For IT hiring managers, MSPs and recruiters
MockDesk puts service desk technicians and IT specialists through realistic IT scenarios before you hire them. From L1 and L2 support to cloud, network, Microsoft 365, SOC and ITSM platform roles, they work the problem with a simulated user and simulated admin tools, and you get a scorecard backed by evidence.
Watch it work
This is an actual scenario from the MockDesk library. The client says her clients got an invoice she never sent. Follow how a strong technician works it, and what the scorecard says at the end.
0 critical misses · 1 warning
Why this exists
Every service desk lead has hired someone who answered every question right, then struggled the first time a real user called with a vague problem and a deadline.
The gap is not knowledge. It is process: asking before acting, verifying identity, reading the logs, knowing when a password reset is really a security incident, and writing notes the next person can pick up.
MockDesk tests exactly that, the same way the job does. A user who only tells you what you ask for. A tenant that only shows you what you look up. A clock running.
How it works
Pick a role: L1 or L2 service desk, or a specialist such as network engineer, SOC analyst or ServiceNow admin. Then choose how many questions and scenarios. Each person gets a random draw.
The candidate needs no account. Progress saves as they go, and the answers never reach their browser.
A short knowledge check, then simulated user issues from intake through resolution or escalation, with an AI client who reveals facts only when asked and a simulated console that answers every command.
Six rubric scores with evidence from the transcript, flags for critical misses, the exact questions to ask in the next interview, and a development plan you can share.
What's inside
Each scenario has a persona, a temperament and facts that only come out when the technician asks the right question. Vague questions get vague answers. Asking for a password gets refused.
Simulated Exchange Online, Entra, AD and DHCP, plus the user's PC through a remote session the user has to approve. Real cmdlets get realistic output, and fixes change what the client sees next.
PS> Get-DhcpServerv4OptionValue -OptionId 6
OptionId Value
6 {10.0.0.12, 10.0.0.13}
Resetting without verifying identity, or disabling MFA for a senior partner, is flagged no matter the score.
Root causes, correct answers and grading prompts live on the server. Candidates only ever see the scenario and questions.
Every generated question and simulated scenario is shown to you first with its answer and source. Remove anything weak.
Engineers and specialists
Pick a specialist role and the candidate works realistic scenarios in a simulated workbench built for that job. They read logs and configs, change them, run them and see what happens. Automated checks catch risky shortcuts, and all data is synthetic, so there is nothing to upload.
Account, email, device and network issues with a live AI user and an admin console that answers every command.
Conditional Access, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, Intune compliance and Entra Connect sync errors.
Least privilege RBAC, hub and spoke routing through Azure Firewall, cost cuts that keep DR safe and a region outage design.
A public S3 bucket, private servers that cannot patch, a load balancer returning errors and a Lambda denied by KMS.
Cisco trunks and ACLs, BGP failover, Panorama policy and a Palo Alto pair that never formed HA after a migration.
Phishing with session theft, MFA fatigue into payment fraud, ransomware precursors and SIEM rule tuning.
Routing, SLAs, approvals and inbound email, each in the platform's own rules and query language.
X12 837 and 835 claims, acknowledgments, payer rejections and remittance posting.
Two ways to use it
The scorecard
Every score points to something the person actually did or didn't do in the chat and the console. Read the full transcript, see every command, and download it for your records.
Knowledge 12/15 · Practical 84, 88
What clients say
Plans
$0/month
Try it with the built-in library
$49/month
Your own tickets, small team
$149/month
Connect your ticketing tool and KB
$399/month
For larger teams and MSPs
Save 2 months with annual billing. Prices in USD. Works with Jira Service Management, ServiceNow, Freshservice and Zendesk. Any other tool works through CSV.
Why I built MockDesk
I've spent years working in IT support and leading service desk teams. One thing kept coming up: candidates gave excellent interview answers, but that didn't always turn into confident troubleshooting when a real issue landed.
I built MockDesk so IT leaders can see how someone actually works a problem before they make the hire.
Technical knowledge matters. How you apply it matters more.
Questions
No. They open one private link. Their chat, commands and notes save as they go, so a reload doesn't lose work.
No. Every user, console, PC and data set in a test is simulated, so nothing a candidate does can touch a real tenant, network or customer. When you connect a ticketing system, MockDesk only reads resolved tickets to write the test.
No. Root causes, correct answers and grading instructions stay on the server. The browser only receives the scenario and the questions.
Service desk tests cover Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, Exchange Online, Windows and Active Directory, networking basics, and security response. Specialist tests cover Microsoft 365 administration, Azure and AWS cloud, Cisco and Palo Alto networking, SOC response, ServiceNow, Jira Service Management and Freshservice administration, and healthcare EDI. Evaluations built from your own resolved issues cover whatever those issues cover.
Each specialist test pairs a knowledge check with practical scenarios in a workbench made for the role. The candidate reads logs and configs, edits them and runs them against a simulated environment, so requests route, SLAs count, alerts fire and failovers succeed or fail. Automated checks count for 30% of each scenario and the AI rubric for 70%, and risky shortcuts are flagged. Everything uses synthetic data.
It is stored in the site's database and sent to the Claude API to write the test. Emails and phone numbers are stripped on import, names are replaced with fictional ones in what the AI writes, and connection credentials are encrypted. Only upload data you are allowed to process.
Jira Service Management, ServiceNow, Freshservice and Zendesk, with a read-only account. You pick the support groups and date range, and it pulls resolved tickets with their replies and notes, drops thin and duplicate ones, and sorts them by issue type. Anything else works through a CSV export.
Your own resolved issues show how someone did the work, not always how it should be done. With your runbooks loaded, answers and expected steps follow the documented procedure, and issue types with no article are flagged so you know what to write next.
An AI grader scores six criteria from 0 to 5 using the full transcript, the console log and the close out notes, compared against the scenario's expected path. You can read every piece of evidence and regrade.
Pick any role and take the free demo: 5 questions and 1 practical scenario, then see the same scorecard a hiring manager gets. One free demo per device.
Start the free demoQuestions about plans, a pilot for your team, or connecting your ticketing system? Send us an email.
sales@mock-desk.com