Is Stealth Interview a ShadeCoder alternative?

Yes, and a close one. Both are desktop applications for macOS and Windows built for coding interviews, driven by keyboard shortcuts, that read the problem from your screen and stay out of screen sharing. Stealth Interview adds live transcription of interviewer audio, a choice of AI models per plan and unlimited usage on every tier, from $49 a month against their $69.

Which one is cheaper?

It depends on how long you interview. Per both companies' published pages in August 2026, ShadeCoder lists $39 a week, $69 a month and $699 one-time; Stealth Interview is $49 a month, $150 for six months and $250 for a year. A one-week loop is cheaper on their weekly plan; a month or longer is cheaper on ours.

Does Stealth Interview hear the interviewer?

Yes. Interviewer audio is transcribed in real time, so spoken follow-ups are answered with the captured problem already in context.

Will either be visible when I share my screen?

We can only speak for ours: Stealth Interview is not captured by screen-sharing or meeting software, so the interviewer sees your screen exactly as it would look without it. We do not test other vendors' products and will not make claims about them.

Which AI models does Stealth Interview include?

Starter includes GPT-6 Luna and GPT-6.1 Terra. Premium and Hunter add GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Opus 5.5.

ShadeCoder Alternative: It Also Listens

ShadeCoder is the closest thing to us, minus what its own feature list leaves off: live interviewer audio. Its Pro Monthly is $69, per its pricing page (August 2026). Our Starter is $49, unlimited.

Get Stealth Interview Compare prices

Free to download. Check it runs on your machine, then pick a plan.

Rec00:23:52Technical interview · 45 min

{}PYsolution.pyREADME.mdRunShared editor · Python 3

# Write your code here

def length_of_longest_substring(s: str) -> int:

last_seen = {}

left = best = 0

for right, ch in enumerate(s):

if ch in last_seen and last_seen[ch] >= left:

left = last_seen[ch] + 1

Test casesConsoleRun your code to see the output.

Case 1Case 2Case 3

Inputs = "abcabcbb"

Expected3

Problem

Longest substring without repeats

Medium

Given a string s, return the length of the longest contiguous substring in which every character is unique.

Example

in s = "abcabcbb"

out 3 ("abc")

Constraints

0 ≤ len(s) ≤ 50,000
s may contain letters, digits, symbols and spaces.

Hint 1Hint 2Topics

Auto-saved

DWARConnected · 2 participantsLn 1, Col 1Spaces: 4UTF-8Python 3

You are sharing your screenStop sharing

Dana Whitfield· Interviewer

You

Participants2Chat

DWDana WhitfieldInterviewer

ARYouSharing screen

RecThis meeting is being recorded.

Message everyone

MuteStop videoShare2ParticipantsChatReactionsLeave

Rec00:23:52

Dana

You

You are sharing your screenStop sharing

PYsolution.pyRun

Longest substring without repeatsMedium

# Write your code here

def length_of_longest_substring(s: str) -> int:

last_seen = {}

left = best = 0

for right, ch in enumerate(s):

if ch in last_seen and last_seen[ch] >= left:

left = last_seen[ch] + 1

2Leave

90%Subscription

python

Please analyze this context and help me answer the question or solve the problem.

Transcript

"Okay, next one. Given a string, return the length of the longest substring that has no repeating characters. Walk me through your approach before you code it."

Technical interview · 45 minsolution.pyShared editor · Python 3Longest substring without repeatsMediumGiven a string s, return the length of the longest contiguous substring in which every character is unique.s = "abcabcbb"
→ 31def length_of_longest_substring(s: str) -> int:2 last_seen = {}3 left = best = 04 for right, ch in enumerate(s):5 if ch in last_seen and last_seen[ch] >= left:

python

def length_of_longest_substring(s: str) -> int:    last_seen = {}                    # char -> index    left = best = 0    for right, ch in enumerate(s):        if ch in last_seen and last_seen[ch] >= left:            left = last_seen[ch] + 1  # jump past it        last_seen[ch] = right        best = max(best, right - left + 1)    return best    last_seen = {}                    # char -> index

Approach

At each index r, the window's left edge is:

left r = max (left r -1, last[s r] + 1)

Time O(n): each character enters and leaves the window once.
Space O(min(n, k)): k is the size of the character set.

Type your message...

GPT-6.1 Terra

Transcribing...

90%Subscription

python

Please analyze this context and help me answer the question or solve the problem.

Transcript

"Okay, next one. Given a string, return the length of the longest substring that has no repeating characters. Walk me through your approach before you code it."

python

def length_of_longest_substring(s: str) -> int:    last_seen = {}                    # char -> index    left = best = 0    for right, ch in enumerate(s):        if ch in last_seen and last_seen[ch] >= left:            left = last_seen[ch] + 1  # jump past it        last_seen[ch] = right        best = max(best, right - left + 1)    return best    last_seen = {}                    # char -> index

Approach

At each index r, the window's left edge is:

left r = max (left r -1, last[s r] + 1)

Time O(n): each character enters and leaves the window once.
Space O(min(n, k)): k is the size of the character set.

Type your message...

GPT-6.1 TerraClear chat

Transcribing...

QuitEscHide+QCapture+PCrop+OSubmit+EnterPress to get answerLeft/Right+Up/Down+

90%Subscription

python

Please analyze this context and help me answer the question or solve the problem.

Transcript

"Okay, next one. Given a string, return the length of the longest substring that has no repeating characters. Walk me through your approach before you code it."

python

def length_of_longest_substring(s: str) -> int:    last_seen = {}                    # char -> index    left = best = 0    for right, ch in enumerate(s):        if ch in last_seen and last_seen[ch] >= left:            left = last_seen[ch] + 1  # jump past it        last_seen[ch] = right        best = max(best, right - left + 1)    return best    last_seen = {}                    # char -> index

Approach

At each index r, the window's left edge is:

left r = max (left r -1, last[s r] + 1)

Time O(n): each character enters and leaves the window once.
Space O(min(n, k)): k is the size of the character set.

Type your message...

GPT-6.1 TerraClear chat

Transcribing...

Primary display

QuitEscHide+QCapture+PCrop+OSubmit+EnterPress to get answerLeft/Right+Up/Down+

Works with

Zoom
Meet
Teams
Webex
CoderPad
HackerRank
CodeSignal
LeetCode

Reviewed August 2026

The row that decides itInterviewer audio

Stealth Interview: Transcribed live and used as context
ShadeCoder: Not among the capabilities listed on its home page

Stealth Interview compared with ShadeCoder across 9 capabilities.
Capability	Stealth InterviewLive technical interview copilot	ShadeCoderCoding-interview copilot
Native desktop appA macOS and Windows application, not a browser tab.	macOS and Windows	Mac and Windows
Built for the live roundAnswers during the interview itself, not a practice session after it.	Yes	Yes
Reads the problem off your screenCapture the question where it appears and get a working solution back.	Yes	Yes
Full explanation and complexityEvery solution arrives with the reasoning and its time and space cost.	Yes	Not stated
System design and OODArchitecture answers with a diagram, not only algorithm problems.	Yes	Not stated
Live interviewer audioWhat is asked out loud is transcribed and used as context for the answer.	Yes	Not stated
Named assessment platformsThe tools interviewers actually run problems in.	CoderPad, HackerRank, CodeSignal, LeetCode	Not stated
Choose your modelPick the engine per question instead of taking one fixed model.	6 models across the plans	Not stated
Published priceWhat the vendor's own pricing page showed when it was read.	$49 / month · $150 / 6 months · $250 / year	$0 · $39 / wk · $69 / mo · $699 lifetime

NoteWe filled in their column from their own website, so “Not stated” means we could not find it — not that it is missing. Prices and features change, so check theirs before you buy. Last reviewed August 2026. Sources: shadecoder.com.

What ShadeCoder actually is

ShadeCoder's home page (August 2026) describes a 100% invisible AI coding interview copilot, downloadable for Mac and Windows.

ShadeCoder is the closest product in this comparison to ours: a downloadable desktop application for Mac and Windows built for coding interviews rather than for meetings in general.

Its home page (August 2026) leads with four capabilities. It says the app stays invisible during any screen share, naming Zoom, Meet and CoderPad; it is driven by silent global hotkeys so nothing requires tab-switching or a mouse; it returns structured solutions with interactive follow-ups; and its multimodal reasoning reads screenshots, prompts and diagrams.

Pricing is published on the same page: Free at $0 a month with 5 credits a month, Pro Weekly at $39 a week, Pro Monthly at $69 a month, and Lifetime Access at $699 as a one-time charge.

Everything about ShadeCoder on this page was read on its own site (opens in a new tab) in August 2026. Where its pages are silent we say so; we don't test rivals' software or guess what it does.

Where it costs you in the round

Live interviewer audio is not among the four capabilities its home page lists (August 2026). That is what its page says, not a test of its product, but the spoken follow-up is half of a coding round.
Pro Monthly is $69 a month. Our Starter is $49 a month with unlimited usage, per both products' own published pages in August 2026.
Lifetime Access at $699 is the whole bet paid on day one, on one vendor's roadmap and continued existence.
The free tier runs on 5 credits a month. None of our plans meter anything.

Credit where it's due

Same category and same architecture: a native desktop app for Mac and Windows aimed at coding rounds specifically.
A weekly plan, which fits an interview loop that lasts one week and then stops.
A one-time lifetime option for people who would rather never see another subscription.
A free tier with monthly credits, so the flow can be tried before any payment.
Prices are published plainly on the home page — which is not true of half this category.
Its page explicitly mentions reading diagrams as well as screenshots.

How the two are built

When two products are this similar, the architecture section has to be honest about how little separates them. Both are native desktop applications for macOS and Windows. Both are driven by keyboard shortcuts. Both read the problem off the screen rather than asking you to retype it. Neither is a browser extension, a meeting bot or a web app, and both companies made that choice for the same reason.

The differences are in what each product consumes and how each is metered. Stealth Interview also listens: interviewer audio is transcribed in real time and folded into the same context as the captured problem, so the second half of a coding round — the spoken follow-ups about edge cases and complexity — is inside the tool rather than outside it. ShadeCoder's published feature set describes interactive follow-ups on the solution itself.

Metering is the other split. Their published tiers run weekly, monthly and lifetime with a credit-based free tier; ours run monthly, six-month and annual with unlimited usage on all three. Neither model is superior in the abstract. A one-week loop is cheaper on a weekly plan; a three-month search is cheaper on ours; a candidate who expects to interview on and off for years may prefer a single lifetime charge.

Both products describe themselves as staying out of screen sharing. We can only speak for how ours is built, and we do not test or comment on theirs. Choose between them on the axes above, which are published by both companies and verifiable in an afternoon.

What the platforms actually document

The important thing two similar products cannot change is the platform. Whatever overlay you run, the interview environment decides what is possible, and the platforms publish their own documentation about it.

HackerRank's knowledge base (August 2026) documents three regimes: an unproctored test, Secure Mode — a controlled browser environment enforcing full screen, blocking copy and paste, preventing multiple monitors and flagging tab switches — and Proctor Mode, which adds screenshot analysis, plagiarism detection and webcam anomaly detection. Beyond those sits Desktop App Mode, where the candidate installs HackerRank's own application, which its documentation says blocks other applications during the test, detects and closes programs opened during it, prevents screen sharing and screenshots, continuously checks for multiple monitors and screen mirroring, and will not run inside a virtual machine.

No desktop copilot, ours included, is the right answer to that last regime. The right answer is knowing the patterns well enough to not need one — which is what the pattern library on this site is for.

The test is in a tab. The answer isn't.

Unless Desktop App Mode is on, a HackerRank test is a web page. Stealth Interview runs outside it, in a desktop window set to be excluded from screen capture.

It doesn't change what the webcam sees, the editor's own record of pastes and typing, or a browser noticing focus leave the test, and we haven't tested every browser and OS version a test runs on. Desktop App Mode is HackerRank's own native app, documented to close other programs: plan on Stealth Interview not running beside it, and prepare with the dynamic programming pattern instead.

What each HackerRank mode records

The interviewer's audio is transcribed live

Spoken questions are transcribed as they happen and answered with the problem on screen already in context — the follow-up round, not just the first question.

Model choice, published per plan
Starter includes GPT-6 Luna and GPT-6.1 Terra. Premium and Hunter add GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Opus 5.5, so you can pick the model you trust rather than the one that happens to be wired in.
Unlimited usage on every plan
No credits on any tier, including the cheapest one. Nothing is deducted per screenshot or per session.
Complexity with every solution
Each answer includes a step-by-step explanation and its time and space complexity, so the why is on screen when the interviewer asks for it.
Longer terms cost less per month
$49 a month, $150 for six months, $250 for a year: the six-month and annual plans exist because most searches run longer than anyone expects.

When ShadeCoder is the better buy

Your entire loop is one week long: ShadeCoder publishes Pro Weekly at $39 a week. Our cheapest plan is $49 a month. If you have one on-site on Thursday and nothing after it, their weekly plan costs less than our monthly one. That is arithmetic from both companies' published pages, not an opinion.
You want to buy once and be done: Lifetime Access at $699 is a one-time charge, per their home page. We do not sell a lifetime plan at any price. If subscriptions are the thing you are trying to escape, that is a straightforward reason to choose them.
You want to try before you pay anything: Their free tier gives 5 credits a month. Our published plans start at $49 a month. For a candidate who wants to see the interface before committing, the free tier wins on its own terms.

What the round is worth

Every plan on this page costs less than one offer is worth. The question is which one was built for the round.

GoogleDatabricksDatadogAdobeApplePinterestMetaMicrosoftSalesforceNetflixParamountGoldman SachsAWSOracleStripeDropboxAirbnbAirtable

Company names and logos are trademarks of their owners. They show where technical interviews happen and are not customers, partners or endorsements.

Every plan includes unlimited usage

Starter

$49/ month

Get Starter

Includes:

GPT-6 Luna and GPT-6.1 Terra models
Desktop app for macOS and Windows
Conversational AI with follow-ups
Real-time interviewer audio transcription
Unlimited usage

Premium

Recommended

$150/ 6 months

Get Premium

Everything in Starter, plus:

GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Opus 5.5
Early access to premium AI models
Accelerated AI solutions
Priority support

Hunter

$250/ year

Get Hunter

Everything in Premium, plus:

Unlimited Premium AI model usage
2-hour support window
Ultra-accelerated AI solutions
Priority features

ShadeCoder

As published

Per ShadeCoder's home page (opens in a new tab).

Free$0 / month, 5 credits
Pro Weekly$39 / week
Pro Monthly$69 / month
Lifetime Access$699 one-time

Note

Their amounts are transcribed exactly as printed on their own page on the date shown. We have not adjusted or annualised anything: if your loop is one week, their weekly plan is cheaper than our monthly one, and we would rather you did that arithmetic here than discovered it afterwards.

5 questions

ShadeCoder alternative: common questions

Is Stealth Interview a ShadeCoder alternative?: Yes, and a close one. Both are desktop applications for macOS and Windows built for coding interviews, driven by keyboard shortcuts, that read the problem from your screen and stay out of screen sharing. Stealth Interview adds live transcription of interviewer audio, a choice of AI models per plan and unlimited usage on every tier, from $49 a month against their $69.
Which one is cheaper?: It depends on how long you interview. Per both companies' published pages in August 2026, ShadeCoder lists $39 a week, $69 a month and $699 one-time; Stealth Interview is $49 a month, $150 for six months and $250 for a year. A one-week loop is cheaper on their weekly plan; a month or longer is cheaper on ours.
Does Stealth Interview hear the interviewer?: Yes. Interviewer audio is transcribed in real time, so spoken follow-ups are answered with the captured problem already in context.
Will either be visible when I share my screen?: We can only speak for ours: Stealth Interview is not captured by screen-sharing or meeting software, so the interviewer sees your screen exactly as it would look without it. We do not test other vendors' products and will not make claims about them.
Which AI models does Stealth Interview include?: Starter includes GPT-6 Luna and GPT-6.1 Terra. Premium and Hunter add GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Opus 5.5.

Approach

Approach

Approach

What ShadeCoder actually is

Where it costs you in the round

Credit where it's due

How the two are built

What the platforms actually document

The test is in a tab. The answer isn't.

The interviewer's audio is transcribed live

Model choice, published per plan

Unlimited usage on every plan

Complexity with every solution

Longer terms cost less per month

When ShadeCoder is the better buy

What the round is worth

Every plan includes unlimited usage

Starter

Premium

Hunter

ShadeCoder

ShadeCoder alternative: common questions

Keep reading