Karat launches Qualify adaptive technical assessments to replace resume screens and code tests

SEATTLE – Karat, the world’s largest interviewing company, today announced the launch of Karat Qualify, a top-of-funnel skills-assessment for organizations hiring software engineers. Qualify reimagines the concept of candidate screening using a short multiple-choice assessment to replace outdated resume screens and code tests. The highly approachable format creates a fair, candidate-friendly experience that produces faster assessment results, higher completion rates, leveling recommendations, and more qualified candidates moving through the hiring funnel.

Qualify is a 15-question exercise built on Karat’s adaptive assessment technology. For recruiters and hiring managers, deploying Qualify at scale is exceedingly simple. First, hiring teams select an assessment topic from Karat’s library of 20+ pre-built topic areas. Next, candidates receive an invitation to take the on-demand, self-administered assessment. The content is dynamically selected based on previous answers, providing candidates with more opportunities to demonstrate their skills and expertise, and producing a nuanced hiring signal based on the results. Finally, as candidates complete the exercise, recruiters review the actionable recommendations and move forward with the top talent.

“Code tests suffer from high drop off rates and they produce an inconsistent and rudimentary signal, while resume screens reinforce a lot of the bias that exists in tech today,” said Scott Bonneau, EVP of Product and Operations at Karat. “Karat Qualify empowers recruiters to engage with more candidates and break the cycle of pedigree bias by uncovering the candidates with the right skills for the job, not just the ones with the right words on their resume.”

Qualify gives recruiters a faster and more reliable way to find the most promising candidates by focusing on a person’s understanding of important technologies and how they are applied. This is particularly beneficial in comparison to reviewing coding samples, which requires a significant investment of a candidate’s time, but only produces a binary pass/fail signal, and is getting increasingly easier to solve using large language models and generative AI coding tools.

“AI is driving another major inflection point in tech hiring,” noted Sean Kelley, former Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Amazon. “The accelerating pace of innovation makes it essential for talent leaders to be continuously updating their interview content for relevance to new roles and the rapidly evolving way software engineers are learning to work. That’s precisely what Karat’s content research and Karat Qualify solutions enable, allowing talent leaders to focus on engaging the best candidates.”

Another key advantage of Qualify is the ability to open up recruiting pipelines. The latest hiring trends research from Karat and Harris Poll shows that engineering and talent leaders who cast a wider net by interviewing more candidates are more likely to meet hiring targets and build strong engineering teams. Previously, one of the biggest barriers to expanding talent pipelines was that the tools available for vetting deep pools of candidates were designed to screen applicants out, rather than qualify them for consideration.

Qualify integrates seamlessly with Karat technical interviews, and hiring insights to create a consistent experience from application to offer for recruiters, candidates, and hiring managers. By offering on-demand, multiple-choice assessments to every applicant, recruiters can give every software engineering candidate an opportunity to showcase their technical knowledge, which allows businesses to expand their pipelines and source more talented engineers.

“Determining a candidate’s leveling and core competencies at the top of the hiring process gives talent leaders the opportunity to fast track the most promising candidates and route candidates to the most relevant roles based on their potential,” added Bonneau. “Because Karat Qualify adapts its content based on a candidate’s skill levels, recruiters get a clear and consistent signal in their very first interaction. These hiring insights benefit every stage of interviews that follows–all with a minimal investment of the candidate’s time.”

As organizations hiring software engineers face growing challenges with tools like resume screens and code tests, Karat Qualify delights both recruiters and candidates while delivering a strong signal that enables teams to quickly and confidently advance the right applicants to interviews. Elevate your recruiting and hire with confidence. Visit our website to learn more.

About Karat

Karat helps companies hire top engineering talent with confidence. As the end-to-end hiring solution, we work with organizations to improve the quality, efficiency, and equity of their technical hiring process. Global leaders like Walmart, Atlassian, Roblox, and Citi rely on Karat, combining human expertise with innovative technology, to conduct hundreds of assessments and interviews every day. Our mission is to make every interview predictive, fair and enjoyable. Learn more about the world’s largest interviewing company at www.karat.com

Media Contact:
Gordie Hanrahan
press@karat.com