The National Institute of Design's Mains is a studio test and an in-person interview in which you walk the panel through your portfolio and your way of seeing.
What a mock looks like in the room, step by step. The panel, its order, the form and the criteria are the real interview's; the words and numbers are illustrative.
The panel will have your portfolio in front of it. Expect to be asked about your process — what you observed, what you tried, what you threw away — more than about the finished pieces.
In the order the real one moves: about you, then portfolio, then observation, then interests. Follow-ups come from what you just said.
Speak as you would in the room, or type. Your pace, long pauses and filler words are measured as you go — and, if your camera is on, how often you look toward it.
Scored on the 6 criteria this interview is assessed on, member by member, with every line of your Portfolio marked as held up, shaky or not yet asked. A practice estimate, never a forecast.
This board gives no marks of its own, so it is a practice index out of 100. For finding what to fix, not for predicting a result.
Nothing to buy first. Pick the round, fill in your Portfolio, and the board is ready. Your recording, if you ask for one, never leaves your device.
Face this board yourselfTwo or three faculty members, usually from the discipline applied for.
The interview looks for a designer's way of seeing: curiosity about everyday things, a process behind the work, and the ability to talk about it honestly.
The Mains combines the studio test and the interview: for B.Des, 60% studio and 40% interview; for M.Des, 40% studio and 60% interview. The studio test is not simulated here.
A senior faculty member. Opens, asks why design, and closes.
A designer from the discipline. Picks one piece in the portfolio and asks about its process: what was observed, what was tried, what failed.
Asks the candidate to look at an everyday object or place in a new way — and to sketch the idea on the board.
Notices how people actually use things, and what goes wrong.
Can describe how an idea developed — research, attempts, failures, choices.
Owns the work in the portfolio and can defend its choices.
Generates more than one idea and can make one visible quickly.
Explains visual thinking in words, honestly and without jargon.
Brings real interests from outside the classroom.
Not published by NID — these are the areas its panels consistently probe.
The panel will have your portfolio in front of it. Expect to be asked about your process — what you observed, what you tried, what you threw away — more than about the finished pieces.
Every sitting — AI, real or peer — is scored on the same 6 criteria, so you can see a line move instead of weighing one opinion against another.
How it works, step by step: the mock interview guide.
The board reads your Portfolio, asks in the real order and scores you on what the real one assesses. Free, and ready now.
