Interview coaching debrief template

Vikrant Singh·July 6, 2026·7 min read

Vikrant Singh is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Slide Practice. He writes about running a one-to-one practice.

A mock interview is only half the work. The debrief is where a candidate actually improves. Here is a one-page debrief template you can copy, plus how to log the questions you drilled, rate the STAR answers, and set the prep that carries into the next round.

The fastest way to run a debrief that a candidate can act on: capture the questions you drilled, rate each answer with one specific note, name the two or three things to change, and turn that into a short, dated prep list for the next round. Do it the same day, keep it to one page, and reuse the same fields every time so your candidate learns the shape of good feedback. The copy-paste template is a little further down; the rest of this post is how to fill it in well.

Why the debrief is where the improvement happens

A candidate leaves a mock interview running on adrenaline. They know a couple of answers landed and a couple did not, but they cannot tell you which words caused it or what to do differently. Within an hour they are back at their desk, the feeling has faded, and all that is left is a vague sense that they need to be "better at interviews."

The debrief is how you convert one hour of practice into something the candidate can actually work on. A good one does three things at once.

• It makes the feedback specific. "You rambled" is not coachable. "Your layoff answer buried the result under ninety seconds of backstory" is. The debrief is where you pin feedback to an actual question and an actual answer.
• It creates momentum. Prep tasks written down, with a deadline, get done. The same advice delivered out loud at the end of a call is gone by the time the candidate reaches the car park.
• It shows your value. A candidate paying for interview coaching wants proof they are moving. A short, honest record of what they drilled and what improved is that proof, and it is why they book the next session.

None of this needs to be long. The best debriefs are short, specific, and sent the same day while the answers are still fresh for both of you.

The six fields every debrief should have

A debrief you can run in five minutes has six fields. You will not always fill all six, but this is the full set to pick from.

1. The role and round

One line of context so the notes make sense next week: the target role, the company or type of company, and which round you were simulating. A phone screen, a hiring-manager loop, and a final panel need different prep, and you want to know at a glance which one you drilled.

2. The questions drilled

List the actual questions you asked, in the order you asked them. "Tell me about yourself," "a time you disagreed with your manager," "why this company," the system-design prompt, whatever it was. This is the backbone of the debrief. It tells the candidate exactly what they faced and gives you a bank to rotate and reuse across sessions.

3. A rating and note per answer

For each question, a quick rating and one line. A simple strong / solid / needs-work label, or a 1 to 5, is enough. The note is the part that matters: name the single change that would move the answer up a level. For behavioral questions, rate the STAR answers on whether the Situation and Task were clear, the Action was something the candidate personally did, and the Result was specific and measurable.

4. The two or three headline pieces of feedback

Zoom out from the per-answer notes to the patterns. Usually it is two or three things: they lead with context instead of the result, they say "we" when the interviewer wants "I," they run long and lose the point. Feedback the candidate can hold in their head is feedback they can fix.

5. Prep for the next round

Turn the feedback into concrete, dated tasks. "Rewrite the layoff story to open with the outcome, by Thursday." "Prepare two STAR answers for conflict questions before our next session." "Draft three questions to ask the hiring manager." This is the field the candidate will actually reread, so make it a checklist, not a paragraph of advice.

6. What you will send

Anything you promised: a model answer, a question bank, a scorecard, a link to book the next mock. Putting your own commitments in writing models exactly what you are asking of the candidate, and it makes sure you follow through.

What to leave out

Most debriefs fail by trying to do too much. Leave these out.

• A word-for-word replay. You are not writing a transcript. If the notes run to three screens, the candidate reads none of them. Rate the answer, name the one fix, move on.
• Fresh coaching you thought of afterward. The debrief reflects the session you ran. A brand-new framework you dreamed up on the drive home belongs in the next session, not buried in these notes.
• Vague praise. "Great energy" and "you've got this" feel kind and change nothing. If you are going to compliment an answer, say which answer and why it worked so the candidate can repeat it.
• More than three prep tasks. A candidate juggling a job hunt cannot action ten things. Pick the two or three that will move the needle for the next round and let the rest wait.

The debrief template

Copy this and fill in the brackets. Delete any line that does not apply that day rather than padding it. It is built to fit on one screen on purpose, so the candidate reads the whole thing instead of skimming the first two lines.

INTERVIEW COACHING SESSION DEBRIEF

Candidate: [name]
Target role: [role] at [company / type of company]
Round drilled: [phone screen / hiring manager / panel / final]
Date: [date]

QUESTIONS DRILLED + RATINGS
1. [question asked] rated [strong / solid / needs work]
   Note: [the one change that moves this answer up a level]
2. [question asked] rated [strong / solid / needs work]
   Note: [the one change that moves this answer up a level]
3. [question asked] rated [strong / solid / needs work]
   Note: [the one change that moves this answer up a level]

STAR CHECK (for behavioral answers)
- Situation + Task were clear: [yes / mostly / no]
- Action was yours, not "we": [yes / mostly / no]
- Result was specific + measurable: [yes / mostly / no]

TOP FEEDBACK (the 2-3 patterns to fix)
- [pattern 1]
- [pattern 2]
- [pattern 3]

PREP FOR THE NEXT ROUND
- [concrete task], by [date]
- [concrete task], by [date]

WHAT I'LL SEND YOU
- [model answer / question bank / scorecard], by [date]

Next mock booked: [date / booking link]

Two habits make this template earn its place. Fill it in the same day, ideally within a couple of hours, while you can still hear how each answer actually sounded. And keep the completed debriefs, because next session you will want to open with "Show me the rewritten layoff story," and last week's notes are the fastest way to pick up exactly where you left off.

A filled-in example

Here is the same template completed after a mock for a candidate interviewing for a mid-level product manager role. Notice how short each note is and how every piece of feedback points at a specific answer.

Candidate: Priya. Target role: Product Manager at a mid-size SaaS company. Round drilled: hiring-manager loop.

Questions drilled: "Tell me about yourself" (solid, note: cut the first job, start with the last two years). "A time you shipped something under a tight deadline" (needs work, note: 90 seconds of setup before any result). "Why this company" (needs work, note: generic, name the actual product decision you admire). "How do you prioritize a roadmap" (strong, keep as is).

STAR check: Situation and Task clear, but the Action drifted to "the team" and the Result was never quantified. Top feedback: lead with the outcome, then explain how; say "I" for your own decisions; keep behavioral answers under two minutes. Prep for next round: rewrite the deadline story to open with the shipped result, by Thursday; prepare two "why this company" specifics, by Thursday; draft three questions for the hiring manager, before our next session. I'll send: a strong sample answer for the prioritization question, by tomorrow. Next mock: booked for next Tuesday.

That whole debrief takes about five minutes to write and gives the candidate something they can obviously act on. The specifics move from candidate to candidate, but the fields never change, which is what makes it fast once it becomes a habit.

Make it repeatable across every candidate

The template above works on its own with nothing but a text file, and you should keep it either way. What makes it stick is running the same fields after every mock so your candidates start to recognize the shape of good feedback. Interview coaching is one of the many kinds of every one-to-one practice where the work between sessions is where clients decide whether you were worth it, so the debrief is not admin, it is the product.

If you would rather not start from a blank page each time, our free session notes template builder lets you assemble a reusable structure with exactly these fields. And if you record your mocks, Slide Practice can turn the recording into a draft debrief in about a minute, with the questions, a suggested rating per answer, and the prep list already laid out, so you spend your time editing and coaching instead of typing. You stay in control of every word.

For more on getting the written record right, see how to write coaching session notes and what to put in a session recap. Both apply directly to interview work, just with "questions drilled" and "prep for the next round" in place of the usual fields.

Common questions