Hear a sample phone screen
A real phone screen has no slides and no face. Someone asks a question, you answer out loud, and they ask about what you just said. This is an 80-second recording of one, with the screen you would see.
Both voices here are computers reading a script. The interviewer uses the voice Pro uses. The candidate's lines were written for this page. On your own call the answers are yours, and the questions come from the job ad you paste.
Phone screen · Backend engineer
0:00 · of 1:20
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The marked sheet for this call
Backend engineer, sample call
Your answers
Question 1 · Technical
85%Ready
How would you stop one slow database query from taking down your API?
You said
First I'd find which query is slow, using the query plan. Most often it's a missing index. If I can't fix it right away, I'd put a timeout on it, so one query can't hold every connection.
The marker
You started by finding the slow query, named the usual cause and gave a way to contain it. A short note on watching query times after the fix would have rounded it off.
Follow-up
You mentioned a timeout. What happens to the request when it fires?
You said
The caller gets a clear error with a hint to retry later, and we log it. We don't retry blindly, because that piles more load onto the database.
You answered what was asked.
What a strong answer covers
A strong answer finds the slow query with the query plan or slow-query log, fixes the cause (often a missing index), and limits the damage meanwhile with a timeout or a pool limit so one query cannot use every connection.
Question 2 · Behavioral
58%Not ready yet
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate on a technical decision.
You said
We argued over rewriting a service. I built a small test of both options, shared the numbers, and we kept the old code. It cost a week and saved us months.
The marker
You gave the situation and the result. The story leaves out what the disagreement was about and what you would do differently next time.
Follow-up
What was your part in how the disagreement was settled?
You said
I didn't try to win the argument. I asked what result each of us wanted, then we agreed on one number to check, how long the busiest request took. The test decided it, not either of us.
You answered what was asked.
Name the number and the result in one line: for example, that the busiest request took twice as long on the rewrite.
What a strong answer covers
A strong answer names the decision, your own part in it, the evidence you used, the result, and one thing you would do differently.
Score
72%
1 of 2 answers ready
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Pro opens the phone screen: questions from the ad you paste, a follow-up on what you say, and a sheet like this one.
How you sounded
Pace: fast, 175 words a minute
Easy to follow on a call is 110–170 words a minute.
0 filler words