AI interview copilot for coding and system design interviews

Listens to your coding and system design interviews, transcribes locally, and shows you an answer suggestion — using your own OpenAI or Anthropic key.

Download — free to try See pricing

One-time purchase · 14-day refund · macOS & Windows

Summary

SyntaxCue is a desktop app for software engineers taking technical interviews. It captures system audio during a call, transcribes it on-device, and generates a suggested answer with your own LLM API key — no subscription, no backend of ours in the loop.

How it works

Listen. SyntaxCue captures system audio during your call — no bot joining, works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other video call apps.
Transcribe locally. Speech-to-text runs on your machine, not a server.
See an answer. A suggestion appears in a private hint window only you see.

Focused on system design specifically? Read our system design interview cheat sheet. For live coding rounds, see our coding interview helper. For a broader look at how SyntaxCue handles a technical interview end to end, see our AI interview assistant overview.

Want the real architecture? Read how SyntaxCue captures system audio and answers you, without a server.

Ready to try it? The setup guide walks through adding your API key and getting your first hint.

Why this is different

Local transcription — audio never leaves your machine
BYOK — your own OpenAI/Anthropic key, no markup
One-time purchase, not a subscription
macOS and Windows
Optional screen-share exclusion, off by default
No account, no telemetry inside the app
One interview-language setting drives both speech recognition and answer language

SyntaxCue vs Cluely

Feature	SyntaxCue	Cluely
Pricing model	One-time purchase — 6-month license, no auto-renewal	Subscription tiers, top tier required for screen-share privacy
Price	$79 once	$149.99/mo (top-tier screen-privacy add-on)
Per year (approx.)	$158/year if renewed twice — no auto-charge, you buy again manually	$1,799.88/year
Platforms	macOS, Windows	macOS, Windows
LLM key ownership	BYOK — your own OpenAI/Anthropic API key, billed to you directly	Managed/cloud — no BYOK
Screen-share exclusion	Included, off by default — no add-on tier	Paid add-on tier only
Refund policy	14 days, no hoops	24-hour window, requires video proof of a software defect
Where Cluely leads	—	Has a mobile app ($8/week, separate from the desktop tiers) — SyntaxCue is desktop-only; Ships a ready-made cloud dashboard with session history — SyntaxCue keeps nothing server-side by design, so there is no cross-device session history

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FAQ

Do I need my own OpenAI or Anthropic API key?

Yes — SyntaxCue is BYOK (bring your own key). You pay your LLM provider directly, at their cost, with no markup from us.

Does SyntaxCue record or store audio?

No. Audio is processed in memory, transcribed locally with whisper.cpp, and never written to disk or sent anywhere except your chosen LLM provider's API for generating an answer.

What's the refund policy?

14 days, no hoops — for technical issues or an accidental purchase.

Does the screen-share exclusion setting keep the hint window out of my screen share?

The setting keeps the hint window out of your own screen-share/recording stream — it's about your screen privacy, off by default, and always toggleable.

Does SyntaxCue work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams?

Yes. SyntaxCue listens to system audio, not any specific call platform's API, so it works the same regardless of which app the call is in — Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or others.