7 New HackerEarth Assessments Product Updates in 2024 You Should Know About

This year, as the industry went through a hiring freeze, we at HackerEarth took the time to elevate our product lineup so that recruiters are better equipped to face the post-freeze challenges and expectations.

So, we rolled out some out-of-the-ordinary product features aimed at making tech hiring more easier, better, and a stress-free experience (who wants more of that eh?).

Some of these ideas came from our product ambassadors, some from internal dialogues within the team— and at every stage we focused on creating feature updates that would help tech recruiting teams across the globe.

So without further ado, let’s dive right in!

7 product HackerEarth Assessments features to revitalize tech interviews

1. Role-based test creation process

HackerEarth Assessments has always been known for its easy-to-use test creation flow, but we have now gone one-step further and made the process role-based. So, you can choose the role you want to assess for from a drop down menu, and our AI-powered system will automatically generate a template for you. You can further customize the generated assessment for your exact needs.

The best part? The whole process of test creation can be cut down to 5 minutes or less!

We have 20 pre-defined roles available now, and we intend to add more to the stack. This includes high-demand roles like Full stack- Django/React, Full stack- Django/Angular, Full stack- Django/Spring/ React, Full stack- Django/Spring/Angular, Data engineer, and DevOps engineer.

2. AI-based and keyword based evaluation of programming and subjective questions

We have enhanced our auto-evaluation engine to include AI-based and keyword-based evaluation of programing and subjective questions. Let’s break this down further:

• The AI-based evaluation uses ChatGPT and proprietary tools to evaluate long-form answers. It is best-suited for Agile/ Scrum and other process roles — making it easier to evaluate the assessments for these roles.
• The new keyword-based subjective evaluation method will auto-evaluate a candidate’s answer by letting admins define keywords that should appear in the answer. This is especially useful for evaluating tests related to data analytics where MS Excel is used, or assessments that use mathematical/numerical, or fill in the blanks kind of questions.

3. Smart Browser

Recruiters and engineering leaders rightfully worry about the plagiarism that might occur when candidates work on take-home coding assessments.

Maybe they open multiple tabs during the test, screen share and record the test window, or they might run the test window within a virtual machine — possibilities of plagiarism are endless. And that’s why, today when AI tools have become rampant, it has become easier to crack coding assessments.

To keep the sanctity of our assessments intact, HackerEarth’s product team came up with a solution called Smart Browser. This is a desktop application which recruiters can opt for when they want to ensure strict proctoring during assessments.

Smart Bowser offers additional proctoring settings such as:

• Disabling copy-pasting
• Restricting candidates to full-screen mode
• Restricting candidates from capturing screenshots, recording, or screen sharing the test window
• Logging out on leaving the test interface so that the candidates cannot exit the test environment and use another tool for test completion

Also, read: HackerEarth Assessments + The SmartBrowser: Formula for Bulletproof Tech Hiring

4. Candidate reporting

Reports provide insights on maintainability, reliability, security, cyclomatic complexity, code quality, and benchmarking to make data-driven recruiting decisions.

With the help of a detailed candidate report, you’ll be able to make a quick shortlisting decision while providing insights on:

• the candidate’s performance based on the assessment they submitted
• how or where the candidate would rank against the larger developer community

Overall, these insights will help you get real-time data and the quality of your talent pool.

5. Skill tests analytics graph

This feature allows recruiting teams to gain a holistic overview of a candidates’ skill set via a spider graph that compares the candidate’s performance against the test average.

You can also use this feature to compare the performance of two or more candidates, and make an accurate selection based on their individual skill levels.

6. Improved candidate experience

While making these feature changes, we were also cognizant of how these changes would affect a candidate taking these tests. Candidate experience has been an important factor guiding our product philosophy and we have made advancements on that front including.

• Introducing multiple code snippets:  Our IDE comes integrated with multiple code snippets, which can be used for real-time code tests and pair programming to check a candidate’s coding skills on-the-go.
• ChatGPT integration: We have also worked on a ChatGPT integration for a smoother coding experience. Just like the Smart Browser, this too is an optional feature for those recruiting teams who would like to allow their candidates access to ChatGPT during the assessments.

Also, read: How Does HackerEarth Combat the Use of ChatGPT and Other LLMS in Tech Hiring Assessments?

7. Improved D&I

The Assessments platform has a built-in option for hiding Personal Identifiable Information (PII) so that candidates can sign in using a pseudonym and take assessments. The recruiting team will only be able to see the candidate’s test submission and not their race, gender, or ethnicity; thereby bringing down the chances of unconscious bias hampering the selection process.

In the same vein, we have introduced a feature called R-rated question flagging. This feature highlights offensive words in the question or problem statements used for creating assessments.

Let’s say you were creating your own custom problem statement. Our system would flag any potential instances of sexist, racist, or potentially offensive language and help you remove them before adding the question to the assessment and making it public. 

And that’s all. If any of these product advancements ignited a spark of curiosity in you, you can ask for a demo or try out HackerEarth platform for a free 14-day trial!

Nidhi Kala Author 20 Blogs