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Terms of Service

Last updated: 17 October 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Hardmode website at hardmode.lol, the Hardmode web application, and related services (together, the "Service"). The Service is provided by Hardmode, based in India ("Hardmode", "we", "us", "our").

By creating an account, buying credits, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy and Refund Policy. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

1. Who can use Hardmode

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to accept these Terms for it.

2. Your account

  • You need an account to use the web application. Give us accurate information and keep it up to date.
  • You can sign in with Google, with an email and password, or with a one-time code sent by email. You need to verify your email address before you can start sessions, issue take-home briefs, submit job postings, or add a CV.
  • You stay signed in on a device for up to a year unless you sign out. You can see and sign out your devices in your account settings.
  • You're responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for everything that happens under your account. Tell us promptly at [email protected] if you think your account has been compromised.
  • Accounts are personal. Don't share your account or let others use your credits, and don't create more than one account to get free credits.

3. What the Service is, and what it isn't

Hardmode is an interview practice tool. It reads job postings and, if you choose, your CV, suggests an interview plan, and runs mock interviews with AI interviewers (and, in Switch seats mode, AI candidates) at the difficulty you choose.

  • The interviewers are AI. Responses, questions, and feedback are generated by software and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent. Use your own judgement.
  • Feedback is for practice. Feedback describes what went well and what to work on. It isn't a score, a grade, or a prediction of how a real interview would go.
  • Interview plans are estimates. Plans are inferred from the information in a job posting. We don't have access to any company's actual interview questions or process, and we're not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the companies whose postings you use.
  • No guaranteed outcomes. Practising with Hardmode doesn't guarantee interviews, offers, a particular salary, or any other result.
  • Not professional advice. Feedback on salary negotiation or careers is for practice only and isn't legal, financial, or professional advice. Salary figures in negotiation practice are illustrative, not market data.
  • Switch seats candidates are fictional. In Switch seats, the AI candidate's background is invented from the job description.
  • Practice, not finished work. Interviewers don't write solutions for you, and the Switch seats candidate doesn't write full programs. We check custom questions before a session and may suggest an interview-sized version or decline questions that aren't interview questions (for example, real work tasks).

We may change, add, or remove features over time. We may also temporarily limit or switch off features (such as custom questions, Switch seats, job links, or running code) to protect the Service from abuse or during an outage; sessions already in progress aren't affected. If we remove a feature you've paid for in a way that materially reduces the value of unused credits, we'll tell you and offer a fair remedy.

4. Credits, purchases, and subscriptions

Credits. Sessions in the Service are paid for with credits. The number of credits each session costs is shown in the app and on our pricing page before you start it, and doesn't depend on the difficulty you pick. Each attempt at a round is a separate session. Generating an interview plan doesn't use credits, but free features like this have daily limits.

How sessions are charged. Before each session, the app shows how it's charged and asks you to confirm. When a session starts, its credits are held; they're charged when the session's timer ends or when you end it. Leaving or closing the tab doesn't stop the timer, so a session you start and then leave is charged. Each session has a fixed length and a fixed amount of AI work; when either runs out, the session wraps up and ends normally. You can have one live session at a time.

Take-home briefs. Issuing a take-home brief holds its credits. You then have 7 days to submit your work and start the review call. If the brief expires, or you cancel it, the credits are charged and aren't refunded. You can submit up to three times per brief, and have up to two open briefs at a time.

Which credits are used first. Free credits are used before paid credits, and paid credits are used oldest first.

Credits don't expire. Credits stay in your balance for as long as your account exists, whether they came from a pack, a subscription, or a free grant, and including after you cancel a subscription. Unused credits are forfeited if you delete your account or if we terminate it for a breach of these Terms. If we discontinue the Service, we'll refund unused paid credits.

Free credits. We may give free credits, for example when you sign up. Sign-up credits are given once per email address, including if you delete your account and sign up again. Free credits have no cash value, can't be refunded, and may be withdrawn if they're misused.

Credit packs. Credit packs are one-time purchases.

Subscriptions. Subscriptions renew automatically each month at the then-current price until you cancel. Each billing period adds that plan's monthly credits to your balance once that period's payment succeeds. If you change plan, the change takes effect at your next renewal, with no proration. You can cancel at any time in your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep the credits already in your balance.

Payments. Payments are processed by Dodo Payments, which acts as our merchant of record. When you buy credits or a subscription, you also agree to Dodo Payments' terms, and Dodo Payments will charge you, calculate and collect any applicable taxes, and issue your invoice. Prices are shown in US dollars unless stated otherwise at checkout.

Price changes. We may change prices for future purchases. For subscriptions, we'll give you at least 14 days' notice of a price change before it applies to your next renewal, so you can cancel first if you prefer.

Purchases are final. Because every purchase adds credits that never expire, credit packs and subscription payments aren't refundable, except in the cases described in our Refund Policy or where the law requires.

No cash value. Credits aren't currency, can't be transferred or sold, and can't be exchanged for cash except as described in our Refund Policy or where the law requires.

Failed sessions. If a session fails because of a problem on our side, we'll return the credits it used, as described in our Refund Policy. Problems on your side, such as a blocked microphone, your internet connection, or closing the tab, don't qualify.

Payment disputes. If you dispute or charge back a payment, we remove the credits that payment added. If you've already used them, your balance may go below zero, and you won't be able to start sessions until it's back to zero or above. If the dispute is resolved in our favour, we restore the credits.

5. Your content

"Your content" means anything you submit to the Service: your CV, job posting URLs and text, custom questions and briefs, audio, transcripts, code, notes, and anything else you upload or say during a session.

  • You own your content. We don't claim ownership of it.
  • You give us permission to use it to run the Service. You grant Hardmode a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, process, transmit, and display your content, and to send it to our service providers, only as needed to provide, secure, and support the Service for you. This licence ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we must keep by law.
  • Hardmode doesn't train AI models on your content. Our third-party AI providers process it under their own terms, which may allow them to use it. See our Privacy Policy for details.
  • Recordings stay with you. Session recordings are made in your browser for you to download. We don't upload or keep them, so we can't recover one you didn't download.
  • You're responsible for what you submit. Only submit content you have the right to use. Your CV should be about you. Don't submit material you've agreed to keep confidential, such as interview questions under a non-disclosure agreement, your employer's proprietary code, or other people's personal data.

The output the Service generates for you (feedback, plans, transcripts of your sessions) is yours to use for your own interview preparation.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • use the Service during a real interview or assessment to get answers or assistance, or otherwise to deceive an employer or interviewer;
  • use sessions to produce work product, such as getting a real work task or a live take-home assignment done;
  • break the law, infringe anyone's rights, or submit unlawful, harassing, hateful, or sexually explicit content;
  • attempt to access other users' accounts or data, or probe, scan, or test the security of the Service without our written permission;
  • copy, scrape, resell, or redistribute the Service, its question bank, or its output at scale, or use it to build a competing product;
  • reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code, models, or prompts behind the Service, except where the law allows this despite this restriction;
  • interfere with or overload the Service, or get around usage limits, credit charges, or other technical restrictions, including by deliberately causing sessions to fail;
  • use automated means to create accounts or obtain free credits.

We may suspend or limit access if we reasonably believe you've broken these rules, for example by limiting your account to the question bank. A suspended account can still sign in to view, download, or delete its data.

7. Our intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, question bank, text, and branding, belongs to Hardmode or our licensors and is protected by law. We give you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own interview preparation in line with these Terms. You don't get any other rights in it.

If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without any obligation to you.

8. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties, including hosting providers, AI model providers, a web content retrieval service, email delivery, and Dodo Payments. When you submit a job posting URL, we fetch the page on your behalf. We aren't responsible for third-party websites or content, and your use of a third party's service may be subject to its own terms.

9. Suspension and termination

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time from your account settings or by emailing us.

We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially or repeatedly break these Terms, if required by law, or if continuing to provide the Service to you would create legal or security risk for us or others. Where reasonable, we'll tell you first and give you a chance to fix the problem. If we terminate your account without cause, we'll refund the unused paid credits on it.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including sections 5, 7, and 10 to 14) will survive.

10. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We don't promise that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that its output will be accurate.

Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have as a consumer that can't be limited by contract under the law that applies to you.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

  • Hardmode won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, job opportunities, or goodwill, arising from or related to the Service.
  • Hardmode's total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, and (b) USD 50.

These limits don't apply to liability that can't be limited by law, such as liability for fraud.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold Hardmode harmless from claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your content, your misuse of the Service, or your breach of these Terms, to the extent permitted by law.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Before starting any formal proceedings, please contact us at [email protected] so we can try to resolve the issue informally. If we can't resolve it within 30 days, the dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts in India, unless the law of your country of residence gives you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll notify you by email at least 14 days before they take effect. After that, the app will ask you to accept the updated Terms before your next session or purchase. If you don't agree, you can close your account instead, and we'll refund your unused paid credits.

15. General

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Refund Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Hardmode about the Service. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision isn't a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms without our consent; we may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with notice to you.

16. Contact and grievances

For questions about these Terms, or to raise a grievance, email [email protected]. We aim to acknowledge grievances within 48 hours and resolve them within 30 days.