Practise Forward Deployed Engineer Interviews with an AI Coach Skill

fde-interview-coach is a free, open-source skill for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and GitHub Copilot. It runs five practice modes for Forward Deployed Engineer interviews: decomposition drills, client role-plays, deployment-design rounds, behavioural story reviews and a full mock loop. It shows you the brief and holds the rubric back until you have answered, then scores each step Bad, Good or Great and quotes your own words as evidence.

Pick one, or run them in sequence as a mock loop. The scenarios are generated fresh each time and are never real companies' interview questions.

These folder locations come from each tool's own documentation as of October 2026. Check your tool's current docs if a skill does not appear.

git clone https://github.com/learnaiengineering-dev/ai-skills.git
cd ai-skills
scripts/install.sh agents    # shared .agents/skills folder: Codex, Cursor, Copilot
scripts/install.sh claude    # Claude Code

In Claude Code you can also run /plugin marketplace add learnaiengineering-dev/ai-skills and /plugin install ai-skills@learnaiengineering. Then say something like "run a decomposition drill for me, I'm interviewing at a healthcare AI company".

We ran the skill with Claude across three turns. The scenario is invented, and the customer in it is fictional.

Turn 1. We asked for a drill and tried to skip the work: "Give me the brief and also just tell me what the ideal answer looks like so I can memorise it." The skill declined and said why: memorised answers fall apart when the interviewer changes a detail, and the drill scores how you think under a vague brief. Then it gave this brief:

The brief: You're a forward deployed engineer at a healthcare AI company. A regional hospital group has signed a pilot. The Chief Nursing Officer says: "Our nurses are drowning in admin. Use AI to fix discharge paperwork. I want to see results this quarter." Leadership is excited. Some nurses are sceptical, and the hospital's last software rollout is remembered badly.

It listed the six steps to use, and asked a few set-up questions (interview date, other industries) that did not block the drill.

Turn 2. We gave a deliberately weak answer: a RAG chatbot over all the documents, rolled out to the whole hospital, "it'll save lots of time". Instead of scoring it six times Bad, the skill replied: "I can't score that fairly yet. It's only a couple of sentences, and it doesn't use the six steps. You jump straight to a solution... I'd rather give you a retry before I score, so you don't lock in a weak result."

It then listed what each step would need for a stronger answer, and offered the retry.

Turn 3. We answered properly, step by step. The skill scored it like this, with its evidence shortened:

Its biggest-gap note was specific: the answer listed constraints and options but did not rank or compare them, so an interviewer cannot tell which constraint would actually stop the project. It praised one habit by name: saying "I don't yet know which system is the real bottleneck" and making week one a time-and-motion sample. It ended with a "next time" sentence and a suggestion to repeat the same drill two days later and compare scores.

We ran the skill twice. The first run refused the answer key and scored carefully, but it asked set-up questions we had already answered and gave six Bad scores to a one-sentence answer, which is fair but unhelpful. We changed the skill so it skips answered questions and offers a retry for very short answers. The second run, shown above, handled the short answer well, but it still asked for our company type after we named it, so we tightened the wording again. We have not re-run that last fix.

This is a small test: one scenario per run, run with one assistant. The skill is a practice partner, not a prediction of any company's interview. It cannot play a real interviewer's judgement, so use it alongside a human partner when you can.

1. Install the skill and run one decomposition drill, out loud, on a timer. 2. Repeat the same drill two days later without notes and compare scores. 3. Run a client simulation with the skill, then ask a friend to play the customer once. 4. Practise your weakest step until it reaches Good.

What is a Forward Deployed Engineer interview? It is a loop for engineers who work directly with customers to deploy AI systems. Most of the weight sits in decomposing a vague brief into a plan, handling a difficult customer conversation and designing a deployment. Coding is a floor you must clear, not usually the deciding round.

Why will the skill not give me the ideal answer? Because a memorised answer breaks as soon as the interviewer changes a detail, and the point of the drill is to practise your own thinking. It shows the scoring after you answer, with your own words quoted back.

Does it use real questions from real companies? No. It generates fresh invented scenarios every time and does not claim that any scenario is a real interview question.

What if my answer is short? If it is under about three sentences, the skill says it is too short to score fairly, lists what each step would need and offers one retry before scoring.

Can it play the customer? Yes. In client-simulation mode it plays a realistic customer with hidden facts that surface only if you ask questions that would uncover them, then reveals the facts and how you handled them.

Which tools does it work in? Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and GitHub Copilot, because all four read the same SKILL.md format.

How long should a session take? A decomposition drill is about 25 minutes. A client simulation runs 10 to 15 minutes before the skill steps out of character to debrief.

Is it free? Yes. The skills are MIT licensed and open source on GitHub.