Canditech's Live Coding Interviews give you a real-time, shared coding and whiteboarding environment for running technical interviews, instead of relying on a static take-home test or a whiteboard-only conversation.
This article walks you through setting one up, running it live, and reviewing it afterward.
What Are Live Coding Interviews in Canditech?
Canditech's live coding interviews are a fully collaborative coding environment built for modern technical hiring. The shared IDE, video, whiteboard, and AI assistant all live in one synced window, so you and the candidate can work together in real time instead of switching between separate tools.
You present the challenge in a dedicated question panel next to the editor. Write it on the spot, reuse your own pre-made interview templates, or pick from Canditech's question library, and adjust the instructions live as the conversation unfolds.
Candidates code in a real IDE, with syntax highlighting and their choice of language, and can run their code instantly. That lets you review the output together in real time while you observe how they think, debug, and iterate, rather than just grading a final answer.
Alongside the code editor, a shared whiteboard (built on Miro) lets you sketch architecture, data models, and algorithms together, ideal for system-design and problem-solving rounds.
The whole thing runs face to face over built-in video, so the conversation and the code stay in one place. A built-in AI assistant, including Claude and Codex, is also available to candidates during the interview, reflecting how developers actually work today, so you're not just evaluating raw coding ability, you're seeing how a candidate prompts, directs, and validates AI-generated code.
How Do You Create and Structure a Live Coding Interview?
From the Interviews tab, click Get Started, then choose Create a Live Interview to prepare and structure your interview questions ahead of time, rather than jumping straight into an unstructured session.
When you choose Create a Live Interview, the builder opens with a blank Coding Question added to the interview.
How Do You Build a Live Coding Question From Scratch?
To build and customize the Coding Question, click the purple pencil icon on the right-hand side.
This opens an editor with three steps:
Step 1 - Input the question description and instructions:
Provide the candidate with a detailed description of the coding question and problem they will be solving.
Note: The Question Editor also includes an AI Assistant to help you generate or refine question content. Click here to learn more about using the AI Assistant in the Question Editor.
Once you are finished writing the question description, click Next.
Step 2 - Choose Languages:
Choose at least one of the coding languages that the candidates can choose to solve the coding question.
Once selected, click Next.
Step 3 - Starting Code:
For each language you selected in Step 2, write the starting code (boilerplate) candidates will see when they open the question. Use the language dropdown at the top to switch between them and set starting code for each one.
Click Run Code to test it and confirm it runs correctly before saving.
Once you're done, click Save to finish.
How Do You Add a Live Coding Question From The Library?
Click Add Question to add another question beyond the default one.
From there, the Live Coding Interviews Library will open.
The Live Coding Interviews Library features two tabs:
From Library – search and filter previously created questions, select one to preview it, then click Add Question to drop it into your interview as its own section.
Create New – pick a language (or a Code Project tech stack) from the grid.
From there, the same three-step editor described above will open. For more information on customizing a Coding Question, click here.
How Do You Start and Invite a Candidate to a Live Coding Interview?
Once you start the session, you and the candidate are working inside the same live room, on the same screen. Whatever you built while creating the interview, questions, starting code, and a whiteboard if you added one, is already loaded and waiting.
From the Get Started dropdown, select Start a Live Interview Session.
If it's a new session, you'll be asked to name it first. This name is visible to candidates, so pick something they'll recognize, like "Mid Backend Engineer." Click Start Interview to continue.
If you're launching an interview you already built and saved, selecting it opens the session directly and skips the naming step.
You'll land in the interview room. If you're reusing an interview you already built, your question is already loaded and ready to go. If not, present the challenge on the spot in the question panel next to the editor, or pull one from the question library.
Once the question is set, invite the candidate by starting the video call in the bottom right corner.
What Is the Candidate and Interviewer Experience in a Live Coding Interview?
Once the candidate joins, you're both in the room together, on video, with the code and the question available.
The IDE: The candidate codes in a real IDE, in the language of their choice, with full syntax highlighting. They can run their code instantly, so you review the output together in real time and see how they think, debug, and iterate.
The whiteboard: If you added a Whiteboard Question, switch over to sketch architecture, data models, or algorithms together, useful for system-design rounds.
The AI assistant: A built-in AI assistant, including Claude and Codex, is available throughout the interview, reflecting how developers actually work today.
What Advanced Features Are Available in Live Coding Interviews?
From the builder's left nav, switch to the Advanced Features tab to turn the embedded AI assistant on or off for candidates during the interview.
To read our article about our Embedded ChatGPT feature, click here.
How Do You Review a Completed Live Coding Interview?
Once the interview is finished, you can review the full session, including the candidate's code and output, any conversation they had with the embedded AI assistant, and any notes you took during the interview. You can also rate the candidate directly from this screen.
Learn More
Click here to learn more about Canditech's Live Coding Interviews feature.