Interview Prep
How to Prepare for an Interview in 7 Days: A Day-by-Day Plan
A practical seven-day plan to prepare for any interview: study the role, revise fundamentals, prepare your stories and practise out loud before the day.
You have an interview next week. That is enough time to prepare well, if you spend it on the right things. Most people spend the week re-reading notes. The people who get offers spend it predicting the questions and practising their answers out loud.
Here is a day-by-day plan that works for almost any graduate or professional role.
Day 1: Read the job like an interviewer
Open the job description and highlight every skill, tool and responsibility it mentions. Then, for each one, write down one real example from your work, internship or projects that proves it.
This list is gold. It tells you most of what you will be asked, and it gives you the evidence for your answers. Where you have no example, that is a gap to prepare for this week.
Also note the likely rounds. Many companies run an online test, one or two technical or functional rounds, and an HR round. If you know someone who has interviewed there, ask how it went.
Day 2: Rebuild your fundamentals
Interviewers test the basics of your field hard, because shaky fundamentals are the most common reason candidates fail. Make a list of the must-know topics for your role and revise them until you can explain each one simply.
A useful test: could you explain the concept to a friend outside your field in two sentences? If not, you do not know it well enough yet.
If you are not sure which topics matter, our interview guides by role list the usual rounds, must-know topics and real questions for 38 careers.
Day 3: Prepare your project and work stories
Your resume is the interviewer's question paper. They will pick a project or achievement and keep asking until they reach the edge of what you know.
For each project or major piece of work, prepare:
- The problem it solved, in one line.
- Your part, specifically. "We" is fine for the team; "I" for what you did.
- One hard decision and why you made it.
- The result, with a number if you have one.
- What you would change today.
Some questions come up in almost every interview. Prepare short, honest answers to:
- Tell me about yourself. (Our guide to answering "Tell me about yourself" has examples.)
- Why do you want this role, and why this company?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Tell me about a challenge or a failure.
- What are your salary expectations?
Use the STAR structure for any "tell me about a time" question: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Spend most of your answer on the Action.
Day 5: Practise out loud
This is the day most people skip, and it is the one that makes the biggest difference. Knowing an answer and saying it clearly under pressure are different skills.
Answer each question aloud, ideally to a friend or recorded on your phone. Then listen back. You will notice rambling, filler words and answers that never quite reach the point.
Also practise the follow-up. Real interviewers rarely accept your first answer. They ask "why?", "what if it failed?" or "how would you scale it?" Prepare the second answer, not just the first.
Day 6: Research the company and prepare your questions
Learn what the company does, its main products or clients, and any recent news. Then prepare two or three questions to ask at the end, such as:
- What does success look like in this role in the first 90 days?
- What is the team working on right now?
- What do people who do well here have in common?
Day 7: Revise lightly and rest
Do not cram new topics the day before. Instead, revise your notes, your stories and a quick cheat sheet of key facts for your role. Our interview cheat sheets cover the definitions and rules to revise in ten minutes.
Then prepare the practical things: your route or your video setup, your documents and a good night's sleep.
Your 7-day checklist
| Day | Focus | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job description mapped to your examples | Every requirement has an example or a gap noted |
| 2 | Fundamentals | You can explain each must-know topic simply |
| 3 | Project and work stories | Each story has problem, part, decision, result |
| 4 | Common questions | Short answers written for all of them |
| 5 | Practice out loud | You have rehearsed answers and follow-ups |
| 6 | Company research | Two or three questions ready to ask |
| 7 | Light revision and rest | Notes revised, logistics sorted |
On the day
Arrive or log in early. Listen to the whole question before you answer, and take a moment to think. If you do not know something, say so honestly and explain how you would work it out. Interviewers value a clear approach more than a perfect memory.
FAQ
Is one week enough to prepare for an interview? For most roles, yes, if you focus on the job description, your fundamentals, your stories and practising aloud.
What should I not do the night before? Avoid learning new topics or staying up late. Revise what you know and rest.
