mock interviews with friends always turned into small talk. so i built something that wouldn't let that happen.

i was prepping for a backend role last year and asked three different friends to mock interview me. all three times, we ended up just… talking. about their weekend, my commute, whatever. never actually got grilled on system design or behavioral stuff.

it hit me that people are just too nice to push back or stay in character for 45 minutes straight. even when i told them to be tough, they'd soften up after one awkward pause.

so i started building nxtinterview — basically a tool that runs mock interviews without the politeness. you pick the role, upload your resume if you want, and it fires questions at you like a real interviewer would. no small talk. no letting you off easy if your answer is vague.

the part that actually helped me was the feedback loop. after each session, it breaks down where you rambled, where you didn't answer the question, and what you could tighten up. my friends would just say "yeah that was good" even when it wasn't.

i'm a solo dev, built this over a few months because i got tired of winging it into actual interviews unprepared. it's live now at nxtinterview.com — still adding features, but the core mock interview engine works.

full disclosure: i'm the founder. not trying to sell you anything, just sharing what i built to solve my own problem. if you've ever had a friend bail on mock interview plans or just nod along instead of pushing you, this might click for you too.

you can try it at nxtinterview.com — it's free to start. still iterating on it, so feedback welcome if you do.