Atlassian Backend Engineer
KaratSystem design
Design a system for adding Jira tasks and tagging them
Stop blanking out in interviews.Start trusting yourself in the room.
Practices that get you ready
AI mock interview practice built around real behavioural and technical interview questions from top tech companies
Live practice session
“In that situation I brought together the three leads and created a shared priority matrix — within a week we had alignment and shipped on time.”
Build confidence through practice, not memorisation
Simulate real interviews with voice AI, so you're forced to think on your feet, not recite a script. The more you practise retrieving under pressure, the more naturally it comes out in the room.
Answer scorecard
Clarity
88
Structure
74
Impact
91
Get instant feedback on the stories that matter
After each session, see exactly which stories landed and which need work. Then get a ready-to-use story bank built around frameworks like STAR, mapped to real competencies like leadership, conflict resolution, and adaptability.
Generated questions
Walk me through a time you had to influence a decision without formal authority.
How do you prioritise when multiple stakeholders have conflicting needs?
Walk in knowing what's coming
Access the most commonly asked questions for your role, with example answers and a direct link to practise each one, so you're not caught off guard by the basics while saving your energy for the questions that actually require you to think.
Canva Frontend SWE
Systems design
How would you design a product list page?
Australian FinTech Intern
Coding
Arrays/list/map and testing/refactoring
Latest AI Engineer questions
OAML
Build a thread-safe cache with configurable eviction policy
TikTok Product Questions
Product senseAI product
Design an AI feature for TikTok
Graduate Program
Behavioural
How do you manage competing priorities?
Questions from top tech companies
Collected from real candidate experiences at Anthropic, OpenAI, Atlassian, and Canva, so you're practising what's actually being asked, not generic questions anyone could Google.
Guides on interview preparation
Master the STAR Method for Behavioral Interviews
The most widely used framework for behavioral interviews and when done well, it's what makes your answer feel specific and credible rather than generic.
What STAR stands for
- Situation — Set the context briefly. Where were you and what was at stake?
- Task — What was your specific responsibility?
- Action — What did you do? Focus on your contribution, not the team's.
- Result — What was the outcome? Use numbers wherever possible.
How to tailor it to the job
Pull 3–5 keywords from the job description, then choose one past example that maps to those keywords naturally. If the role mentions "stakeholder management," that idea should appear in your Action and Result.
Common mistake to avoid
Most people over-invest in Situation and under-invest in Action and Result. Interviewers already know context exists, they're evaluating what you did and whether it worked.
How to Research the Company Before an Interview
Most candidates read the 'About' page and stop there. The ones who stand out use research not just to show interest, but to make every answer more specific and relevant.
What to research
- What the company does, how it makes money, and who its customers are
- Recent news, product launches, funding rounds, or strategy shifts
- The job description, especially the outcomes and problems the role is hired to solve
How to use it in the interview
Don't just recite what you found. Connect it to your answers. If they recently expanded into a new market, mention how your experience is relevant to that shift.
Common mistake to avoid
Researching the company but not the role. The job description tells you exactly what they're hiring for, treat it like a brief and answer to it directly.
Build Your Story Bank
Interviewers ask dozens of different questions, but they're really after the same thing, evidence that you've done it before. A small set of strong, adaptable stories covers most of what they'll throw at you.
How many stories to prepare
Aim for 4–6 stories that each demonstrate 2–3 skills. That's enough range to answer questions about leadership, teamwork, conflict, failure, and problem-solving without repeating yourself.
What makes a story versatile
Choose examples where you had a clear role, faced a real obstacle, and produced a measurable outcome. The more specific the detail, the easier it is to adapt to different questions without it sounding rehearsed.
Common mistake to avoid
Preparing one story per question. Interviewers notice when answers feel pre-packaged. A smaller bank of richer stories, practised flexibly, is far more effective.
Talk to Someone Already in the Role
Most candidates prep in isolation. The ones who stand out go one step further, they talk to someone already doing the job.
How to reach out
Find someone in the role on LinkedIn and send a short message: you're interviewing for X position, you'd love 15 minutes to hear about their experience, no worries if they're too busy. Most people say yes.
What to ask them
- What does a typical week actually look like?
- What skills do you use most that the job description doesn't mention?
- What surprised you most about the role?
Common mistake to avoid
Treating it as a networking call. The insight you get makes your answers in the actual interview sharper and more grounded than anyone who only read the job description.
Prepare in 24 Hours
No time to prep? Most candidates panic and try to memorise everything. The smarter move is to focus only on what actually moves the needle and do it in the right order.
How to split your time
- First 2–3 hours: research the company, the role, and your interviewer on LinkedIn
- Next 3–4 hours: draft your intro, your "why this role" answer, and 3 STAR stories
- Next 1–2 hours: practise out loud, record yourself or run a mock interview
- Final hour: make a one-page cheat sheet, then stop and sleep
What not to waste time on
Don't try to anticipate every question or over-polish every answer. The highest-return move is a clear narrative about your fit and a small set of flexible stories.
One rule to remember
If you can answer "why you, why this role, why now", you're more prepared than most.
Handle Questions With No Right Answer
Some interviewers ask this type of questions on purpose. Deliver late with quality issues, or on time with known bugs? There's no correct answer and that's exactly the point.
What they're actually evaluating
Interviewers who ask these questions aren't looking for the "safe" choice. They're watching whether you sit with the discomfort, make a clear decision anyway, and can articulate your reasoning without apologising for it. Candidates who hedge or reach for what they think the interviewer wants to hear are immediately obvious.
How to respond
Acknowledge the tension in the question openly. Make a clear call. Then explain your reasoning, what you're prioritising and why, given what you know.
People land dream roles through withLyra
Finally landed an offer
“I've always known my stuff but completely froze the moment interviewer asked me a question. After a few sessions on withLyra I started actually trusting what I was going to say.”
You're probably wondering
Interviews are intense and unpredictable, but at its core, it's about knowing your own experience and presenting it in a way that shows value to your future employer. The more you practise — immersing yourself in the interview setting, getting asked from different angles — the better you know your own craft. And the better you know your craft, the more confident you become.
Enter your role, target company, or paste the actual job description, withLyra generates tailored questions and runs the session like a real interviewer. When you're done, you get a breakdown of your strengths, weak spots, and specific feedback on how to improve each answer.
withLyra is currently focused on tech and consulting roles: software engineering, product management, data, design, and strategy. If your role isn't listed, reach out at admin@withlyra.ai and we'll let you know when we expand.
ChatGPT generates questions generically, the same patterns every time, with no memory of how you've been doing. withLyra asks real questions sourced from actual interview experiences at specific companies, tracks your performance across sessions, and identifies which stories and competencies need more work.
We track communities and channels where candidates share real interview experiences, and work directly with people who have gone through these interviews to verify what's current. Questions that haven't been reported recently are archived, so you're always practising what companies are actually asking right now, not questions from three years ago.
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