karat interview is a live, one-hour technical interview that Karat runs on behalf of the company you applied to. Your interviewer is a Karat Interview Engineer (IVE), a professional software developer, not an employee of the hiring company. According to Karat's candidate page, the hour has three parts: a brief introduction, about 10 minutes of discussion questions, and about 40 minutes of programming questions in a full coding environment. Afterward, Karat sends the recruiter a video recording of the interview with a summary of your performance, and the company decides what happens next.
Everything below comes from Karat's own candidate pages, terms and blog, checked in October 2026, plus our own preparation advice, which is labelled as such. Each Karat interview is configured for a specific role at a specific company, so your invitation email is the final word on format, language and rules.
How the Karat interview works
| Stage | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | Before | You book a slot yourself. Karat offers evenings, weekends and lunch hours, and says it sends a personalized email on scheduling that explains what to expect and how to prepare. |
| Introduction | Brief | A short introduction to start the session. |
| Discussion questions | About 10 minutes | Technical questions tied to the role that you talk through rather than code. |
| Programming questions | About 40 minutes | Coding in a full coding environment. Karat says the most important thing it evaluates is how successfully your code solves the problem. |
| After the interview | Varies | Karat sends the recruiter the video recording and a summary. The recruiter decides the next steps and contacts you. |
Karat describes this on its candidate experience page. Two details matter more than they look. First, you're coding in a real environment, not a whiteboard, so you're expected to produce code that runs. Second, the company sees a recording, not just a pass or fail, so how you explain your thinking reaches the hiring team too.
Who interviews you and what they score
The IVE runs the interview, but the hiring company makes the decision. Karat's blog explains the chain: the IVE records observations against a structured rubric, Karat's system turns them into a recommendation, and the company decides. Karat also says there isn't one Karat interview; the questions, how many you get and the bar you need to clear all depend on the company and the role.
What changes by level, according to Karat's vice president of content in an interview on the Karat blog:
- Early-career candidates tend to get classic algorithm and data structure problems, such as writing code that scans a matrix of data and reports facts about it.
- More senior candidates get more discussion and analysis, such as reading a block of code with performance problems and pointing out what you'd change, or explaining how you'd add fields to an existing API without breaking clients.
Karat's May 2026 post on what its interviews measure lists the skills its rubrics now look at: problem solving, coding fundamentals, technical communication, systems thinking, debugging and validation, engineering judgment and, in AI-enabled interviews, how well you work with AI. It also says speed alone isn't the signal. Doing well looks like steady progress without long stretches of being stuck, and Karat says its interviews are designed to be challenging, so not breezing through doesn't mean you're failing.
Languages and the coding environment
Karat tells hiring companies it supports a library of more than 100 languages and frameworks. Which ones you may use depends on the role, so check your invitation and confirm with your recruiter if your preferred language isn't listed. A few practical points:
- Pick your strongest language. Fluency beats range when you have 40 minutes.
- Run your code often. Because the goal is working code, run a small case early, then build on it.
- Learn the editor's basics beforehand. Know how to run code, read output and add a quick test in your language without searching for syntax.
- AI-enabled formats differ. Karat's NextGen interviews use a VS Code-based IDE with a built-in AI assistant and project-style questions. If your invitation mentions an AI assistant, prepare for that format specifically.
AI rules and recording
Karat runs both kinds of interview. Its FAQ for hiring companies says its library includes interviews that allow ChatGPT and interviews that don't, and its NextGen page says candidates in those interviews are encouraged and often expected to use Karat's integrated assistant, while external AI tools are prohibited. The Karat candidate terms of use set the baseline for everyone:
- Your answers must be your own work. No third-party help. Outside sources or a provided AI assistant are allowed only when your Karat interviewer or your interview instructions explicitly say so.
- Interview content is confidential. You agree not to share, post or summarize the questions, and not to paste them into any AI tool other than one Karat provides or directs you to use.
- Seen it before? Say so. The terms ask you to tell Karat if you've already encountered the content being presented.
- The session is recorded. You consent to Karat recording your answers, audio, video and platform interactions, and sharing the recording and results with the hiring company.
Take the assessment yourself and follow the employer's rules — use CoPilot Interview to practice beforehand.
The redo option
Karat describes a redo option for first-round technical interviews, for candidates who feel they didn't show their best. Its redo page, written for hiring companies, lists four steps:
- You request a redo within 24 hours of your original interview.
- Karat sends you an invitation to pick a new day and time.
- You take the redo with a new set of questions.
- Karat publishes both recommendations to the company, which decides whether to advance you.
Because the company receives both results, a redo isn't a clean slate. How each company weighs two results isn't published, so check with your recruiter that the option applies to your interview and how it's weighed before you request one. A redo makes the most sense when something specific went wrong, such as a misread problem or a bug you ran out of time to fix, rather than a vague sense that it could have gone better.
A one-week preparation plan
This is our suggested plan, built around the 10-minute discussion and 40-minute programming split. Stretch it if you're rusty.
| Day | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read the invitation | Note the role, allowed languages and any AI rules. Ask the recruiter anything that's unclear. Test your laptop, camera, headset and connection. |
| 2 | Discussion warm-up | List ten concepts from the job description, such as caching, REST versioning, SQL indexes or rendering performance. Explain each out loud in about 60 seconds. |
| 3–4 | Core coding | Two medium problems a day on arrays, strings, hash maps, sorting, BFS and DFS. Run your code after each step and test edge cases. Our LeetCode patterns guide helps you spot the technique. |
| 5 | Code reading | Take a 40 to 60 line function you didn't write, find a bug or a slow loop, and explain the fix and its complexity. |
| 6 | Full rehearsal | Ten minutes of spoken concept questions, then 40 minutes of coding while narrating, in the language you'll use. |
| 7 | Light review | Re-solve one problem you missed, reread the invitation, and prepare your space. |
The talking is what's hardest to practice alone. A free AI mock interview in CoPilot Interview reads each question aloud, listens to your spoken answer and scores it out of 10 with what to fix and a model answer. In the desktop app you can mix technical and coding questions, choose your language, and take your time on coding questions, since they never auto-submit. The coding interview cheat sheet and Big-O complexity visualizer are useful for the complexity questions that often follow a solution.
Tactics for the hour itself
- Clarify before you code. Restate the problem, confirm the input format and ask about edge cases. Karat says its IVEs help clear up misunderstandings, so use that.
- Keep discussion answers short. A clear definition, one example from your work and a trade-off is plenty for a 10-minute block.
- Get a working version first. A simple solution that runs is worth more than an elegant one that doesn't. Optimize once it passes your tests.
- Narrate. The recording goes to the company, so say what you're trying and why.
- If you're stuck, say so. Describe what you've ruled out. Silence is harder to score than a reasoned dead end.
- Watch the clock, not the speed. Leave a few minutes to test and talk through complexity before time runs out.
The shared-editor habits in our CoderPad interview tips apply here too, and the technical phone screen guide covers how first-round screens fit into the wider process.
What to ask your recruiter
- Is this a standard Karat interview or an AI-enabled one?
- Which languages can I use?
- If I request a redo, how are both results considered?
- When should I expect to hear back, and what's the next round?
- How do I request an accommodation?
Our list of questions to ask a recruiter has more.
Rehearse the hour out loud
CoPilot Interview's free Mock Interview builds technical and coding questions from your résumé and the job description, reads them aloud and scores each spoken answer out of 10. You get 15 free minutes every day, with no credit card.
Try a free AI mock interviewFAQ
What is a Karat interview?
It is a live technical interview that Karat runs for the company you applied to. A Karat Interview Engineer, who is a professional software developer, asks discussion and programming questions, and Karat sends a recording and a summary to the company, which makes the decision.
How long is a Karat interview?
About an hour. Karat lists a brief introduction, about 10 minutes of discussion questions and about 40 minutes of programming questions.
Is the Karat interview recorded?
Yes. Karat's candidate terms say it records your answers, audio, video and platform interactions, and it sends the recording with a performance summary to the recruiter.
Can I use ChatGPT or other AI in a Karat interview?
Only if your interviewer or interview instructions explicitly allow it. Karat's terms require your own work, and in its AI-enabled interviews you use Karat's built-in assistant, not external AI tools.
Can I redo a Karat interview?
Karat lets you request a redo of a first-round technical interview within 24 hours. The redo uses new questions, and Karat sends both recommendations to the company, which decides whether you advance.
How hard is the Karat interview?
It depends on the role and level, because each Karat interview is configured for a specific job. Karat says its interviews are designed to be challenging, so struggling with part of a question doesn't mean you failed.
What programming languages can I use in a Karat interview?
Karat says it supports more than 100 languages and frameworks, but the options for your interview depend on the role. Check your invitation and ask the recruiter if your preferred language isn't listed.