What Is The Difference Between An Assessment And A Challenge?
At the core of our Product, there is the ability to assess a candidates skill. The way that we do this is through the creation of assessments and challenges. This is how we define, structure, and have them work together.
What is an Assessment?
An assessment contains a set of challenges to be solved by the candidate. Think of it like a task list. You want your candidates to complete (or at least try to complete) all of the tasks on a list. An assessment is that list.
Typically assessments are focused on a group of tasks that are related to a specific but broad goal. That goal may be things like "testing general coding ability", "front-end development'", "data science", etc.
An assessment can optionally be given a time limit, and once a candidate starts the assessment, they must complete it before the time limit is reached.
What is a Challenge?
A challenge is a specific task that should be performed within an assessment. Qualified supports multiple types of challenges:
- Code Challenges - which test a developer's ability to write code, solve problems and follow requirements. These challenges involve writing code. Qualified supports two kinds of coding challenges, classic code challenges, and project code challenges.
- Q&A Challenges - which test a developers knowledge, and can also be used to collect information from them, like how you would in a survey. These challenges involve answering one or more questions in the form of multiple choice answers or freely written text.
A challenge typically has a more specific goal, such as solving a specific problem, or answering questions about a specific focus area, such as CSS related quiz questions of a front-end developer focused assessment.
Challenges can be given estimated times of completion, but do not have specific time limits themselves.
Have questions about making your own assessments and challenges? Contact us at [email protected] or share a favorite pre-made assessment or challenge below so others can learn from you!
