What the format asks of you
This guide covers a recorded OnDemand interview, completed without a live interviewer. Check that this is the format in your invitation; HireVue also offers other interview and assessment experiences.
Preparation time, response limits and retakes depend on the configured recording mode. There is no single timer to rehearse against for every invitation. HireVue’s recording-mode documentation explains the available settings. Read your own instructions before starting.
Do a full dry run, on the real machine
HireVue’s practice FAQ describes repeatable generic questions with playback. Those practice responses are not submitted to the employer, and the prompts do not reveal the actual interview questions. Use them to check your device and get comfortable with the recording experience.
- Use the same device, browser, room and time of day you plan to use for the real thing.
- Check the browser is permitted to use the camera and microphone, and that it picked the ones you meant.
- Watch the practice recording back. Look for the classics: camera below eye level, a window behind you, a hum under your voice.
- Plug the machine in, close everything else, and put every device in the room on do not disturb.
- Have a wired connection if you can, or sit close to the router if you cannot.
Our home recording setup guide covers the camera, light and sound side in more detail.
A practice loop that actually improves the take
The instinct is to rehearse by re-reading notes. It does not work, because the difficulty of a recorded interview is not recall — it is speaking fluently to a lens with a timer running. You have to practise the thing itself.
- Start with structure. Use four prompts: the claim, the example, the evidence and the link to this job. If you draft a full script first, edit it into your own voice before reducing it to prompts.
- Say it out loud twice before you record anything. Notice phrases that feel unnatural and simplify them.
- Record it against a clock, in one take, with no restarts. Restarting during practice trains you to restart during the real thing, where you may not be allowed to.
- Watch it back once muted to see posture and eyeline, then once with your eyes closed to hear pace and filler.
- Change one thing and do it again. One. Trying to fix five things at once fixes none of them.
Take a break if repeated attempts start sounding tired or memorized. The useful stopping point is an answer you understand and can deliver comfortably, not a fixed number of takes.
What to actually put in the answers
Because the reviewer is comparing recordings rather than having a conversation, the answers that survive are the specific ones. Adjectives are free and everybody uses the same ones. Details are not: a volume, a rank, a before and after, a promotion and how fast it came, the thing colleagues came to you for.
Most of those are not on your resume, because a resume has no field for them. It is worth ten minutes with a blank page before you record, digging them out of memory — that is the raw material that makes an answer yours. The question-by-question guide works through the shape of those answers.
One warning that matters more on a recording than anywhere else: never invent a number and never sharpen an estimate into a precise figure. The recording is kept, and the follow-up conversation is where an invented detail comes apart.
On the day
- Start earlier than the deadline. The last hour before a cut-off is when connections fail and support queues are long.
- Read the instruction screen fully, including takes allowed and time limits, before you begin.
- Have water within reach. Check whether notes, another device or other assistance are permitted; rehearse under those same conditions.
- Record the practice question even if you feel ready. It settles the voice.
- If a question allows retakes, use the displayed controls and limits. Do not assume you can return to an earlier answer after moving on.
Where Requt fits into your preparation
Use Requt to build an outline from your own experience, rehearse with the teleprompter, and review feedback on your recording. Then try the answer under the time limit and assistance rules in your invitation. Submit the actual interview through the employer’s link.
HireVue’s candidate FAQ explains that not every interview includes an assessment. Requt is an independent preparation tool; its scores do not reveal HireVue’s scoring or predict whether an employer will move you forward.
A note on accuracy
Requt is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to HireVue. HireVue is a trademark of its respective owner, and this guide refers to it only to describe the format candidates are asked to record in. Because employers configure these interviews themselves, the instructions in your own invitation always take precedence over anything written here.
Sources checked on September 9, 2026: the official recording settings, practice and resuming FAQ, and candidate assessment FAQ. Rehearsal suggestions elsewhere in this guide are Requt’s coaching advice.
A few more things
Common questions
How many times can I re-record an answer?
The employer configures recording rules. HireVue supports single takes, limited retakes and unlimited retakes. Check your invitation and the instructions for each question; practice attempts are separate from the actual interview.
How long do I get to prepare each answer?
There is no universal preparation time. In spontaneous mode, the employer sets the thinking time and recording starts when it expires. Check the displayed instructions before opening the question.
Is my recording scored automatically?
HireVue says not every interview includes an assessment. Ask the hiring team which assessment and review process apply to your invitation, and read the candidate notice. Requt’s practice feedback does not reproduce or predict that assessment.
What happens if my internet drops mid-answer?
Note the error and the question you were on. HireVue’s practice FAQ says reopening a started interview link should let you continue from the next question, but it does not promise recovery of a recording interrupted mid-answer. Contact candidate support and the hiring team if you cannot confirm what was submitted.