Hello Interview Ended Mock Interviews: What to Use Instead (2026)

Hello Interview ended its live 1:1 mock interviews and mentorship on May 31, 2026. The courses, the question library, and Guided Practice all continue; the part where a human sat across from you and ran a real interview does not. If that was the piece you were paying for, here is what actually replaces it.

Disclosure: we build DevInterview.AI, and this is our blog. Every price below was checked against the vendor's own pages in August 2026, with sources linked at the bottom. Hello Interview's written system design material is genuinely excellent and we say so.

What ended, in their words

Their wind-down notice is direct about the reasoning: "1:1 work can only ever reach so many people," and stepping back "lets us go all-in on the product, where we can help far more candidates prepare well." Unused credits were refunded after May 31, and past session notes stay in your account.

What continues: System Design, Low-Level Design, Concurrency and Behavioral courses, a 5,000+ question library, an AI tutor, and Guided Practice. Premium is $47 for a month, $79 for a year, or $279 lifetime, and notably none of it auto-renews.

The gap Guided Practice does not fill

Guided Practice walks you through a design one stage at a time: requirements, entities, API, high-level design, deep dives. Their own description of the feedback model is "instant per-step feedback" from an AI tutor. You complete a step, you get told how it went, you move on.

That is genuinely useful for learning the shape of a good design. It is not an interview.

In a real system design round, nobody lets you complete five clean stages undisturbed. You get interrupted at minute eight and asked why you picked that database. You get pushed to justify a number you waved at. You get pulled into a deep dive you did not plan for, and the clock does not stop while you recover. The skill that decides the round is holding your reasoning together while somebody probes it in real time, and step-by-step practice with feedback between steps never exercises it.

After May 31, Hello Interview has no product that does. That is not a criticism of what they kept, it is just the shape of what is missing.

Replacements, compared

Option	What it gives you	Price
DevInterview.AI	Unlimited live voice interviews (coding, system design, behavioral) plus free courses and practice bank	Free tier; $19.99/mo or $99.99/yr for unlimited interviews
interviewing.io	Human mock with a senior/staff engineer	~$180 to $340 per session
Exponent Practice (Pramp)	Free peer-to-peer mocks	Free; $12/mo annual for full access
Hello Interview Premium	Courses + Guided Practice (what remains)	$47/mo, $79/yr, $279 lifetime

1. DevInterview.AI: the closest replacement, and broader than what you lost

DevInterview.AI runs the round itself: a 45-minute live voice system design interview on a diagram canvas, with an AI interviewer that asks clarifying questions and pushes back on your choices while you design, then scores the session across four dimensions with a hire verdict and points at specific moments rather than a generic rubric.

It also covers the rest of the loop, which Hello Interview's live program never did: 30-minute coding interviews in a real editor with execution across five languages, and behavioral interviews in STAR format.

On price, the comparison is not close. The free tier includes all 19 courses and 95 lessons, the 2,000+ question practice bank with AI feedback, daily AI evaluations, practice plans, and one full mock interview. Hello Interview charges $79 a year for its course library. Unlimited live interviews are $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and the first one is free with no card.

Where Hello Interview is still better: their written system design curriculum is deeper and more carefully edited than ours. If your gap is knowledge rather than delivery, read theirs.

Where we fall short: the interviewer is an AI. It is consistent, always available, and it interrupts you like the real thing, but it is not a staff engineer's judgment.

2. interviewing.io: if you want the human back

The direct like-for-like swap for what Hello Interview retired. Anonymous mocks with senior, staff, and principal engineers who make hiring decisions. They do not publish prices; 2026 third-party reviews report roughly $180 to $340 per session. They also run a free AI interviewer and a free peer queue.

Use it for one or two calibration sessions close to a real onsite. At that price it is not where you build the skill, it is where you check it. Our interviewing.io review goes deeper.

3. Exponent Practice: the free option

Pramp's peer mocks, now hosted by Exponent, still free with monthly credits. Your interviewer is another candidate, so quality varies and you need a scheduled partner, but the price is zero.

4. Keep Hello Interview for what it is still best at

Nothing here says cancel it. Lifetime access that does not auto-renew is honest pricing, and the material is strong. Treat it as your study layer and add a practice layer that talks back.

The stack that actually covers the gap

Learn the patterns. Hello Interview's courses, or our free ones if you would rather not pay for the study layer.
Rehearse out loud, interrupted, several times a week. This is the piece that left on May 31, and the piece interviews actually test.
Calibrate with a human once before the real onsite, if the budget allows.

For the wider landscape, see our best system design interview practice tools comparison.

FAQ

Did Hello Interview shut down?

No. Hello Interview is still running. It ended only its live 1:1 mock interview and mentorship programs on May 31, 2026. Courses, the question library, the AI tutor, and Guided Practice all continue, and Premium is still sold at $47 monthly, $79 yearly, or $279 lifetime.

Why did Hello Interview end mock interviews?

Their wind-down notice says 1:1 work can only reach so many people, and that stepping back from it lets them focus on the product, which can serve far more candidates. Unused credits were refunded after May 31, 2026.

Is Guided Practice the same as a mock interview?

No. Guided Practice walks you through a design step by step and gives instant per-step AI feedback. A mock interview interrupts you mid-design with follow-up questions and pushback you did not plan for. The staged format teaches the structure of a good design; it does not train you to defend one in real time.

What is the closest replacement for Hello Interview mock interviews?

For the live format at volume, DevInterview.AI runs 45-minute voice system design interviews on a canvas with an AI interviewer that asks follow-ups as you design, unlimited for $19.99 a month, with courses and a 2,000+ question practice bank free. For a human interviewer, interviewing.io is the direct equivalent at roughly $180 to $340 per session. Exponent Practice offers free peer mocks.

Is Hello Interview still worth paying for after the change?

For system design study material, yes: the courses are among the clearest available and lifetime access does not auto-renew. What it no longer gives you at any price is a live interview where someone interrupts you, so most people will want to pair it with a practice tool that does.