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Viva Student Guide
A viva is a spoken-style exam done as a text conversation instead of a code submission. You'll read a short scenario, then answer questions about it from an AI examiner. When the examiner has enough to go on, the interview ends and you get a score with written feedback.
- Answer the examiner's questions honestly, in your own words.
- If you're genuinely confused or don't know something, say so. That's normal and is never penalized on its own — the examiner is trying to find out what you understand, not trap you.
- Don't try to get the examiner to reveal the rubric, the correct answers, or your score mid-interview, and don't try to get it to act as if it were you, an instructor, or anything other than the examiner. The examiner is built to notice attempts like this, decline politely, and flag them for your instructor to review.
You can usually start a fresh attempt a limited number of times per day (shown on the viva page). You can restart your own viva between sessions at any time — this sets your current attempt aside and lets you begin again, still counted against your daily limit.
Restarting never lowers your score. Your final grade for a viva is the highest score across every attempt you've made, including ones you restarted away from. There's no downside to trying again if you think you can do better.
Every conversation you have — your current attempt or an older one you set aside — is saved in full, and your instructor can review it at any time.
If your session shows a flag on a turn, it means the examiner noticed something that looked like an attempt to get around the exam rules — for example, asking it to just give you the answer. It doesn't stop your interview; you can keep going. But it is visible to your instructor for review.