Devana builds a mock interview from your resume. Upload a PDF, DOCX or TXT file, choose a behavioral, coding or system design round, and the AI interviewer asks about your actual roles, projects and tech stack. The file is processed in memory to write the questions and is never stored on our servers or in our database, and it works on the Free plan.
Why practise on your own resume
Interviewers prepare from your resume. Many rounds open with something on it, and the hardest follow-ups are about your own claims: why you chose that database, what "led the migration" meant in practice, what you would do differently now. A list of common questions cannot rehearse those, because nobody else has your resume.
It also catches a quieter problem: lines you cannot defend. If a bullet point falls apart after two follow-up questions in practice, it will fall apart in the real interview, and it is better to find out now. For the resume itself, why your resume gets rejected in 6 seconds covers what recruiters scan for.
How a resume-based interview works
- Upload your resume. PDF, DOCX or TXT, up to 5 MB. It needs real text in it: a scanned, image-only PDF cannot be read, so export a text-based one.
- Devana reads it. Your skills, roles and projects are pulled from the text to brief the interviewer.
- Choose the round. Behavioral asks about situations from your real roles and projects. Coding gives you problems framed around your tech stack and the kind of work you have done. System design gives you a problem close to systems you have built, and Josh connects it to your background in a sentence before you start.
- The interview uses your history. Josh refers to your real companies, technologies and projects, the way an interviewer who read your resume would, and asks how your experience applies: "At your last company you used this technology. Would you use it here?"
- It is graded like that round. A coding round is scored on your code as well as how you explained it, and a behavioral round on its STAR content. If your resume does not give enough material for a full round, the rest comes from questions built on your resume (behavioral) or the standard question pool (coding and system design).
What happens to your resume
The file is held in memory only: it is never written to disk and never saved to Devana's database. Its text is sent to the AI model that extracts your skills, roles and projects and writes your questions, one of the AI providers named in the privacy policy. The interview's scores and feedback are saved to your account like any other session. The resume is not.
That is a deliberate choice. A resume holds your name, contact details and employment history, and keeping it would add risk without making the next interview any better.
Getting the most out of a resume round
- Read your resume as an interviewer would. Before the session, mark the three lines you would least like to be asked about. Those are the ones to rehearse.
- Have the story behind every number. If a bullet says latency fell 40%, expect "how did you measure that, and what did you change?"
- Practise your opening. Resume rounds usually start with your background, so get "tell me about yourself" right first.
- Mix it with standard rounds. Resume rounds are the most realistic version of the first conversation. Standard coding and system design rounds cover the problems that do not depend on your background.
Which round to choose
If you are early in a job search, start with behavioral: it surfaces the stories you will tell in every loop and shows which resume lines need work. If you have an onsite coming up for a role close to your current one, choose coding or system design, so the problems feel like the ones that team will ask. Each session counts as one of your interviews, and the Free plan gives you 3 a month of up to 20 minutes; the Sprint Pass and Pro allow up to 60 minutes for coding and system design, and 30 for behavioral.
Other ways to practise on your resume
You can paste your resume into a general AI assistant and ask it to interview you in voice mode. It works, but check what that provider does with uploaded documents before you share personal details, and it will not run your code or keep time. Interview copilots such as Final Round AI also use your resume, for a different purpose: helping during a live interview rather than practising before it. Final Round AI alternatives explains the difference.
Frequently asked questions
Is my resume stored?
No. The file is read in memory, its text goes to the AI model that writes your questions, and neither the file nor the text is saved to Devana's servers or database. The interview's scores and feedback are saved to your account like any other session.
Which file formats can I upload?
PDF, DOCX or TXT, up to 5 MB. The file needs real text in it: a scanned or image-only PDF cannot be read, so export a text-based PDF from your editor instead.
Can I do a coding interview based on my resume?
Yes. Choose coding after uploading, and the problems are framed around your tech stack and the kind of work you have done. The round is graded like any coding round, on your code as well as how you explained it.
Is the resume-based interview free?
Yes. Resume-based interviews are on the Free plan, as one of your 3 interviews a month of up to 20 minutes each. Paid plans allow longer rounds and more of them.