"Why this company?" — when nine companies came to campus
Nine companies visited your campus this season and you applied to all nine, which both you and the interviewer know. The question is not whether you are in love with them. It is whether you have done fifteen minutes of homework and can connect something real about them to something real about you.
An intermediate-level session of about 8 minutes. 6 questions, each answered out loud.
There is a test you can run on your own answer before you give it: would it still be true with a different company's name in it? If yes, it is not an answer yet. 'Great work culture', 'good learning opportunity' and 'market leader' pass unchanged between any two employers, which is why interviewers stopped hearing them years ago. What survives the swap is specific — a service line they run that you have read about, a product you have used, a domain you have already built something in, a role structure that fits what you are trying to become. One of those, connected to one thing you have actually done, is the entire answer. The honesty part matters as much: being asked about your other interviews is not a trap, and denying you have any is the wrong risk to take.
Angles worth taking
- Name one thing they do that is not on the placement poster — a client sector, a product, the office you would actually sit in.
- Bridge from their work to yours in a single sentence: what you have built, and where it touches what they build.
- Asked what you would say to the company that interviewed you yesterday, give the different reason you would give them rather than a denial.
- Say where this one ranks among your options and why — the ranking is more convincing than the enthusiasm.
- Drop the superlatives about their size or reputation; they know their own numbers, and it reads as time being filled.
- If you have no specific reason yet, ask them one real question about the work instead of manufacturing a preference.
Who is in the room
You play
A final-year student at a campus drive
You speak with
An interviewer who tests whether the answer is company-specific by asking what the candidate would say to the company that interviewed them yesterday
Phrases to reach for
These are shown to you before the session starts. They are what you are asked to use, not a list the scorer is checking off.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all mock interview roundsThe format
Questions in this round
6
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a mock interview session works
Pick a round
HR, behavioural, or a role-specific set. Each one tells you how many questions it runs and roughly how long it takes.
Answer out loud
Questions come one at a time and you speak the answer. There is a clock, because a two-minute answer and a five-minute answer are different answers.
Take the follow-ups
Answers get followed up. A vague claim gets pressed on, which is what separates a rehearsed answer from a true one.
Read the report
Structure, evidence, filler and pace per answer, plus the one answer worth recording again before the real thing.
What you're scored on
Every round is assessed the same way, because interviewers are broadly consistent about what a good spoken answer contains.
Give a reason that could not be copy-pasted to the other eight companies: name something specific about what they do, connect it to something you have done, and be honest about the fact that you are also interviewing elsewhere.
Structure
Whether the answer has a shape — situation, action, result — or arrives somewhere by accident after ninety seconds.
Evidence
Specifics over adjectives. "We cut it from six days to two" against "we improved the process significantly".
Relevance
Whether you answered the question asked, including the follow-up, rather than the question you prepared for.
Delivery
Pace, filler words, and whether the last third of the answer is as clear as the first.
More mock interview rounds
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