# Getting started

> Sign up, onboarding and your first prep session.

## Sign up

Cariara uses Google OAuth for authentication — no separate password to remember. Visit cariara.com/signup . Click Continue with Google , pick the account you’d like to use. Cariara creates your profile, sets a cariara_sso cookie, and redirects to onboarding. Sessions persist for 30 days via an httpOnly cookie. Sign out from the user dropdown when on a shared computer.

## Onboarding

Onboarding is two steps and takes about 30 seconds: Pick one or more job roles — e.g. Backend, Frontend, Full-stack, ML, Data, SRE. Ten primary roles plus a More roles expansion with another 20+ specialized roles. Required — you can’t continue past this step without picking at least one. Add your resume — upload a PDF / DOCX / TXT (up to 5 MB) or paste the text. Cariara extracts it server-side and uses it as context for personalized prep generation, behavioral story creation, and resume-tailored answers in Sona. This step has a Skip for now button if you want to land on the dashboard fast. You can change roles and resume at any time under Profile . Target company and goal date aren’t collected at sign-up — you’ll set them per-job inside Job Prep / Company Prep when you need them.

## Your first session

Cariara’s flow follows the APPA framework — Apply, Prepare, Practice, Attend. The four main surfaces: Prepare Topic library across every category, SQL playground, resume optimizer, company-specific prep generation. Open Prepare . Practice Timed practice sessions (Quick Fire / Deep Dive / Mock), per-company filtering, AI graded on a 5-dimension rubric. Open Practice . Live Session Real-time AI assistance during a Zoom / Meet / Teams interview. Paid tiers. Open Live . Jobs Curated job listings tailored to your roles and resume. Open Jobs .

## What the free trial includes

3 days free on every plan. A card is required and nothing is charged until day 3. No AI time during the trial. Top-ups work, and ending the trial early from Billing starts your plan’s Live AI minutes at once. Topic browsing — you can browse all topic titles for free on the Prepare surface. Web app only for the trial period. Desktop is for paid users. On day 3 your card is charged for the plan you picked and its Live AI minutes start. Cancel from Billing before then and you pay nothing.

## Next steps

Prepare — what’s in the topic library. Practice — timed practice sessions and AI grading. Live Session — connecting audio for a live session. Pricing — pick a plan with Live AI minutes, or add top-ups.

Source: https://docs.cariara.com/getting-started