What a coding-interview helper has to do
A coding interview isn't a Q&A. It's a 45-minute thinking-out-loud session where you're judged on:
- Whether you can frame an ambiguous problem into a tractable one.
- Whether your first solution is reasonable and your second is better.
- Whether your code actually compiles and your edge cases are honest.
- Whether you stay calm under "what if the input is a billion rows?" pressure.
A coding-interview helper that just dumps an optimal solution into your editor is worse than nothing — interviewers can spot it inside two sentences. A good one helps you think faster without thinking for you.
What Cloak does in a coding interview
- Reads the screen. Cmd+Shift+S captures the editor surface and the question pane. Cloak ships them to the model along with whatever the interviewer just said.
- Returns a structured plan, not a code dump. The default coding persona
uses a
<narration>block (how to talk it through), a<answer>block (the actual approach), and a small fenced code block (the implementation). You read narration aloud while glancing at the answer. - Updates with each new question. Follow-ups like "optimize it" or "what's the space complexity?" get fed the rolling transcript so the next answer is on-topic.
- Stays off the share. The overlay window is non-capturable. Your shared screen shows your editor and the question; Cloak is invisible.
Works with
- CoderPad, HackerRank, Codility, CodeSignal — browser-based editors. Screenshot capture is the most reliable input.
- Local IDE share (VS Code, JetBrains, Xcode) — same, but Cloak also picks up problem statements from PDFs and Notion docs on screen.
- LeetCode mock interviews — works fine.
- Whiteboard / Excalidraw rounds — audio + occasional screenshot of the drawing is enough context to get a solid scaffold.
How to actually use it well
- Front-load context before the round. If you know the company and role, load a job description in Cloak Pro's Workspace. The model knows what tech stack to bias toward.
- Talk first, read second. Restate the problem out loud. By the time the first token streams in, you've earned the moment to look.
- Ask Cloak for tradeoffs, not solutions. "Two approaches with their complexities" is much more useful than "the optimal code". You sound like a senior engineer when you compare; you sound like a copy-paste cheater when you recite.
- Re-derive any code you actually type. Treat Cloak's code as a reference implementation you adapt, not a paste target. The variable names, comments, and small bugs should be yours.
What it won't fix
If you don't know what a hash map is, no amount of overlay AI will save you. The bar for using a coding-interview helper well is that the foundation is already there. The win is speed, recall, and confidence — not skill substitution.
Get started
Download Cloak from the home page. The default interview persona is on out of the box. Pair it with a fast model (GPT-5.x or Claude 4.5 Sonnet) and start with a LeetCode-medium mock to build muscle memory before a real round.