Frequently asked questions

First off, we apologize for your negative experience.

Please give us details here, or email us at [email protected] right after the interview. If you provide specifics of what went wrong within 24 hours of the session, and it's clear that your expert failed in delivering upon any realistic expectations you might have requested for your mock interview experience, we will offer you a refund of value.

A refund of value is where you tell us whatever you think the session was worth; we'll reach out to your expert to notify them, and then refund the difference. For instance, if you paid 100 USD for a session but there was a failure on the part of the expert to deliver a relevant interview experience, you can then tell us how much the interview was worth to you (eg. 50 USD), and we'll coordinate with the expert to refund the difference (eg. 50 USD).

PS - your expert spent time preparing for and coaching you in a session -- so we ask you to be thoughtful of their time and effort invested too. However, it is your decision and the refund amount is your call - we trust you to make the right one.

For this to work,

1. You will need to have filled out your written feedback form answering all relevant questions that you would have received immediately after the session.
2. You'll need to send us specifics regarding how the session didn't work as possible - we take refund requests very seriously, since our entire premise is to have great coaches who can deliver great experiences for candidates (i.e. the sort which don't trigger refund requests) - and detail ensures your coaches can either learn from the experience and improve their services, or be removed as coaches from the platform.
3. For special circumstances (for instance, if you felt your coach made you feel unsafe), please make sure to let us know when reporting a refund request. We have a special process for this; and will make sure your coach will not see your feedback.

Important: Please note, these steps must happen within 24 hours of your session being completed. Once 24 hours have passed, we can unfortunately not support refund requests. This is because

1. Experts have already been paid by this point, and it is not possible to claim payments back.
2. Experts' and candidates' memories remain fresh only up to a certain point. Longer periods lead to disagreements and misrepresentations of what really happened in-session.
3. The 24 hour rule protects our experts from fraud, as well as protects Prepfully from perpetual liability.

Is "my actual interview was nothing like the mock interview" a legitimate reason for requesting a refund?

Often, yes. Occasionally, no.

To explain further - this first depends on whether you picked a coach or were matched with a coach who has worked in your target company and role.

• If you either picked a coach or accepted a coach who isn't an exact fit for the role you are interviewing for - they are not expected to know the interviewing process of your target company. They will simulate an interview for the role you have selected, and respect any special request you have provided. For instance, if you are interviewing at Dropbox for a Product Manager role and choose a Meta PM to practice Behavioural, the Meta PM will simulate a PM Behavioral interview but will not simulate a Dropbox-specific Behavioral interview. Therefore, "my Dropbox interview was not like the mock interview" is not a valid reason for a refund. However, "my mock interview didn't cover behavioral questions" is a valid reason for requesting a refund.
• However, if you were indeed matched with a coach from your target company and role, and you report the interview simulation didn't match reality - we quickly investigate your target company/role's interview process to verify if the topics covered by the expert were (a) relevant and (b) in line with any request you might have provided through Prepfully. If either of the two conditions above were not satisfied, you will be entitled to a refund. In this case too, a request must be made within 24 hours of the session being completed.

Please do note, it would be impossible for one expert to cover all possible topics, themes, or questions, that an actual interviewer might cover in the live interview loop, in a single mock interview. For some roles, candidates book several mock interviews to cover an array of topics. This can help you ensure greater coverage over topics which will happen in your actual interview. If you have a special request (eg. "portfolio review type interview" for a Product Designer role, or a "Product Sense" style interview for a Product Manager role), then you always have the option to send this through us in advance, and your expert would be happy to customize the interview based on this requirements.

Why doesn't Prepfully bear the cost of a refund itself?

We actually do -- when we make a mistake we bear the cost of a full refund, and fix it ASAP - we are bootstrapped and would go out of business pretty fast if we didn't. In situations where we don't feel we could have done more to pre-empt a refund, it is borne by both Prepfully and the coach.

Some examples of situations where we've issued refunds in the past (a total of 16 such refunds so far, out of thousands of completed sessions -- fingers crossed it doesn't go up)

• [2023] A candidate requested a "TikTok PM" interview. We matched them with a PM from Bytedance. We mistakenly mapped TikTok and Bytedance as one company. We now have 6 TikTok PMs and 2 from Bytedance. Candidate offered free session in lieu.
• [2022] A candidate requested a QA Engineer who could provide them practice in "Cypress and Typescript". We missed sharing this when reaching out to coaches, and the coach matched proved to be an expert in "Java and Selenium Webdriver but not at all in Cypress and Typescript" (reported by the candidate). Full refund offered.
• [2021] A candidate requested a "Meta Product Design" interview. We matched them with a Product Designer from Meta. It turns out "Product Design" is an interview type for Software Engineers and EMs. We now have 23 Meta engineers supporting Product Design interviews for engineers. Candidate offered free session in lieu.
• [2021] A candidate requested a "Product Design Engineer" interview. We matched them with an Apple UX Designer. We didn't realize at the time that Product Design Engineering was a hardware engineering role. We now have 16 PDEs + Mechanical Engineers from Apple, Meta and Google. Full refund offered.
• [2021] A candidate requested a Meta PM mock interview, and they got matched with a Meta Product Growth Manager. We now have 44 Meta PMs, so we won't make that mistake again! Full refund offered.

However, in situations where either a coach doesn't provide a mock which respects requirements, or is rude/unprofessional, or is unable to provide a proper mock interview simulation or coaching experience -- the cost of a refund is borne by the coach.