Google Interview Warmup no longer works: its address redirects to the Grow with Google homepage, and Google has named no replacement. The closest free alternatives for practicing answers out loud are Huru, Yoodli's free Starter plan and a voice AI assistant with a good prompt. For software engineering rounds, Devana and interviewing.io's AI interviewer are free to start.
Is Google Interview Warmup still available?
No. On October 19, 2026 we checked again from two different networks: its address, grow.google/certificates/interview-warmup/, redirects to the Grow with Google homepage. That homepage still shows a "Try Interview Warmup now" card, but the card links to the same address, which sends you back to the homepage. We have found no Google announcement of a shutdown, and no official replacement.
What Interview Warmup did, and what it did not
Google launched Interview Warmup in May 2022 as part of Grow with Google. According to 9to5Google's launch coverage, you answered questions out loud, it transcribed your answer as you spoke, pointed out your most-used words and the talking points you covered, and never graded you. It was free, with question sets for data analytics, e-commerce, IT support, project management, UX design and a general set.
Seeing your own words on screen is the quickest way to notice that a "short" answer took three minutes. But note what it never did: there was no software engineering track, no coding or system design, no follow-up questions, and no judgment of whether an answer was actually good. A replacement can do better than the original on all four.
Interview Warmup alternatives compared
| Alternative | What it does | Follow-up questions | Free option | Paid (checked October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huru | AI mock interviews for 242+ roles, a live AI interviewer or one question at a time, an instant feedback report and a 50,000+ question library | Yes, in its live interviews | Every feature, for job seekers | No paid plan for job seekers |
| Yoodli | AI roleplays for interviews and speaking, and feedback on uploaded recordings | Yes, in a live roleplay | Starter: up to 5 roleplays in total | Pro $8 and Advanced $20 a month, billed annually |
| A general AI assistant | Asks questions in voice mode, with the prompt below | If you ask it to | Depends on the provider | Depends on the provider |
| Your phone | Records your answers; many phones transcribe them too | No | Free | Free |
| Aced Practice (formerly Pramp) | Peer mock interviews with another candidate, over video | From your partner | 5 peer mocks a month on its Basic plan | Pro $79 a month, or $12 a month billed annually |
| Devana | AI interviewer by voice for coding, system design, behavioral and resume-based rounds; your code runs | Yes | 3 interviews a month, up to 20 minutes each | Pro $49 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly; Sprint Pass $19 once |
| interviewing.io | A free AI interviewer for coding and system design, and paid sessions with engineers | From the interviewer | The AI interviewer | Human sessions from $179 |
In US dollars, read on each vendor's own site on October 18, 2026. Transparency note: we build Devana.
What to look for in a replacement
- You speak, not type. Typed answers hide the pauses, fillers and rambling that a real interview exposes.
- A transcript or a recording. Most of the learning happens when you go back over what you said.
- Follow-up questions. Real interviewers dig into your first answer; a script that never pushes back trains half the skill.
- Feedback on content. Counting your filler words helps; knowing whether you answered the question helps more.
- For technical roles, code that runs. An answer that sounds right and fails on an edge case is still wrong.
The free options in more detail
Huru
Huru says every feature for job seekers is free: unlimited mock interviews, a live AI interviewer that reacts to your answers, an instant feedback report scoring relevance, structure, specificity, impact and articulation, and a library of more than 50,000 questions. It covers far more roles than Interview Warmup did, which makes it the nearest like-for-like replacement for general interviews.
A voice assistant with the right prompt
Most general AI assistants have a voice mode, and with a clear prompt they make a decent partner for behavioral questions. This prompt recreates Interview Warmup and adds the follow-ups it never asked:
A prompt to start from
You are interviewing me for a [role] position. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my full answer. After each answer, ask one follow-up question that a real interviewer would ask. After every three questions, tell me which answer was weakest and why, any words I repeated too often, and whether each answer said what I personally did. Do not praise answers that did not answer the question.
Check what the provider does with what you say before you share anything personal, and expect it to be gentler than a real interviewer.
Your phone's voice recorder
The low-tech version still works. Answer a question out loud, then play it back or read the transcript. Start with "tell me about yourself", the answer most people have never actually heard themselves give.
A human peer
Peer mock interviews put a real person on the other side. Pramp, the best-known free option, now runs as Aced Practice with 5 free sessions a month; Pramp alternatives in 2026 explains how a peer session works today.
For software engineers
Interview Warmup never covered coding or system design. If those are your rounds, Devana's coding mock interviews run your code while an AI interviewer asks about it, its behavioral rounds do what Warmup did plus the follow-ups, and a resume-based round asks about your own projects. interviewing.io's AI interviewer is free for coding and system design, and its sessions with engineers start at $179 (see interviewing.io pricing and alternatives). To compare the AI interviewers round by round, see AI mock interview platforms for software engineers.
A 20-minute routine that replaces it
- Five minutes: pick three questions you expect, and write one line per answer naming the point you want to land.
- Ten minutes: answer all three out loud, recorded, with any of the options above.
- Five minutes: read or listen back. Did each answer land its point? Mark the weakest and answer it again tomorrow.
For what to put in a behavioral answer once you are comfortable saying it, see behavioral interview questions for engineers.
Frequently asked questions
Was Google Interview Warmup discontinued?
It no longer works. As of October 19, 2026 its address redirects to the Grow with Google homepage, and the homepage's Try Interview Warmup now card leads back to the same page. We have found no Google announcement of a shutdown or a successor.
What is the best free alternative to Google Interview Warmup?
For general interview questions, Huru is free for job seekers, with unlimited mock interviews, a live AI interviewer and an instant feedback report. For software engineering rounds, Devana's Free plan gives you 3 voice mock interviews a month with code that runs, and interviewing.io has a free AI interviewer.
Is there an official Google replacement?
Not one we have found. A general AI assistant in voice mode, with a prompt like the one on this page, is the closest free substitute from a large AI provider.
Did Interview Warmup work for software engineering interviews?
Only for the general and behavioral side. It had no software engineering track, no coding and no system design, so engineers used it mainly for "tell me about yourself" and past-experience questions.