HireVue interview: what to expect, how it is scored and how to prepare

LAYIQ is not affiliated with HireVue. This guide keeps HireVue’s claims about its own software labeled as claims, covers your rights, and sits beside our AI interview series, which has a free checklist you can ask for by email.

The short version

• There are two main formats. In an on-demand interview you get a link, record answers to questions the employer chose, and nobody is on the other end. A live interview is a scheduled video call. Since June 2026 HireVue also offers a voice AI interviewer.⁷²
• The employer sets the rules. HireVue says employers choose how long you get to prepare, how many times you can record an answer and how long each answer can run.¹
• Whether AI scores you depends on the employer’s setup. HireVue says its AI can score answers, summarize them, or both, depending on how a customer configures the interview, and that not every HireVue interview includes an assessment.¹⁴
• HireVue says its AI listens to your words, not your face. It says the AI does not analyze facial expressions, body language, your surroundings or tone of voice.¹ That is a vendor claim, not an independent finding.
• You can ask for an accommodation. HireVue’s interview has a built-in request for extra time on timed questions, and the employer decides on anything else.¹⁴ See your rights and accommodations.
• Illinois and New York City have rules about notice and consent for some AI-scored interviews. They are summarized below, as of October 17, 2026, and are general information, not legal advice.

What is a HireVue interview?

HireVue is a software company that provides the video interviewing platform, and the employer you applied to decides how to use it. HireVue’s candidate help center says it is “not directly involved in the hiring process,” so the employer follows up with you about decisions and next steps.⁷

The invitation email tells you which type you have.⁷ HireVue’s own guide says a one-way video interview is also called on-demand, pre-recorded or asynchronous, and that questions can arrive as pre-recorded video, as on-screen text, or as writing or coding prompts.⁶

How an on-demand HireVue interview works

1. The invitation. The employer sends a link, typically by email or text message, and it may come with a due date.¹¹⁴ Read it for the type of interview, the deadline and any notice about AI.
2. The system check. HireVue’s setup tests your camera, microphone and connection, and HireVue suggests logging in early to run it.⁹
3. Practice questions. When you start, you have the option to take practice questions first.⁸ HireVue says there are three generic ones, that you can redo them as often as you like and that no one but you can see them.¹⁰
4. The real questions. Each question appears as text or video, you may get some time to prepare, and then you record within the time limit. Once you submit a response, you cannot go back to that question.⁶¹¹²
5. Finishing. If you lose your connection, HireVue says you can reopen your link and return to your last unanswered question, but an answer you were recording may already have been submitted.⁹
6. Afterward. The employer reviews your answers and contacts you. HireVue says it is not involved in hiring decisions and cannot authorize a retake.¹²

How long it takes is up to the employer. HireVue’s candidate FAQ says most video-based assessments take under 20 to 30 minutes, suggests setting aside 45, and says most include five to eight questions.⁴ An example in its explainability statement is 4 to 6 video questions plus 2 to 3 short games, typically 15 to 25 minutes in all.¹ Your own invitation has the real number.

How a HireVue interview is scored, according to HireVue

Not every HireVue interview is scored by AI. HireVue says that depends on how the customer configures the interview,¹ and its candidate FAQ says not all HireVue interviews have an assessment added.⁴ Where AI scoring is used, HireVue describes three steps:

1. Speech to text. Your spoken answer becomes a transcript through a third-party speech-to-text system, which HireVue names as Rev.ai.¹
2. Understanding. HireVue’s own language model reads the transcript to work out what you meant.¹
3. Scoring. The result is scored against a five-level rating scale, from novice to expert, for each job-related competency the employer chose. HireVue says its scoring models were trained on thousands of ratings by human experts of sample interviews.¹

What it does not use, according to HireVue: “Across all configurations,” its AI “relies exclusively on what candidates say in their interview responses.” It says the AI does not analyze facial expressions, body language, your background and surroundings, or tone of voice.¹ In January 2021 HireVue said it had decided to remove visual analysis from its new assessment models because its algorithms “do not see significant additional predictive power when non-verbal data is added to language data.”³

What the employer sees: a report on how you did on each competency, and an overall result compared with the other candidates who took the same assessment. HireVue says employers can always review the actual video interviews and that the final decision stays with them.¹ Its candidate FAQ describes the interview as an early step that helps recruiters “make the first cut,” after which, for the vast majority of jobs in its words, the top group moves on to person-to-person interviews before people make hiring decisions.⁴

Opting out of AI scoring

HireVue says candidates see an AI notice and consent statement before an AI-scored assessment and can opt out. In an AI-scored interview, a candidate who opts out completes the same assessment, but recruiters review and rate the responses by hand on the same rating scales, and HireVue says opting out should not exclude anyone from the process.¹ That is HireVue’s model process. What your employer actually offers is the employer’s decision, so read the notice and ask before you decline.

What questions does a HireVue interview ask?

HireVue does not publish a question list, because it does not choose the questions. Employers do, and HireVue says every candidate for the same position gets the same questions and the same amount of time.¹³ You will not see the questions until you start,⁸ and after you finish you cannot review your recording on the platform; you would have to ask the employer.¹³

HireVue’s candidate FAQ names three common types of question in a video-based assessment.⁴ The example prompts below are ours, not HireVue’s.

HireVue says the competencies behind the questions come from a job analysis for each role, with adaptability, communication, problem solving and willingness to learn among the examples.¹ Its FAQ advice is to study the job description and have real examples ready.⁴ For ways to build those answers, see how to answer AI interview questions and its section on question types.

How to prepare for a HireVue interview

HireVue’s own advice is to prepare as you would for any interview: research the job and the company, think about how your skills match, and write brief stories about challenges you faced, what you did and the results.⁵ The checklist mixes HireVue’s guidance, which is cited, with our own general advice, which is not.

• Read the whole invitation

  Note the type of interview, the due date, the expected length and any AI notice or consent request. If it is unclear what the AI does, ask the recruiter; Part 1 has five questions worth asking.

• Choose a device and test it

  HireVue’s list names Windows 10 or newer, macOS 10.12 or newer, current Chrome, Firefox or Edge, Safari 15 or newer, and iPhones, iPads and Android phones with a front camera. Check the list in your invitation, because it can change.¹¹

• Check your connection

  HireVue’s help center gives 100 kbps as the minimum for an on-demand interview and 350 kbps as the recommended speed. Plug in the device or charge it first.¹¹⁴

• Set up your space

  Pick a quiet spot with light in front of you rather than behind you.⁵ On eye contact, HireVue’s tips page says not to worry about looking at the camera, while its help center says looking at the webcam gives the feeling of eye contact.⁵⁹ Use the practice question to see how you look and sound.¹⁰

• Do the practice questions

  HireVue says you can redo them as often as you like, play back your recording and that nobody else can see it. They are generic, so also prepare for questions about the role.¹⁰

• Prepare three to five true stories

  Pick real examples you can tell in a few minutes. Our guide to building an evidence bank shows how.

• Rehearse out loud, with a timer

  HireVue says most on-demand interviews ask for answers in just a few minutes, so practice telling your examples in that time.⁵

• Dress as you would for an in-person interview

  HireVue’s help center suggests wearing what you would to a face-to-face interview.⁹

• Block out the time

  Set aside the 45 minutes HireVue suggests and choose a time of day when you are alert.⁴

Do not try to game it. HireVue says a video-based assessment considers the whole context of a response, not just certain words, and that no course can help you game its assessments.⁴ That is HireVue’s claim, but it matches our advice: answer the question you were asked with true examples. A list of keywords reads badly to a person who watches the recording; Part 3 explains why keyword stuffing is a poor bet.

Practice for a HireVue interview

1. Start with HireVue’s practice questions if your interview offers them. They let you try the real recording screen, and HireVue says they are private.¹⁰
2. Write five or six prompts of your own from the question types above, using the job posting’s main requirements.
3. Record yourself answering one prompt at a time, out loud, on a phone or computer, as HireVue’s tips page suggests, with a timer set to a few minutes.⁵
4. Play it back. Check pace and clarity, and whether you answered the question you were asked. Clear audio gives software that transcribes your answer the best chance of hearing you correctly.
5. Stop after two or three full run-throughs. Over-rehearsed answers sound recited. Our guide to practicing in the real format has more.

Many sites sell HireVue practice. HireVue says each hiring company selects its own questions and that it has no way of telling what will be on your interview,¹⁰ so treat any product that claims to know your employer’s questions with caution.

Your rights and accommodations

Accommodations for a disability

In the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified applicants with disabilities, unless it would cause undue hardship. That includes changes to the application process.²⁰ The EEOC’s guidance says you may ask “at any time during the application process,” and that you can use “plain English” without mentioning the ADA.²⁰ The ADA also treats as discrimination failing to give tests in a way that makes the results reflect the skill being tested instead of an applicant’s impaired sensory, manual or speaking skills, unless that skill is what the test measures.²¹

On HireVue’s side, its help center describes a link on the first page of the interview to request accommodations, which gives more time on timed questions, and tells you to contact the hiring company directly for any other kind.¹⁴ HireVue’s explainability statement says requests go to the employer, which decides whether to grant them, outside HireVue’s control.¹ Its candidate FAQ adds that neurodiverse candidates may be able to ask for the questions in advance and can request accommodations from the recruiter;⁴ advance questions are one possible accommodation, not a given. Ask early and in writing, and say what the barrier is and what would help. Part 2 has wording.

Illinois

The Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act covers positions based in Illinois. An employer that asks applicants to record video interviews and uses AI analysis of those videos must, before the interview, tell you AI may be used to analyze your video and consider your fitness for the position, explain how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it uses, and get your consent. It may not use AI to evaluate applicants who have not consented.¹⁵ On your request, the employer must delete your interview within 30 days and tell anyone else who received copies to delete them too.¹⁶ The Act’s text does not define “artificial intelligence,” so whether a given tool or setup counts is for the employer, and a lawyer, to say.¹⁵

Since January 1, 2026, the Illinois Human Rights Act has also made it a civil rights violation for an employer to use AI in recruitment, hiring and similar decisions in a way that has the effect of discriminating on the basis of protected classes, or to fail to give notice that it is using AI for those purposes. The state is to adopt rules on when and how that notice is given.¹⁷

New York City

Local Law 144 covers employers and employment agencies that use an “automated employment decision tool” for jobs in the city: a computer-based tool that uses machine learning, statistics, data analytics or AI, helps make employment decisions, and substantially assists or replaces discretionary decision-making. The city’s FAQ says a job counts as in the city when it is based in an NYC office at least part of the time, or is fully remote but tied to an NYC office.¹⁸ Whether a particular HireVue interview counts depends on the employer’s setup, and we make no claim either way. If the law applies, the city’s FAQ, dated June 29, 2023, says:

• The tool must have had a bias audit by an independent auditor within the past year, and the employer must publish a summary of the results and the date it began using the tool.¹⁸
• Candidates who live in New York City must get notice that the tool is used and which job qualifications or characteristics it will assess, at least 10 business days before it is used, with instructions to request a reasonable accommodation under other laws.¹⁸
• The law requires the audit and the notice, not any particular result: the FAQ says it does not require specific action based on what an audit finds.¹⁸
• You can complain by contacting 311 or the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection; discrimination claims go to the NYC Commission on Human Rights.¹⁸

Enforcement depends largely on complaints. A December 2025 audit by the New York State Comptroller covering July 2023 through June 2025 found that the department had received only two complaints about these tools and that its complaint process was ineffective in ensuring that all complaints reached it.¹⁹

Federal rules and the EEOC

The EEOC’s 2022 technical assistance on the ADA and AI hiring tools is still named on its list of disability-related technical assistance documents, but its page returned “not found” when we checked on October 17, 2026.²² A law firm reported in February 2025 that the agency’s AI guidance had disappeared from its website, and wrote that federal, state and local anti-discrimination laws still apply to AI use.²³ An EEOC charge of discrimination generally must be filed within 180 calendar days of the event, or 300 where a state or local agency enforces a law against the same kind of discrimination.²⁴ Part 5 covers what to do if something went wrong.

Your video and your data

HireVue says the employer chooses how long interview data is kept (it recommends two years, but follows company policy) and that deletion requests go to the employer, not to HireVue.¹⁴ After you finish, you cannot view your recording on the platform; you would have to ask the employer.¹³ Illinois’s 30-day deletion rule above applies only to the interviews it covers. See asking for your data, or its deletion for steps.

After you submit: retakes, feedback and waiting

Retakes. Once you submit an answer, you cannot return to that question. Only the hiring company can approve a new interview attempt, and you have to ask it: HireVue’s support says it cannot authorize one.¹² If a disconnection cost you an answer, HireVue suggests finishing the interview and telling the employer.⁹

Feedback. HireVue says employers can turn on a Candidate Feedback Report that shows candidates how they did, and it recommends doing so, but whether you get one is the employer’s choice.¹

Waiting. The employer, not HireVue, follows up with you.⁷ See what happens after an AI interview for how long it can take and how to follow up.