Original Post — Direct link

https://imgur.com/a/EKYgBZR

I used a stopwatch to be sure. It takes 7.5s to defuse, and this circle starts its animation with exactly that much time left on the bomb. If you start your defusal and see this circle right after you start it, you've got it. If you start defusing as it's shrinking, you missed it--the cutoff is right when the circle first appears.

This clip made me make this post. Apologies if you guys feel like everyone knows this but I haven't seen a post here about this exact thing and I still see a lot of confusion over whether someone has it. The team in that clip aren't sure if he has it, but if you know this cue you know he has it because you see the circle shrinking right after he starts defusing.

(Don't mind the 3 tripwires. Had cheats on and was passing the time waiting for the animation to show.)

External link →
over 4 years ago - /u/MorelloRiot - Direct link

There is a small (and I mean very small fractions of a second) randomization on the bomb VFX/SFX timing. This is to make sure close defusals aren't 100% known or not and you have to make a judgment call on whether you have enough time to defuse. The "I got it" voice lines for agents is the same - it just means it's gonna be real close. The actual bomb time is fixed, just the feedback has a tiny fudging on it

This should only be felt if you're using stopwatch-level precision, partially to make sure a tool like that also never becomes required for competitive play.