How to actually prepare for a HireVue interview
Most people go into HireVue blind and get filtered out. Here's a simple preparation method that works.
HireVue is an asynchronous video interview – you're shown a question on screen and record yourself answering it, with no interviewer present. You usually get around 30 seconds to think and 2-3 minutes to respond. Then it moves to the next question.
A lot of candidates find this format unsettling, and a lot get filtered out here. Most of the time it's not because they gave bad answers – it's because they weren't prepared and either froze, waffled, or gave answers that didn't hit what the recruiter was actually looking for.
Here's how to not be that person.
What HireVue is actually testing
This is the thing most people miss: HireVue questions are not random. Across a set of 4-6 questions, the recruiter is assessing whether you tick a fixed list of competencies – things like leadership, teamwork, resilience, commercial awareness, problem solving. The questions might be worded differently every time, but they're almost always targeting the same underlying criteria.
This means you don't need to prepare for every possible question. You need to prepare around 10 solid answers – one per competency – that you can adapt on the fly to whatever question appears.
Step 1: Generate your likely questions using AI
Before you sit the HireVue, use an AI chatbot (ChatGPT, Claude, whatever you prefer) to predict the most likely questions for your specific role. Paste the job description in alongside the following prompt:
You are helping me prepare for a HireVue video interview. Based on the job description below, identify the 10 most likely competency-based interview questions I will be asked. These should cover the full range of criteria the recruiter is likely to assess – such as leadership, teamwork, resilience, analytical thinking, communication, and any role-specific competencies. Return exactly 10 questions, nothing else.
[Paste job description here]
The output will give you a focused list of questions tailored to that role. These won't be exactly what you're asked – but they'll be close enough that nothing should catch you off guard.
Step 2: Write three bullet points per question
For each of the 10 questions, write down three bullet points only. Not full sentences, not a scripted answer – just three short memory joggers that capture the key points of your answer.
The reason for keeping it to three is that anything more becomes hard to recall under pressure. Three points is enough to give a full, structured answer without needing to memorise a script.
For example, for "Tell me about a time you had to lead a team under pressure":
- Q3 uni project, two weeks before deadline, teammate dropped out
- Redistributed the work, ran daily check-ins, kept team calm
- Delivered on time, learned to build buffer into timelines earlier
That's it. Three lines. When you see the question in the actual HireVue, a glance at these is enough to orient you.
Step 3: Practice answering out loud
Go through all 10 questions and answer them out loud, from your bullet points, in your own words. Don't read from a script – the goal is to sound natural, not rehearsed.
The reason this matters: people who freeze or waffle in HireVue usually do so because they're either totally unprepared or they memorised a written answer and can't quite recall it. Loose, spoken preparation avoids both. You know what you want to say but you're not trying to recreate exact wording.
Practice a few times until each answer feels natural. Record yourself once if it helps – you'll quickly notice if you're rushing, using filler words, or going off track.
On the day
Keep your notes in front of you. There's nothing wrong with glancing at your bullet points before you start recording your answer – you have 30 seconds of thinking time for a reason. Use it.
Beyond that: look at the camera rather than at your own face on screen and make sure your background is clean and your lighting is decent. These things matter more than people think when someone is watching you on a screen with no other context.
That's the whole method. It's not complicated – most of the edge comes simply from having done the preparation that most candidates skip.