Building your first TestGorilla assessment? Here’s a 15-minute checklist to take you from setup to launch — all in one place. It’s ideal for new users who want a quick, structured start.
Approx. read time: 5 minutes
🚀 First assessment quick-start checklist
Click the Create new job button to get started creating your first assessment. The creation process has four steps: Job details, Assessment, Configuration, and Finalize.
For example, you’ll hire a Technical Project Manager for this walkthrough.
💼 Step 1. Job details
Choose the role Technical Project Manager. You’ll also select the assessment language.
Provide a job description to our AI Job Builder, which powers AI-driven suggestions for skills tests, custom questions, and AI interviews.
📋 Step 2. Assessment
Here you’ll decide which combination of assessment tools to include. You can select from:
- Skills tests (up to 5)
- Custom questions (up to 20 on the Plus plan)
- Conversational AI interviews: available on all plans, 2 credits per candidate. On Free, build 1 conversational interview with up to 8 questions. The TestGorilla conversational library is on Plus only.
- One-way AI video interviews: available on all plans, 1 credit per candidate. On Free, write your own questions (up to 5 per interview). The TestGorilla one-way library is on Core and above.
- AI resume scoring: available on all plans. No additional credit cost.
Once you find the tools you want, move on to the next step.
⚙️ Step 3. Configuration
This is where you assemble everything. Choose the specific tests and questions to include, depending on the assessment tools you've chosen. If you added a job description in Step 1, our AI Job Builder will recommend tests and questions.
For a Technical Project Manager, recommendations might include:
- Attention to detail
- Microsoft Excel
- Leadership & people management
- Business ethics & compliance
Research shows that multi-measure assessments (combining different types of tests and questions) predict job success best. Learn more.
Skills tests — Browse the library, filter by category, and preview sample questions. Click Add to include a test, then drag & drop to reorder. We recommend adding at least four tests to every assessment.
Custom questions — Gather work samples or additional candidate info. Available on all plans, including the Free forever plan, at no additional credit cost. Add up to 5 custom questions per assessment on Free and Core, and up to 20 on Plus, in formats like essay, multiple-choice, file upload, or one-way video. Each custom question is saved to your library for reuse.
- Essay questions — ask candidates to respond to an example customer email.
- Multiple-choice questions — test knowledge or gather opinions.
- One-way video questions — get to know candidates; can replace an initial screen.
- File upload questions — request a take-home task, CV, or portfolio.
Conversational AI interviews — Assess communication and behavioral competencies via a structured, AI-scored interview.
AI resume scoring — Automatically evaluates resumes against role criteria to speed up initial screening.
Plus plan only:
Build your own tests from scratch to assess company-specific skills or scenarios.
Get access to our ATS Integrations and API, verify the candidate's Identity, and custom-brand your assessments.
Create custom coding challenges for technical roles and add them to your assessments once published.
You can manage these in your My Library and reuse them across assessments.
| 📘 Looking for a deeper dive? Read the complete guide to creating an assessment. |
✅ Step 4. Finalize
Review the tests and custom questions included, as well as total duration. Aim to keep the assessment around one hour for a positive candidate experience.
The advanced options you can include are:
- Job invitation details. Help candidates identify the sender and purpose.
- Qualifying questions — filter out unqualified candidates before they start.
- Welcome video — add a personal, branded intro/outro.
- Anti-cheating measures — enable/disable camera snapshots.
- Extra time for tests — allow additional time if needed.
- Accommodations — manage accessibility options.
- Assessment deadlines — set automatic closing.
- Show results to candidates — control candidate visibility.
Click Finalize to complete setup.
Ensure all tests and questions are final before inviting candidates.
| ⚠️ Important: Once a candidate is invited, the assessment is locked. To make changes later, clone the assessment and update the new version before sending more invites. |
➡️ Learn more: Advanced assessment settings
🧪 Test internally
- Invite yourself or a teammate to take the assessment first.
- Check the assessment flow, timing, and clarity.
- If you need edits after any invite (even internal), clone and update the new version before sending live invites.
➡️ Learn more: Managing your team
🧠 Best-practice reminders
- ✅ Combine different test types (hard and soft skills) for stronger predictions.
- 🕒 Keep total assessment duration around 30–70 minutes.
- 🔍 Always preview tests before inviting candidates.
- 🚫 Don’t edit live assessments, clone instead.
- 💬 Communicate deadlines and next steps clearly to candidates.
📈 Next step: Learn how credits work
Now that you’ve built your first assessment, take a minute to understand how credits are used for sourcing and evaluating candidates so you can plan your hiring smoothly.