Is using LockedIn AI cheating?
It depends on when you use it. In a live interview where the employer bans AI, a tool that shows you answers while the interviewer is still asking is cheating by that employer's own rules. In a mock interview at your desk, the same software is practice. The test is whether it does the thinking while you're being assessed.
That's the line set out in where using AI in an interview becomes cheating: AI help before an interview is preparation, AI answers during a live interview are banned unless the employer invites them, and reviewing your own answers afterward is yours to do, with consent for any recording. LockedIn AI sells products on both sides of that line, so the answer changes by feature.
Its own homepage, checked October 27, 2026, describes the core product plainly. It calls LockedIn AI "an AI interview assistant that listens to your interview, analyzes questions, and provides real-time answers, code solutions, and live coaching automatically." The headline above it reads "Your Secret Weapon for Job Interviews."
Which LockedIn AI features fall before, during or after the interview?
Most of the product sits in the live interview, which is where employers draw the line. The mock interviews, question predictions and free resume tools sit before it and are allowed by the policies quoted below. Session reports sit after it. The table sorts each feature by stage, using LockedIn AI's own pages checked October 27, 2026.
| Feature | Stage | LockedIn AI's own words (checked October 27, 2026) | Cheating under a no-AI interview rule? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mock interviews | Before | "Practice behavioral, technical, and system design rounds" with an AI interviewer and a feedback report | No. This is preparation |
| Predict (beta) | Before | "Know the questions before they're asked. Then practice them." | No, if you use it to practice |
| Resume Builder, Resume Checker, LinkedIn Profile Optimizer | Before | Listed as free tools on the homepage | No, as long as every claim is true |
| Interview Copilot | During | "Answers while they are still asking" | Yes, unless the employer allows AI in that round |
| Speech Reflection | During | "Flags vague, rushed or filler words while you're still talking" | Yes in a live round; fine in a mock |
| LockedIn Duo | During | A trusted helper gets "your screen and the interview audio" and sends guidance from outside the call | Yes. It's outside help the interviewer can't see |
| Session history | After | "a transcript of what was said, a summary, and a generated report" (support page) | No, with consent to transcribe |
The "during" rows are the core of the product. The homepage lists Interview Copilot, Remote Assist, Coding Copilot and Online Assessment as its core features, all "live during your interview." The "before" rows are real, useful tools, and the fair verdict further down rests on them.
What does LockedIn AI say about being detected?
It says it stays hidden. The homepage says "Undetectable" and "Tested daily." The desktop app page, checked October 27, 2026, has a section headed "Invisible & Undetectable" and says the copilot "never shows up on anyone else's screen." These are the company's own claims, and we didn't test any of them.
The strongest version is on its blog. A post by co-founder and CEO Kagehiro Mitsuyami, Can LockedIn AI Be Detected?, updated July 30, 2026, says: "LockedIn AI stays fully hidden." The post then explains, layer by layer, why it says meeting apps and proctoring tools won't see the app. This page doesn't repeat those details.
The same post concedes a point employers would agree with. It says interviewers "notice when timing stalls or delivery goes flat," and that the risk is an answer "you can't explain in your own words when someone asks a follow-up." What interviewers can see, with a source for each signal, is in can interviewers detect AI copilots.
What does LockedIn AI's ethics page say?
The ethics page, signed "LockedIn AI Team" and dated October 10, 2024, says the company uses "sophisticated algorithms capable of detecting and preventing the unethical use of our technology." It doesn't say what counts as unethical use. It doesn't mention employers or their interview rules at all.
Its one worked example of a good use is about speech: helping people, including transgender people, "align their vocal presentation with their identity" without voice training. That's a fair use for a speech coach. It says nothing about a candidate reading answers in a round where the employer has banned AI.
The page also pledges "Transparency: Maintain openness about our technology's capabilities and limitations." Set beside the 2026 desktop page and CEO post, the two read in different directions. The 2024 page promises to detect misuse. The 2026 pages promise that nobody else can see the product, and neither of the newer pages names what misuse would be.
Does LockedIn AI tell you to follow employer rules?
Once, on a 2025 page. The Is LockedIn AI Safe? page, updated November 12, 2025, says the assistant "is meant to be used in line with employer and platform policies." The same page calls the desktop app "Maximum stealth" and recommends it over the web app.
The terms of service, last updated September 17, 2026, ask users to use the service "only for lawful purposes and in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and guidelines." They give recording consent a full section. They don't mention employers' interview rules.
The support page does carry one line worth repeating. It asks desktop users to confirm consent to record and transcribe, and adds that "company or school policy can be stricter than the law." That applies to the whole product. Most employers who publish a rule are stricter than the law on AI in live interviews.
What do employers say about tools like LockedIn AI?
The employers that publish a rule ban live AI help unless they provide or approve it. Google, Nvidia, Deloitte UK, Greenhouse and Anthropic all say so on their own careers pages, each checked October 27, 2026. Several name the penalty. Nvidia and Deloitte UK say it ends your candidacy.
Google's hiring page says "AI tools are not permitted to be used during your interviews." Nvidia's How We Hire page says "The use of unapproved outside tools, such as ChatGPT, during the interview will result in the disqualification of candidacy." Anthropic's guidance says of live interviews: "This is all you" with "no AI assistance unless we indicate otherwise."
Deloitte UK's integrity guidance says "Interviews must be completed without AI assistance." It also says "Using answers in our assessments or interviews from any third parties or websites breaches our Integrity Guidelines," which covers a human helper like Duo. A breach means "you will be removed from the selection process."
Greenhouse asks candidates to interview "without reading from or referencing AI-produced answers," and says doing so without permission means "your candidacy may be disqualified." The full list, with dates, is in employer policies on AI in interviews, and what happened to people who broke them is in what happens if you're caught using an AI copilot.
Do the companies LockedIn AI cites allow its tool?
They allow AI the employer provides, used in the open. LockedIn AI's homepage says "More companies now let candidates use AI in some interviews" and links Canva, Meta, Google and McKinsey. The trend is real. The pages it links to describe employer-chosen tools, which is a different thing from a hidden copilot.
The Meta hiring page it links, checked October 27, 2026, says candidates "are expected to use" the AI assistant built into CoderPad in some technical rounds. It then says: "No outside AI tools or assistance are authorized - only the tools available within the interview environment may be used." Google's own hiring page bans AI tools in interviews.
Canva's engineering post of June 11, 2025 is headed "Our Philosophy: Transparency Over Detection." Canva expects some engineering candidates to use AI and says it wants "to see how well candidates collaborate with AI." That's the opposite of a tool sold as invisible. Where an employer has opened a round to AI like this, the cheating question goes away for that round.
Where is LockedIn AI useful?
In practice, and anywhere AI is allowed. The mock interview studio offers 29 AI interviewers in its app and a feedback report that ends with "actionable improvements." The free plan gives "unlimited 5-minute sessions, up to 60 free minutes a day," per its support page. That's a cheap way to rehearse answers out loud.
Speech Reflection is a good idea for practice. A coach that flags filler words and vague claims while you talk is the kind of feedback people pay a human for. Used in a mock round, then put away, it helps you give a better answer on your own.
The free resume tools, the job tracker and the Predict feature are preparation too. And when an employer says AI is allowed in a round, a live assistant is fine to use in the open. The comparison of LockedIn AI and Prept covers prices and features side by side, and the guide to AI interview tools puts it among 14 others.
What's the fair verdict on LockedIn AI?
LockedIn AI is a capable practice tool attached to a live product that most published employer rules forbid. Using the mock interviews, Predict and free career tools isn't cheating. Using the copilot or Duo in a live round where the employer bans AI is cheating under that employer's rules, whatever the software can or can't hide.
The company's own pages make the case both ways. The 2025 safety page says the product should be used "in line with employer and platform policies," and the 2026 pages sell staying hidden from those same employers. A reader can hold LockedIn AI to its first statement. Final Round AI makes a similar product, and is Final Round AI cheating applies the same test to it.
If your employer hasn't published a rule, ask the recruiter in writing before the interview. Uses that sit on the right side of the line, tool by tool, are in AI interview help that isn't cheating.
What can you do after the interview instead?
Review it. After the call, the assessment is over and studying your own answers is preparation for the next round. Write down each question, what you said and where it went thin, within the hour. Nothing you do after the interview changes what the employer measured, so no published rule bans it.
The free 10-minute debrief template gives you the structure. It asks for the questions in order, the numbers you used, the moment the call turned and one fix for next time. If you recorded the round with everyone's consent, a transcript makes this faster and more accurate.
Prept, which makes a competing product, works only on that side of the line, as analysis after the call, never during it. It transcribes an interview you recorded with consent and writes a debrief, and the free tier covers one interview hour (get your first interview debrief).