The candidate experience

Open the link your interviewer sent on a laptop or desktop with a viewport at least 768px wide. Outside candidates don't need an ArchDocs account; practice candidates must sign in as the organization member selected for that interview.

Practice interviews are available on every plan. The organizer needs Enterprise or an active Interviews add-on to create an interview for an outside candidate.

Join the interview

1. Open your candidate link. For a practice session, sign in if prompted. Another member's account won't work with your practice candidate link.
2. If consent is required, read the notice, select I understand this notice and consent to participate., then select Continue to lobby.
3. While waiting for a live interviewer, try the Warm-up canvas. This drawing stays on your device and is discarded. Clear empties it.
4. When the interviewer starts, work on the shared interview canvas and read the prompts as they're revealed.

An async interview starts when you join within its configured availability window. In live and async sessions, select Done with this stage when you've finished a prompt. Depending on how the exercise is set up, the next prompt appears right away or when the interviewer reveals it. Select Submit interview and confirm when you're ready to finish an async session.

Below 768px, the page shows Open this interview on a computer with Copy link so you can move to a larger screen.

What the candidate view contains

The candidate view contains these session details. Not every detail appears as a separate field on the page.

• The organization and interview names, your candidate name, session status and mode, your candidate or observer role, and whether it's practice.
• The candidate brief, session duration, start time, expected end time calculated from the duration, the availability window and an optional meeting URL.
• Whether consent is required or accepted, the notice text, whether an AI notice applies and whether you've already sent feedback.
• Only revealed stages, in order: each stage's title and candidate prompt, reveal time, time budget, expected end time and completion time.
• Hints sent to the candidate, with their times, and interviewer names.

Unrevealed prompts, interviewer guidance and probes aren't included. Neither are panel notes, ratings, recommendations, AI output or access to other documents.

During the session, you can see interviewers' cursors with their names and roles. Interviewers can hide their cursors from you. Shadows' cursors are hidden by default. The panel always sees your cursor.

An observer link is read-only and doesn't include the candidate's hint history in its initial view. It shows the candidate's cursor and panel cursors that are visible to the candidate. Observers' own cursors aren't shown. For practice interviews, observers must sign in as current organization members. A practice banner identifies the organization throughout the session.

After the session

The drawing becomes read-only when the session ends. You can rate your interview experience, add an Optional comment and select Send feedback. This is your feedback about the session, separate from the panel's scorecards.

Open Your data to select Download my data or Request erasure. The download contains the candidate view of the prompts, the interview canvas and the consent record. It doesn't include panel feedback or unrevealed prompts.

An erasure request notifies the organization's administrators for review. It doesn't immediately delete the interview. If your link no longer works, contact the organizer for access or to make a data request.