Top 5 Technical Assessment Tools for developer hiring in 2024 – 14+ tested

The best way to save engineering time in a hiring process is with a technical assessment. The right technical assessment allows you to vet a developer’s technical skills without spending an hour of your team’s time in a live interview. That creates more bandwidth, allowing you to evaluate more candidates more consistently, faster.

But not many technical assessment platforms are ideal for hiring in-demand experienced developers and software engineers. Most options only cover basic coding tasks with automated tests that are more relevant to junior developers. And despite marketing claims, almost none of the options provide protection against ChatGPT cheating. 

For experienced developers, candidate experience is the bottleneck in a technical assessment. A tech assessment that your senior candidates won’t take has no value. The human-powered technical assessment options have a big advantage over fully automated options. Experienced developers also prefer online editors based on the ubiquitous VSCode editor (technically, Monaco) that they’re familiar with.

After testing 14+ technical assessment tools, we identified the 5 that are best for specific use cases. For experienced hiring with some budget, Woven is the best technical assessment option for most teams. Alternatively, for teams using algorithmic Leetcode-style coding interviews, Karat is the best option. Both tech assessments are suitable for experienced hiring due to their human analysis and proctoring without candidate limits.

Quick Overview Of The Best Technical Assessments

* Automated ChatGPT detection does not work in practice in our tests. See ChatGPT and Cheating

Woven: Best option for hiring experienced engineers

Differentiator: Woven is the only human-powered technical assessment. Human proctoring makes their ChatGPT detection the best among competitors. Since Woven’s engineers analyze candidate work, they have unique scenario types to vet experienced engineers. Scenarios include Github Pull Request Review and Systems Design/Debugging.  They provide the speed of automated solutions with a Human-powered element to scoring and candidate experience. 

Limitations: Higher price point, smaller scenario library

Woven technical assessments stand out as a human-powered evaluation process, distinguishing themselves from automated assessments. Each assessment, ranging from 90 to 120 minutes for candidates, is reviewed and scored by experienced engineers, offering a personalized and nuanced evaluation. 

Woven’s unique differentiator lies in its ability to mimic real-world work, providing insights into coding abilities and other capabilities such as debugging, system design, and collaboration. The speedy delivery of results within one day further enhances the efficiency of the hiring process. 

Moreover, Woven allows for customization of assessments tailored to specific roles and seniority levels, ensuring relevance to the hiring organization’s needs. 

They are the only company that will guarantee a hire for a full year. 

With the rise of AI assistance, Woven is the only tech assessment platform that offers async proctoring and ChatGPT detection by humans.  

On the flip side, potential drawbacks include a comparatively smaller library of scenarios to choose from and a higher price point compared to automated code quizzes. 

Karat: Premium price for companies using Leetcode-style algorithmic coding interviews

Differentiator: Karat was primarily focused on helping enterprise customers outsource their technical interviews and has continued to expand their offerings to screening tools.  For companies that require Big Tech-style, live interviews they are a great option.

Limitations: Live interviews require scheduling by the candidate which can slow down the hiring process.  Customers have reported that the candidate reporting lacked detailed which required them to watch hours of playbacks to make decisions.

Karat is a technical interview company that specializes in conducting technical interviews on behalf of tech organizations.

Pros of using Karat include its dedicated focus on technical assessments, which can streamline the hiring process for companies by efficiently evaluating candidates’ coding and problem-solving skills.

Karat also offers interviewers who are seasoned engineers and can provide valuable insights into a candidate’s technical proficiency. Additionally, Karat’s platform is designed to offer a consistent and standardized interview experience.

However, some potential cons include the cost associated with using Karat’s services, which may be a consideration for smaller companies with budget constraints. Additionally, there could be concerns about the quality and relevance of questions posed during interviews, as they may vary based on the individual interviewers provided by Karat.

CodeSignal: Best technical assessment for high-volume college or entry-level hiring

Differentiator: CodeSignal has the best online editor experience of any technical assessment platform. It also has a unique “certification” feature for Computer Science concepts applicable to entry-level roles that rotates random questions to prevent cheating in very high volume scenarios. 

Limitations: CodeSignal is a fully-automated assessment. For experienced engineer hiring, this inherently leads to worse candidate experience (lower completion rates) and limited signal beyond basic coding. CodeSignal also only has annual pricing, which makes evaluation difficult.

CodeSignal is a technical assessment platform that aids in evaluating coding skills and technical abilities of candidates. 

One of the notable pros of CodeSignal is its extensive library of coding challenges and tasks, providing a diverse range of problems to assess candidates’ problem-solving capabilities. 

The platform also supports a real coding environment, allowing candidates to write, compile, and run code, mirroring a realistic development scenario. CodeSignal’s adaptive testing feature is another strength, dynamically adjusting the difficulty of questions based on the candidate’s performance, offering a more accurate assessment. 

However, some potential drawbacks include a focus primarily on coding skills, potentially overlooking other aspects of a candidate’s abilities, and the user interface, which may not be as intuitive for all users. 

HackerRank: Cheapest option for purely developer hiring

Differentiator: HackerRank has been around the longest, so benefits from the largest assessment library of any technical assessment tool. They’ve also retained cheap monthly pricing.

Limitations: With 15 years in existence, the editor experience hasn’t kept up with newer options like CodeSignal. HackerRank is also a fully-automated assessment, which has inherent limitations for evaluation experienced engineers.

HackerRank is a popular platform that provides coding challenges and technical assessments for evaluating the coding skills and problem-solving abilities of candidates.

Pros of using HackerRank include its extensive library of coding challenges covering a wide array of domains and difficulty levels, supporting multiple programming languages. The platform’s real coding environment allows candidates to write, compile, and run code during assessments, providing a practical evaluation of their coding proficiency. HackerRank also offers a range of assessments for different roles and industries, making it versatile for various hiring needs. Additionally, the platform provides detailed performance analytics and insights.

However, potential drawbacks may include a focus primarily on coding skills, potentially overlooking other aspects of a candidate’s qualifications. Some users may find the challenge difficulty to be quite high, and the assessment approach may not fully capture a candidate’s ability to collaborate or communicate effectively. 

TestGorrilla: Cheapest option that also includes assessments for hiring other roles

TestGorilla is a pre-employment assessment platform known for its diverse range of tests covering various skills and competencies, including technical assessments. Its strengths lie in the extensive test library that spans different industries and roles, providing employers with the flexibility to assess candidates based on specific job requirements. The platform is designed to offer a user-friendly experience for both candidates and employers, integrating features like video interviews and skills assessments in a single platform.

One potential advantage is the convenience of having a centralized platform for multiple types of assessments. 

However, some users may find the need for candidates to adapt to the platform’s format and interface. The difficulty level of the assessments could vary, and candidates may perceive certain tests as challenging.

Top Technical Assessment Brands That Didn’t Make The Cut

Codility: CodeSignal has the same focus at the same price, but with better technology

Qualified.io: Qualified has the ability to add your own challenges or use their library.   However, the scoring is all automated and usually requires a thorough review from the hiring team.

Glider.ai:   Similar to TestGorrilla in including non-tech assessments at a low starting price.

HackerEarth: Similar to HackerRank in being low-cost, but with less-modern technology.

Byteboard: Similar advantages to Woven, but slower, without per-role customization, and with only 1 grader

Grade-your-own Take-Home tools

Companies like Github,Codespaces, Hatchways, CodeSubmit.  Since take-home platforms still require your engineering team to evaluate a candidate’s work, they’re not evaluated as part of this guide.

How To Choose The Best Technical Assessment For Developer Hiring in 2024

ChatGPT and cheating with technical assessments

Upwards of 25% of candidates will cheat with ChatGPT if they can get away with it. With the release of GPT-4, candidates can use ChatGPT to pass senior-level programming assessments that they would not be able to complete, otherwise.

Automated detection doesn’t work, despite marketing claims. Even OpenAI, with $1b in funding, couldn’t figure out automated ChatGPT detection. They shut down their effort. Now, some assessment

Factors to consider

A technical assessment should provide the hiring team with a strong signal of a candidate’s technical skills for the specific role while also considering the candidate’s experience in the process. Both the signal needed and the experience could vary greatly depending on the seniority of the role, specific role requirements and more.