I'm Joey. I've been a software engineer for over 10 years, mostly building products for US startups. I'm good at my job. But a few months ago I went into an interview and absolutely bombed it.
Here's the thing — I'd been at the same company for 4 years. Four comfortable years of shipping features, leading projects, and never once needing to explain a system design decision to a stranger on a video call. When I finally decided to look around, I sat down for a technical interview and my brain just... emptied.
I knew the material. I'd prepped. But when someone asked me to articulate my thinking out loud under pressure, I couldn't string coherent sentences together. It wasn't a knowledge gap. It was a reps gap.
The practice problem
So I tried to fix it the obvious way: practice out loud. But with who?
I asked my wife. She's supportive, incredible — but she doesn't know what a load balancer is, and she's not going to push back when I hand-wave through "yeah and then we'd just scale the database." She'd nod and say "sounds great." That's not what I needed.
I looked into peer mock interviews. Scheduling them is a nightmare. You're coordinating calendars with strangers who may or may not show up, and the quality varies wildly.
I tried talking to myself in the mirror. Felt insane. Didn't help.
What I actually needed was something that could:
- Ask me real questions tailored to the job I was applying for
- Listen to my spoken answers
- Push back when I was vague
- Tell me exactly what to fix
That didn't exist. So I built it.
What I made
DevMockview is a voice-first AI mock interviewer for software engineers. You paste a job description, it extracts the role, seniority, and stack, then runs a realistic interview session — out loud.
No typing. No multiple choice. You talk, it listens, it follows up.
If you give a vague answer, it digs deeper — the way a real interviewer would. If you nail it, it moves on. At the end you get a scored report covering technical accuracy, communication, and structure, plus the single highest-leverage thing to fix before your next session.
It covers behavioral and system design (architectural) interviews, for roles from junior through staff.
Why voice matters
The first set of interviews aren't typing tests. The hard part isn't knowing the answer — it's saying it clearly, under pressure, in a logical order, without rambling for 8 minutes.
You can only practice that by actually speaking. DevMockview forces that. There's no text input. You hear a question, you respond, and you get feedback on how you communicated — not just what you said.
The indie thing
This is a solo project. No VC funding, no team. Just me building a tool for myself and making it available on the internet.
I'm shipping in public and iterating based on real usage. If you're an engineer who's been heads-down at one company for a while or on the market looking for something new, and the thought of interviewing makes your stomach drop — this is for you.
Try it
There's a free trial — one full voice interview, no card required. If you're in the market or thinking about it soon, give it a shot and tell me what you think.
I'm on Threads and Bluesky if you want to follow along or roast my product publicly.
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