What is a HireVue interview?

The format, from HireVue's own candidate documentation, including where that documentation contradicts itself.

Short answer

HireVue is interview software, not an interviewer. In the version graduate schemes use, a question appears on your screen, you get a short window to think, and then you record one answer with a maximum length. There is nobody watching live, no reaction to read, and no follow-up questions.

HireVue calls this an OnDemand interview. Everyone else calls it a one-way, asynchronous or recorded video interview. They are the same thing.

The format, step by step

HireVue's own candidate walkthrough describes the sequence as: connect your camera and microphone; a system check; practice questions; then the interview itself. Of the practice stage it says you can repeat it as often as you like before starting, and of the interview it says this:

The interview is conducted in the exact same format as the practice questions, with 30 seconds to prepare for each question, and up to 3 minutes to answer. If your answer takes less time, simply click I'm Done. Stop Recording to stop the recording and save your answer. HireVue, 7 October 2014 — How to Take a HireVue Interview

Two things about that page are worth knowing before you rely on it. It is dated 7 October 2014, and it still instructs readers to download Adobe Flash Player, which no browser has supported since the end of 2020. It is a long-standing default described on a page nobody has revisited, not a current rule. The timing page works through what HireVue's current documents say instead, and they say something noticeably different.

How many questions, and how long in total

Two HireVue documents give slightly different numbers, and the honest thing is to show you both rather than average them.

The ranges overlap. Plan for five or six questions and roughly half an hour, and block out the full 45 minutes so a slow upload does not turn into a crisis.

The games

Some roles bolt on short game-based assessments. HireVue describes these as measuring general mental abilities such as numerical reasoning, or personality areas such as conscientiousness. They are a separate thing from the video questions and they are scored separately. We do not simulate them, and any site that claims to have the real ones is guessing.

Three things a HireVue interview is not

  • It is not a conversation. Nothing on the other end responds, probes or reacts. Practising with a friend who nods is practising a different skill.
  • It is not live. HireVue also sells a live video product, and a few employers use one. If your invitation names a time slot and a person, that is the live product and this page is about the other one.
  • It is not the final decision. HireVue's own FAQ describes the interview as a first step, with the top group moving on to person-to-person interviews before hiring decisions are made by people.

What happens to the recording

Short version: the employer controls it, not HireVue. HireVue's FAQ states that it stores candidate data for the retention period chosen by the company you are interviewing with, and puts it plainly:

It's important to note that Hirevue doesn't decide whether or when to delete your data, the company to which you're applying does. HireVue — FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions for Candidates

That single sentence explains most of the confusion people have about HireVue privacy. The screen-recording page works through the rest of it, including what is and is not captured while you record, and what you can ask for afterwards.

What we could not verify
  • Which settings your employer chose. Preparation time, answer length, number of retries and whether AI scoring is switched on at all are configured per job. No document published by HireVue or by the employer tells you which combination you will get.
  • Whether a human ever watches your video. HireVue describes recruiters reviewing shortlisted candidates, but nothing states that any given recording is watched. It may be that only the transcript and the score were ever looked at.
  • Whether the 2014 walkthrough still matches the product. It is the only step-by-step HireVue publishes for candidates, and it describes a Flash-era interface. We cannot confirm which parts still hold.

Next

How long you get to answer
Where 30 seconds and 3 minutes come from, and why they are not rules.
Does it record your screen?
No, and here are the three exceptions that make people think otherwise.
The questions, and how they are scored
What gets asked, what the model actually reads, and what nobody can verify.
Practice
The simulator, plus a question set for each of the eight employers we cover.

Sources

Every factual claim above comes from one of these. All were read on 21 August 2026. Where a source is old or contradicts another, the page says so rather than picking the convenient one.

  1. HireVue, How to Take a HireVue Interview (7 October 2014). Still live, and still tells you to install Adobe Flash Player. Treat its timings as a long-standing default, not as current policy.
  2. HireVue, 2025 Explainability Statement (PDF) (2025). The most detailed and most current account HireVue publishes of how its scoring works.
  3. HireVue, FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions for Candidates. Undated. HireVue's own candidate-facing FAQ.

NailedIt.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to HireVue, Inc. or any employer named on this site. HireVue is a trademark of its owner and is used here only to describe the product this page is about. Nothing here is legal advice, and practising an interview does not change whether you get hired.