Mercor AI interview, twenty minutes with an interviewer that read your CV.

The marketplace steps are from Mercor's own talent documentation. What happens inside the interview comes from candidate and prep-source reports, marked so.

Mercor's own advice covers the setup; prep sources built on many candidates cover what scores well. Here is the combined version.

• Use the free practice interview: Unlimited and never shared with companies. Save your three official retakes for technical problems; hiring managers see the count.
• Answer in 60 to 90 seconds: Reported to score better than long answers in expert interviews. Lead with the answer, then one specific example with a number.
• Don't go silent: A long pause can end your answer. Say you need a moment; if the AI cuts in, tell it you weren't finished, as Mercor's docs allow.
• Know your CV three layers deep: Anything on it can be followed up. For each item, know why, what went wrong, and the alternatives.

Mercor allows grammar and wording checks only, and no AI to write answers or evaluate code. Chrome on a computer, camera and microphone on, full face in frame.

Mercor's own hiring runs two loops. Interns go through the AI interview; full-time engineers, in reports from the last year, do not.

• Interns: The AI interview (only the top 3 to 4 per cent advance), a 72-hour take-home build (for example a time-tracking desktop app with a backend, sign-in and screenshots, AI tools allowed), then a Super Day of up to five hours on design, coding and vibe coding.
• Full-time: first calls: A 20-minute call on one recent project and how you use AI tools, then a 30-minute verbal technical screen of about four rapid questions (sorting, a probability puzzle, reviewing concurrent code, an idempotent payment call).
• Full-time: the onsite: In San Francisco: a 90-minute coding round in three parts (LLMs barred for the first two), an algorithms discussion, system design (a distributed job scheduler in several reports), and for some roles a 90-minute build with LLMs allowed.
• Decision: A hiring manager or CTO chat, with decisions reported from the same day to two days.

These loops come from candidate reports gathered by prep sites; Mercor does not publish them.

What the AI interview rewards, as prep sources built on many candidates report it (Mercor publishes no rubric):

• Answers of 60 to 90 seconds. Reported to beat three-minute answers in expert interviews; some audio interviews ask for longer.
• Specifics and numbers. Concrete detail over general claims.
• I, not we. Your own part in the work, said plainly.
• Depth on your own claims. Expect follow-ups several layers into anything on your CV, and to compare your approach with alternatives.

Mercor asks candidates not to share its questions, so the rows below are practice questions in the shape candidates report: your field, a recent piece of work and how you reasoned, and AI in your field.

Contract pay varies by domain and listing. On Mercor's own listings in October 2026, physicians posted at $150, legal work at $100 to $150, and office and productivity experts at $60 to $70 an hour. The marketplace median is from AITraining.jobs' count of Mercor's live listings, page updated 28 October 2026.

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1. Take the free practice interview at least twice before the real one.
2. Rehearse a 60 to 90 second answer about your strongest CV project.
3. Practise saying 'I need a moment' instead of pausing in silence.
4. For each CV item, prepare why, what went wrong, and the alternatives.
5. Set up Chrome on a computer, camera and mic tested, face in frame, quiet room.

This guide covers the Mercor AI interview for contract work, and Mercor's own intern and engineering loops. The interview's format and rules are Mercor's own; what scores well comes from prep sources built on many candidates, and the loops from candidate reports. For management and leadership roles the loop is similar but the bar shifts to people, delivery and strategy, so pair it with the leadership interview prep hub. The bar for your exact role comes from the role-by-role guides, and the prep that actually transfers is spoken, so run a mock interview before the real one.

Also interviewing at Scale AI, Perplexity or Glean? Their guides follow the same format, from the first screen to the offer.

• 01Mercor talent docs, AI Interviewabout 20 minutes; questions from the CV and listing, transcribed and evaluated; practice interview; three retakes, latest counts, retake count visible to hiring managers; silences may trigger interjection; AI tools for grammar only; the only screening method; no transcript access; read 28 October 2026
• 02Mercor talent docs, Work Trialsone paid work trial per person, before an offer; read 28 October 2026
• 03Mercor talent docs, Instant Work Offersverified interviews, assessments, skills and availability can mark a profile prequalified; read 28 October 2026
• 04Mercor listing, software engineeringsoftware engineering listings have posted at $70 to $150 an hour; read 28 October 2026
• 05Mercor listing, General Physician$150 an hour, a six-week project of 20+ hours a week; read 28 October 2026
• 06Mercor listing, legal expertsprojects in this field have posted at $100 to $150 an hour; read 28 October 2026
• 07Mercor listing, office and productivity software expertlistings have posted at $60 to $70 an hour; read 28 October 2026
• 08A physician's Mercor AI interview (27 May 2025)his field and expertise, a recent case and his reasoning, an LLM application in his field with evaluation criteria; adaptive follow-ups; the AI cut him off a few times
• 09HireFeed, how to get hired on Mercor (2026)from about 80 contractors: 60 to 90 second answers score higher than three-minute ones; filtering on depth in your own claimed work; comparing your approach with alternatives; lower scores for blaming teammates
• 10Red Pen Jobs, AI interview prep (updated 13 October 2026)a long pause read as a finished answer; say you need a moment; bundled multi-part questions; CV items followed up
• 11Labeling Jobs, the Mercor AI interview (25 September 2026)contractors report long silences after the interview and rejections without reasons
• 12AITraining.jobs, Mercor (updated 28 October 2026)typical pay $55 to $150 an hour, median $80, across 243 open roles; answers under 90 seconds
• 13Extern, Mercor internship guide (updated October 2026)AI interview with the top 3 to 4 per cent advancing, a 72-hour take-home, a Super Day of up to five hours; intern pay $70 to $80 an hour
• 14AceOffer, Mercor interview processfull-time engineering loop from 28 candidate reports, October 2025 to October 2026: manager call, verbal technical screen, San Francisco onsite with coding, algorithms, system design and an LLM build

Interview processes change. This reflects widely-reported and sourced conditions as of 2026 — confirm specifics with your recruiter, and treat it as a map rather than a guarantee.