Coding Test Platform: Technical Interviews and Assessments

Young male developer taking a coding test for an interview.

Recruiting teams are the backbone of every company. Better candidate evaluations will benefit every level of your business. Tech companies use coding test platforms to test the skills of prospective developers and identify the best hires. In this blog, we’ll look at the benefits of a robust coding test platform and outline how these tools can identify any skill gaps in their existing developers, allowing companies to narrow in on the most relevant talent for their company.

How The Coding Test Platform Can Affect Evaluations 

Selecting the best coding test platform for your evaluations can be difficult. You want to ensure you are equally fair, thorough, and efficient. If a coding test platform fails to meet the minimum requirements for assessment, candidates will lose opportunities to showcase their skill sets, skewing the evaluation results. 

Coding Test Platform and Tools For Hiring Technical Candidates 

Evaluations for developers should mimic actual work conditions to ensure the candidate will be successful and productive. Using a coding test platform specifically built for engineers can ensure the authenticity of your testing scenarios. These platforms will include tools and analytics that benefit the evaluation and give recruiters faster results for weeding out candidates.

Coding Environments and Video Conferencing

When giving a live-coding interview, it’s crucial to have a video conferencing platform on which the candidates can screen share. 

The coding test platform must be the same for every candidate to ensure equal opportunity for fair assessments. Every developer has preferences for which integrated development environment (IDE) they like to use for each language. While it’s true that most IDEs integrate similar basic features, there is a variation on a more advanced level that gives some developers precedence. 

For example, say two developers with the same level of C++ proficiency are writing code. The first developer uses a basic IDE writing from scratch, while the other developer uses an IDE with intelligent code completion. In this case, the assessment is unbalanced, and the latter of the two will most likely be viewed as superior despite true skills.

It’s also important to assess developers on their thought processes. During a live-coding interview, it’s challenging for developers to talk through their processes. Candidates should be provided with a virtual whiteboard to create diagrams and frameworks. This tool will help showcase their code for the interviewer. 

Coding test platforms should also:

  • Save the candidate’s written code to a profile for later reference
  • Record the interview and save it in a profile for later reference
  • Automatically grades take-home tests
  • Have an easy-to-use interface for switching between environments

Identity Verification and Fraud Prevention

You must verify a candidate's identity before going into the evaluation process. Companies looking to hire at scale need strict candidate verification, requiring a platform that can link to others for verification (like GitHub or LinkedIn).

It’s also vital to detect fraudulent or plagiarized answers. If the recruiting team gives a candidate a take-home test without identity verification, another person could easily take the test. Your take-home tests might be evaluating another person's skills! Coding test platforms that incorporate recorded answers can mitigate this risk. It also allows candidates to explain their answers thoroughly and in real-time.

Artificial Intelligence and Skills Assessments

When looking for a qualified developer, possessing these skills is the minimum requirement to qualify:

  • Solution-Oriented
  • Time Management
  • Object Oriented Programming
  • Mathematical Aptitude
  • Organization
  • Communication
  • Analytical

Determining a developer’s strengths and weaknesses will narrow down applicant pools to the best fits. Unfortunately, it’s common for recruiters to lack time to examine every candidate’s resume. Artificial intelligence (AI) can scan resumes and give recruiters a list of candidates' skills before the interviewing begins. The candidates should then be able to showcase each of these skills in the coding test platform for the recruitment team to analyze. 

Artificial Intelligence Robot Recruiting Job Candidate

Knowing what soft skills the candidate possesses gives recruiters insight into what questions to ask in a face-to-face interview. For example, if a candidate possesses great time management skills, you might ask how they would handle a situation where they don’t have time to finish their assignment.

Understanding the skills your current employed development team possesses will also help recruitment teams determine where there are skills gaps. They can then fill these skills gaps with their hires. 

Filtered: The Best Coding Test Platform

Selecting a coding test platform that fits all the above requirements and necessities can be challenging. You can get ahead of the competition and hire the best candidates faster with the best coding test platform. Filtered has a hiring platform that achieves fair, thorough, and efficient recruitment processes while integrating all the tools mentioned above and more.

Filtered is a leader in skills-based hiring. Our end-to-end technical hiring platform enables you to spend time reviewing only the most qualified candidates, putting skills and aptitude at the forefront of your decisions. We’ll help you automate hiring while applying objective, data-driven techniques to consistently and confidently select the right candidates. To get started, contact our team today or register for a FREE demo.