How to Customise Your AI Interview Answers: Guided Style or Your Own Prompt

Most AI interview tools give everyone the same answer: a long, polished paragraph that sounds like a chatbot. Real interviews don't work like that. A fresher in an HR round, a senior engineer in a design round and a PM in a case round all need answers that sound different, and that sound like them.

That's why every InterviewPilot answer is customisable. You decide how answers are written, either with a few Guided choices or with your own prompt. This guide shows both, with prompt examples you can copy.

Where to find it

Open Answer style:

• Desktop app: on the Preferences step before you start a session.
• Website: in Settings, under Answer style, which also sets your default for new sessions.
• During a call: from the session's tools, to switch style without stopping.

Answer style has two tabs: Guided and My prompt. Only one applies at a time. That's deliberate: stacking a "short answers" choice on top of a prompt that says "explain in depth" gives you neither.

Option 1: Guided, in a few clicks

Guided builds your style from simple choices, and a sample answer updates as you change them, so you see the result before the interview starts.

Code and the sections a round needs (for example complexity in a coding round) are never cut, whatever length you pick.

Good starting points:

• Nervous, or new to interviews: Full script, Balanced, Simple, filler words on. You can read it naturally without sounding rehearsed.
• Experienced and confident: Bullet points, Short, Simple. Glance, then talk in your own words.
• Behavioural or HR round: Script + bullets, Balanced, STAR on.
• Client-facing or senior roles: Script + bullets, Long, Formal.

Option 2: My prompt, your own rules

If you know exactly how you want to sound, write it down. A prompt is a set of plain-language rules the AI follows in every answer. Start from a ready-made prompt (On the point or Concise), copy one and edit it, or start blank.

Here are prompts you can copy and adapt:

The 45-second answer

Keep every answer under 45 seconds of speech.
Open with the direct answer in one sentence, then give at most three supporting points.
No headings, no long lists. Sound like a person talking, not an essay.

Always tie it to my experience

Whenever it fits, connect the answer to my payments work at a fintech:
the retry system I rebuilt and the 6% to 3.4% drop in failed payments.
Say "I", not "we". Never invent projects or numbers that are not in my resume.

Coding rounds in my language

Write all code in Java 17 with a one-line comment per step.
Before the code, state the approach in two sentences.
After the code, give time and space complexity and one edge case to mention.

Result first

Start every experience story with the result and a number.
Then explain how I got there in three short steps.
End with one sentence on what I learned.

Rules work best when they're specific. "Be concise" is vague; "under 45 seconds of speech" is something the AI can actually follow. Your prompt works together with your resume, the job description and any extra brief you upload, so answers use your real projects without you repeating them in the prompt.

Guided or My prompt: which should you use?

• Pick Guided if you want a good result in ten seconds and like seeing a preview first. It covers what most people want to change.
• Pick My prompt if you have rules Guided can't express: a project to always mention, a coding language, an opening line style, a word limit, or how to handle questions you don't know.

You can keep several prompts, for example one for coding rounds and one for HR, and pick the right one for each session.

Saved once, used everywhere

• Saved to your account: prompts you create are available in the desktop app and on the website.
• A default for new sessions: use Set default to start every session with the same style, or Save to use a style just this once.
• Switch mid-call: if the round moves from coding to behavioural, switch style without ending the session. Sessions already running keep their own copy of a prompt, so editing it later never changes a call in progress.

The bottom line

The best interview answer is one you can say naturally. Customising your answer style, with Guided choices or your own prompt, is how you get from a generic AI paragraph to something that sounds like you on your best day. See the rest of what InterviewPilot does in the complete features guide.