If you've been invited to interview at Y Combinator, you've already beaten most of the field. Now you have ten minutes to convince a few partners to invest. This guide covers how the interview works today, the questions YC actually asks, and how to answer them, based on YC's own guidance and founder accounts.
How the YC Interview Works
- It's 10 minutes, on Zoom. All co-founders should be on the call.[1]
- You'll meet 2–3 YC partners who have read your application and keep it open during the call.[1]
- They do two things: "we ask you questions, and we look at what you've built so far."[1]
- Decisions come fast. YC typically decides the same day as the interview and gives everyone who interviews detailed feedback.[2]
- Your interviewers may be your partners. The people interviewing you are likely the ones you'll work with closely during the batch.[1]
YC now runs four batches a year (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall),[7] so interviews happen several times a year. For the Winter 2027 batch, most interviews are held in November and December, and on-time applicants hear back by December 11.[2]
The Questions YC Asks
There's no fixed script. Partners follow up on whatever seems most important or least clear about your company. But YC's interview guide is explicit about the topics, and founders have shared the questions they got for over a decade.[1][6] Here are the questions you should be ready for:
What you're building
- What is your company working on?
- Why did you pick this idea?
- Who needs this, and how do you know?
- What makes new users try you?
Users & traction
- Where do new users come from?
- What is your growth like?
- How much are users using the product, and do they stick around?
- What are the top things users want?
- What has surprised you about user behavior?
- Why do the reluctant ones hold back?
Market & competition
- Who are your competitors, and what, specifically, is wrong with them?
- What competition do you fear most?
- What are your unit economics?
The team
- How did you meet, and how long have you worked together?
- Who does what on the team?
- Will your team stick at this?
- Six months from now, what's going to be your biggest problem?
- How long can you go before funding?
The first question is almost always some version of "What is your company working on?"[1] For startups that have already launched, expect detailed questions about where users come from, growth, retention, and unit economics. YC also says partners may ask you to verify any numbers you give.[1]
How to Answer: What YC Says It's Listening For
1. Explain your company in plain language
YC asks founders to explain what they do in "jargon-free sentences."[1] Jessica Livingston, a YC co-founder, warned against buzzwords and added: "If you rely on a demonstration to explain what you're doing, that's a bad sign."[3] Practice a two-sentence answer: what you make, and who it's for.
2. Have a conversation, not a pitch
Livingston's advice is to treat the interview as a conversation, not a pitch.[3] Partners interrupt a lot. If you launch into a memorized monologue, you'll waste minutes you don't have. Answer the question that was asked, as briefly as you can, and let them steer.
3. Know your numbers cold
YC recommends having key metrics written down before the call.[1] Know your users, revenue, growth rate, retention, and burn without looking them up. Hesitating on your own numbers is a red flag.
4. Be candid about problems
YC encourages founders to be honest about challenges.[1] If a partner asks what's not working, tell them. Partners have seen thousands of startups and can tell when an answer is spin. Being honest about a weakness, and showing you understand it, builds more trust than pretending there isn't one.
5. Let every founder speak
YC prefers that each founder answers at least one question.[1] Partners are evaluating the team, and YC has always said it cares "more about the founders than the idea."[5] Paul Graham's list of what YC looks for in founders includes determination, flexibility, imagination, naughtiness, and friendship.[4] How you work together on the call is part of the answer.
Do's and Don'ts
Do
Don't
Should You Rehearse?
Surprisingly, YC says no. Its guide warns that rehearsing is "often counter-productive" and suggests that, instead of rehearsing, you make progress on your company between applying and interviewing.[1]
That doesn't mean showing up unprepared. The useful kind of preparation is getting the facts straight: know your numbers, sharpen your one-line description, and think honestly about the hardest questions someone could ask about your company. What you should avoid is scripting answers word for word. Founders often describe the ten minutes as a rapid-fire series of questions,[8] and scripted answers fall apart under interruptions.
If you don't get in
Teams that aren't accepted get feedback by email, and YC notes that "it's very common for teams to take our feedback, re-apply the following batch and get accepted."[1] With four batches a year, the next chance is only a few months away.
Before the Interview: Get the Application Right
Partners have your application open during the call, so the interview builds directly on what you wrote. A clear, specific application means the partners spend the ten minutes on your strengths instead of on figuring out what you do.
XRaze helps you write a sharper application, draft clear answers to the questions above, and track the deadlines for YC and other accelerators, so you go into the interview prepared.
Sources
- [1]YC Interview Guide — Y Combinator
- [2]Apply to Y Combinator — Y Combinator
- [3]Tips for YC Interviews (Jessica Livingston) — Y Combinator
- [4]What We Look for in Founders — Paul Graham
- [5]How to Apply to Y Combinator — Y Combinator
- [6]Y Combinator interview questions list — TechCrunch
- [7]Announcing YC X25: Spring batch — Y Combinator
- [8]Everything you need to know to ace the YC interview — Basedash