How to start a live coding interview

Open Live coding in the sidebar, choose New live coding interview, add the code, then choose Invite. You can start the session right away and share the link, or schedule it and email the invitation.

A live coding interview is a reusable setup: the code, a brief and a panel of interviewers. Each candidate you invite gets their own session, and every session opens a fresh copy of the code. Only owners and editors can create one or invite candidates.

Add the code

Under Code, add the project the session opens with. It saves as you go, so the interview exists as soon as the code is added.

• From a repository: paste a link into the Repository URL field and choose Check. GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and your own Git server all work. See Import from any Git host.
• Blank project: under Or add:, choose Blank project to start from one of Kendor's starters.
• Single file: choose Single file for an algorithm-style question with one file and no running app.
• Library: choose Library to start from a template.

A live coding interview holds one project. Invite stays disabled, with the hint Add the code first, until it has one.

Give the interview a name at the top of the page, and write a Brief for the candidate if you want one. The brief appears in the room's Prompt tab, and you can still change it during a session.

Choose your interviewers

In the right-hand panel, pick people under Interviewers. They're added to the panel of every session, and each of them gives a verdict afterwards. Whoever sends an invite is always on that session's panel too.

Default session length (minutes) sets the starting length for each invite, between 15 and 480 minutes. Leave it empty for 60. The length is only a guide for the room clock: nothing stops when it runs out.

Decide on AI agents

AI assistants in the terminal lets anyone in the session run Claude Code and Codex in the sandbox terminal, on your organization's API keys. It's on by default.

If your organization has no key for a vendor, a note under the switch says which agent won't work, with a link to add one in Integrations. See Turn on Claude Code and Codex.

You can override this setting for a single invite, and an interviewer can switch agents on or off during the session.

Invite a candidate

Choose Invite on the live coding interview. You can also start from Calendar with Invite to a live coding interview, or from a candidate's profile with Live code, which fills in their details.

In the dialog, pick Start now or Schedule.

Start now

Choose Start session and you go straight into the room. Copy the link with Copy link in the room's header and send it to the candidate, for example in the chat of a call you're already on.

The candidate's name and email are optional here. Leave Candidate details folded and the candidate gives them in the lobby.

Schedule

Pick a Date and time in the future and choose Schedule. An email is required, because the next step is the invitation: Kendor opens the email composer with a draft you can edit before you choose Send email.

Scheduled sessions get a reminder the day before. The candidate's link opens the room 10 minutes before the start time. See Rescheduling and reminders.

For both options, Length (minutes) overrides the default length, and Claude Code and Codex in the terminal overrides the AI setting for this one session.

The candidate's lobby

The candidate doesn't need a Kendor account. The link is their way in, and an interviewer still has to let them in.

1. They open the link and land in a green room titled Check your camera, then ask to join, with a preview of their camera and microphone.
2. If you didn't enter their details, they fill in Your name and Your email.
3. They choose Ask to join and wait.

Signed-in members of your organization who open the same link join as interviewers, not as the candidate.

Admit or deny the candidate

When the candidate asks to join, every interviewer in the room sees {name} is asking to join with Admit and Deny.

• Admit brings them into the room and the call.
• Deny sends them back to the lobby with You weren't admitted this time. Their link stays valid, so they can ask again.

If the candidate doesn't show up

If you end a session the candidate never joined, nothing is kept. A session you started now is removed, and a scheduled one is marked No-show in the Sessions list. Sessions nobody ends are closed automatically two hours after their booked end.

To stop new invites to a live coding interview, open the More actions menu next to Invite and choose Archive. Choose Restore to draft from the same menu to bring Invite back.