Interview Quest

Your gateway to interview success

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Inspiration

The idea for Interview Quest stemmed from the challenges many job seekers face during interviews. While they may have excellent skills and qualifications, nerves and a lack of preparation often lead to missed opportunities. Recognizing that many candidates struggle to find practical ways to rehearse interviews, we developed Interview Quest—a game designed to help job seekers simulate and train for real-life interview scenarios, boosting their confidence and readiness.

What It Does

Interview Quest is a classic simulator game that replicates an interview process. Tailored for job seekers, it allows users to choose a specific role and industry, then guides them through a realistic interview simulation. For this hackathon submission:

  • Users can select from three roles: Fullstack Developer, QA, or Project Manager.
  • The industry is focused on software houses.
  • HR (Emily played by an AI NPC) generates role-specific questions using GeminiAI.
  • HR can respond to each question and either move to the next one or follow up based on User’s feedback.
  • After answering three questions (a constraint due to AI service plans limitations), users receive a score and detailed feedback on their performance.

Constraints:

  • The game currently supports only three roles and one industry.
  • During first-time access, it may take up to 40 seconds for the server to boot up.
  • There might be disruptions during the interview process due to limitations in the AI service plans, which could affect seamless question generation and feedback.
  • Answering questions via audio input may take longer to process compared to text input due to the additional time required for speech recognition and processing.

How We Built It

The project was built using a robust technology stack:

  • Backend: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL
  • Frontend: JavaScript, HTML, StimulusJS
  • AI Integration: GeminiAI for question generation
  • Cloud Services: Amazon Q, Amazon S3, Amazon Polly and Amazon Transcribe
  • Deployment: Render.com

By combining these technologies, we created an immersive and interactive interview simulation experience.

Challenges We Ran Into

  • Scope Constraints: Due to hackathon limitations, we were only able to include three roles, one industry, and a three-question interview process.
  • Server Boot Time: During the first-time access, the server takes up to 40 seconds to boot, potentially impacting user experience.
  • AI Plan Limitations: Occasional disruptions during the interview process occurred due to constraints in the AI service plan, which sometimes affected the smooth generation of questions and feedback.
  • AI Model Enhancement: The AI responses were not always perfect, indicating areas where the models could be further fine-tuned and improved.
  • Technical Integration: Ensuring seamless communication between GeminiAI, Amazon services, and our backend was challenging but rewarding.
  • User Experience: Balancing realism with simplicity for first-time users required iterative design adjustments.
  • Audio Input: Answering questions via audio input may take longer to process compared to text input due to the additional time required for speech recognition and processing.
  • API Integration: Integrating multiple APIs such as GeminiAI, Amazon Polly, Amazon Transcribe while maintaining seamless interaction.
  • Speech Recognition : Ensuring accurate speech recognition to accommodate diverse accents and speech patterns.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

  • Successfully integrating advanced AI technologies like GeminiAI to provide realistic, role-specific interview questions.
  • Creating a functional MVP with engaging gameplay mechanics within the hackathon timeline.
  • Delivering a meaningful solution for job seekers that addresses a real-world problem.

What We Learned

  • The importance of balancing scope and ambition when working under tight constraints.
  • How to integrate various cloud-based technologies to enhance user experience.
  • Insights into user needs and the potential for scaling this project to cater to broader audiences.

What’s Next for Interview Quest

Looking ahead, Interview Quest will expand to include:

  • A wider variety of roles and industries beyond the software house sector.
  • More complex interview scenarios with additional questions and follow-up options.
  • Enhanced AI feedback to offer deeper insights into user performance.
  • Collaboration with career coaches to refine feedback and scoring systems.
  • Develop mobile versions for iOS and Android to reach a broader audience.

We envision Interview Quest becoming a go-to platform for job seekers worldwide to prepare for their dream jobs.

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