Karat Interview: What to Expect, Minute by Minute

A Karat interview is a scheduled video call of 45 to 60 minutes with a contracted Interview Engineer, split into a short introduction, a block of discussion questions, and a longer block of live coding in Karat's browser editor. As of September 9, 2026, Karat documents the standard split as "A brief introduction, 10 min. of discussion questions, 40 min. of programming questions," and the shape shifts with seniority. This walkthrough follows the process from the invitation to the recruiter's follow-up, using Karat's own candidate documentation.

Before the call: scheduling and setup

You pick the slot. Karat's candidate page says "60% of interviews are scheduled outside of core business hours, on nights, or weekends," and its product page promises "24/7, on-demand interviewing available same-day, evenings, and weekends." Karat's support FAQ caps changes: "You may reschedule a total of two times across all interviews, including Redo interviews."

Equipment is ordinary. The Candidate Resource FAQ recommends "a good internet connection, a quiet location, a microphone, headphones, and a webcam," with "connections of at least 15 Mbps." On browsers: "You'll have the best experience on Chrome or Firefox. We support Safari, although occasional audio or video issues may occur." Tablets are not supported, because you need to code and keep the video call open at the same time. There is no desktop app to install.

Karat Studio: the editor you will code in

Coding happens in Karat Studio, which Karat's public overview describes as "the Karat IDE that candidates & Interview Engineers use during the interview." It "allows the candidate and Interview Engineer to write and run code in real time together." You do not share your screen; the interviewer is inside the same editor.

Studio supports 28 languages, including Python 3, JavaScript, Java, Go, Rust, C++, and SQL variants, with auto-complete enabled for a subset of 14 including Python, JavaScript, Java, TypeScript, and C++. Karat says candidates can open Studio from their dashboard before the interview to get familiar with it. Do that. Ten minutes learning where the run button is and how output appears is worth more than another practice problem.

The hour, by level

Karat's guide to technical interviews documents three shapes.

The pattern: the more senior the role, the more of the hour goes to discussion and review, and the less to writing code from scratch.

The introduction

Short. The Interview Engineer confirms who you are, explains the format, and states the rules for the module you were assigned, including whether documentation or an AI assistant is allowed. Listen for that line; it is the only place the rules are spoken.

Discussion questions

Technical prompts with short answers: how a data structure behaves, what a snippet does, how you would approach a problem. They are scored on a rubric, so a direct answer beats a long one.

Programming questions

Most of the hour. You write code that runs, in Studio, while narrating. The interviewer will, per the guide, "ask probing questions to determine what the candidate is doing." Karat's candidate page states the priority: "The most important thing we are evaluating is how successfully your code solves the problem." Working code that handles the cases, explained clearly, is the target.

What the Interview Engineer is doing

Following a script and a rubric, and watching. Karat's Customer FAQ says interviewers are trained to note "abnormal candidate behaviors which may indicate cheating, such as typing outside of the browser window without explanation, frequently looking between monitors, or writing code in an unusual top-down or line-by-line manner." If you need to look something up, say so; the ChatGPT policy article asks candidates to "Let your Interview Engineer know when you are looking something up." Whether an AI tool is permitted depends on the module, covered in whether you can use AI in a Karat interview.

After the call

The whole session is recorded and sent to the employer with a report. What that package contains and how long it is kept is in what a Karat interview records, scores, and keeps. Karat's FAQ says to "expect to hear from your recruiter within a few business days."

You also get 24 hours to decide whether to request a redo with new questions and a new interviewer, described in the Karat redo policy. Decide quickly; the window closes.

Preparation checklist

1. Ask the recruiter which Karat module you were assigned and what resources it allows.
2. Open Karat Studio from your dashboard and run a small program in your language.
3. Use Chrome or Firefox on a laptop or desktop, with headphones and a webcam.
4. Practice narrating while you code; the discussion is scored alongside the solution.
5. Clear the calendar for 90 minutes so a late start does not compress the coding block.

For a definition of what Karat is and why the interviewer is not from the company, see what a Karat interview means.