Placed Interview Coach

AI-powered interview preparation via the Placed platform.

Prerequisites

Requires the Placed MCP server. Install via:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "placed": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@exidian/placed-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PLACED_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "PLACED_BASE_URL": "https://placed.exidian.tech"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your API key at https://placed.exidian.tech/settings/api

Available Tools

• start_interview_session — Begin a mock interview for a specific role
• continue_interview_session — Answer questions and get real-time feedback
• get_interview_feedback — Get detailed performance analysis
• list_interview_cases — Browse system design cases
• start_system_design — Start a system design interview (URL Shortener, Twitter, Netflix, Uber)
• get_behavioral_questions — Get STAR-format behavioral questions
• save_story_to_bank — Save STAR stories for reuse across interviews

Interview Types

Technical Interviews (Coding)

To start a mock interview:

start_interview_session(
  resume_id="your-resume-id",
  job_title="Senior Software Engineer",
  difficulty="hard",
  company="Google"
)

To answer each question:

continue_interview_session(
  session_id="session-123",
  user_answer="I would use a hash map to store key-value pairs for O(1) lookup..."
)

To get feedback on performance:

get_interview_feedback(session_id="session-123")

System Design Interviews

To list available cases:

list_interview_cases()
# Returns: Design Twitter, Design URL Shortener, Design Netflix, Design Uber, etc.

To start a system design session:

start_system_design(
  case_id="design-twitter",
  difficulty="senior"
)

System Design Framework:

1. Requirements Clarification — Functional and non-functional requirements
2. High-Level Architecture — Components, data flow, APIs
3. Database Design — Schema, indexing, replication, sharding
4. Scalability — Load balancing, caching, CDN, horizontal scaling
5. Fault Tolerance — Redundancy, failover, monitoring
6. Trade-offs — CAP theorem, consistency vs. availability

Behavioral Interviews

To get behavioral questions for a target role:

get_behavioral_questions(
  target_role="Engineering Manager",
  focus_categories=["leadership", "conflict-resolution", "failure"]
)

STAR Method — Structure every answer:

• Situation — Context and background
• Task — Your responsibility and challenge
• Action — What you did specifically
• Result — Outcome with metrics

Story Banking

To save STAR stories for reuse across interviews:

save_story_to_bank(
  situation="Led team through major refactor",
  task="Reduce technical debt while shipping features",
  action="Created phased plan, mentored junior devs, set clear milestones",
  result="30% faster deployments, improved morale, reduced bugs by 25%",
  category="leadership"
)

Interview Flow

1. Prepare — Research company, review resume, practice with resources
2. Start Session — Begin mock interview with your resume and target role
3. Answer Questions — Think out loud, explain your reasoning
4. Get Feedback — Review performance after each question
5. Iterate — Practice multiple times, improve weak areas
6. Save Stories — Bank STAR stories for behavioral interviews

Tips

Technical Interviews:

• Clarify requirements before diving into code
• Discuss trade-offs (time vs. space, simplicity vs. optimization)
• Test your solution with examples
• Explain your thought process

System Design:

• Start with requirements and constraints
• Draw diagrams and explain components
• Discuss scalability bottlenecks
• Consider failure scenarios

Behavioral:

• Use STAR method consistently
• Include specific metrics and outcomes
• Show growth and learning
• Be authentic and honest