For Technical Hiring

Hire Engineers Who Can
Handle the Chaos

Whiteboard algorithms don't predict on-call success. Incident Drill lets you watch candidates debug real production issues—so you hire engineers who thrive when things break.

Leetcode doesn't predict production performance.

You've hired engineers who aced the algorithm interview but froze during their first incident. Traditional coding tests measure theoretical knowledge, not the debugging instincts and systematic thinking that matter when production is on fire.

THE SOLUTION

Watch candidates debug, not just code.

Incident Drill drops candidates into realistic broken environments—database locks, memory leaks, cascading failures. You see exactly how they investigate, what tools they reach for, and how they communicate under pressure.

🔥

Real Production Scenarios

Pre-built incidents: database deadlocks, memory leaks, DDoS patterns, cascading service failures. Each tests different debugging skills.

🔍

Full Observability Stack

Candidates use real tools—distributed tracing, live metrics, log aggregation—not toy problems. See if they know their way around production tooling.

⏮️

Session Playback

Replay every command, every click, every decision. Share recordings with your team. No more 'you had to be there' interview debriefs.

📊

Structured Evaluation

Objective metrics on investigation approach, tool usage, and time-to-resolution. Compare candidates fairly across standardized scenarios.

45-Minute Format

Fits your existing interview loop. Candidates get context, investigate, and present findings—all within a standard interview slot.

🎯

Role-Specific Difficulty

Junior candidates get guided scenarios. Senior candidates face ambiguous, multi-system failures. Match complexity to the role.

WHY HIRING MANAGERS SWITCH

Better signal, better hires.

  • See how candidates think under pressure, not just how they memorize
  • Evaluate production-relevant skills: debugging, investigation, communication
  • Reduce mis-hires by testing real job requirements
  • Candidates actually enjoy it—better employer brand
  • Standardized scenarios mean fair, consistent evaluation
  • Works for backend, platform, SRE, and DevOps roles
Session Playback 12:34
00:12 $ kubectl get pods -n production
00:45 Opened Grafana dashboard
01:23 ! Spotted connection timeout pattern
02:15 $ kubectl logs payment-svc --tail=50
03:42 Identified DB connection pool exhaustion

How It Works

1

Choose a Scenario

Select from our library of production incidents matched to your role requirements and difficulty level.

2

Send the Link

Candidates get a unique session URL. No setup required—they jump straight into a realistic environment.

3

Watch Them Work

Observe live or review the recording. See their investigation approach, tool usage, and problem-solving process.

4

Evaluate & Decide

Use our structured rubric and session analytics to make confident, data-driven hiring decisions.

Stop guessing. Start simulating.

See how your candidates actually handle production incidents. Join the waitlist for early access.

Get Early Access
Founding client discounts Shape the roadmap Direct founder support

Join the Incident Drill waitlist

Drop your email and we'll reach out with private beta invites and roadmap updates.