Using custom questions

Custom questions can be used to request more specific information from your candidates.

Custom questions are an important part of an assessment. While our tests can assess and score your candidates based on various skills, custom questions are your opportunity to ask questions pertaining to your company or specific job role. You can receive the answers to your questions in a method of your choosing. Though these questions can be written by you, we do offer a library of prewritten questions as well. Custom questions are available on all plans, including the Free forever plan, at no additional credit cost. They are part of the assessment-making process and can be created by Owners, Admins, and Recruiters.

Approx. reading time 6 minutes

In this article 

1. Creating custom questions
   1. Multiple-choice 
   2. Essay
   3. File upload
2. Managing your custom questions
3. Using the custom question library
4. Reviewing your candidates' answers
5. Auto-scoring (essay)
6. Common questions

Creating custom questions

To begin adding your own questions, you first need to create a new job or edit an existing one. At Step 2: Assessment, select Custom questions as one of your tools. In Step 3: Configuration, you’ll be able to create, edit, and manage those questions. If you added a job description in Step 1, the system will provide AI-powered suggestions for custom questions that you can use in Step 3.

There are three custom question types available to you:

1. Multiple-choice
2. Essay
3. File upload

Below you can find summaries of the different question types, when to use them, the time limit options for how long your candidate has to answer, how to use, and how to create them.

Multiple-choice questions have a limited set of answers — between two and ten — from which the candidate can choose.

When to use	For closed questions, when you want to limit the possible answers from your candidates
Time limit options	30 seconds 45 seconds 60 seconds 2 minutes

 

How to use:

	To create your question, select the multiple-choice question type after clicking Create new.
	Select a time limit from the dropdown menu.
	Enter your question in the text box. We suggest being as thorough as possible, to give your candidate the best chance of success. Give them all the information they will need, in a clear and concise manner. You can format the text of the question using the toolbar at the top of the box.
	Input your answers in the text boxes. You can format the text of your answers by clicking in the text box and using the formatting editor that appears.
	Select the correct answer by selecting the circle next to the relevant answer. If your question has multiple valid answers, you can choose to distribute points across answers by selecting the toggle above the answers. This gives you the option to rate each answer on a scale of 0-5.
	Cancel or Create and add your question or exit the editor using the toolbar at the top of the page.

A question where the candidate can provide an open-ended answer with text.

When to use	For open-ended questions, when you don't want to limit the possible answers.
Time limit options	1 minute 2 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes 30 minutes 45 minutes	1 hour 2 hours 3 hours

 

How to use:

	To create your question, select the essay question type after clicking Create new.
	Select a time limit from the dropdown menu.
	Enter your question in the text box. You can format the text of the question using the toolbar at the top of the box.
	Essay questions support TestGorilla’s AI-powered auto-scoring. Toggle Auto-scored on to activate it. Each auto-scored question uses a rubric with up to four criteria. For library questions, the rubric is predefined. For your own questions, click Generate with AI to create one, then edit or add criteria as needed. See the Auto-scoring section below for full details.
	Cancel or Create and add your question or exit the editor using the toolbar at the top of the page.

A question that the candidate answers by uploading a document file.

When to use	When you'd like to see examples of past work or other relevant documents
Time limit options	10 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes 40 minutes 50 minutes	1 hour 2 hours 4 hours 12 hours	1 day 2 days 3 days 7 days
Accepted document types	CSV/ XLS/ XLSX DOC/DOCX TXT PPT/PPTX ODP (Open document presentation) KEY (Apple keynote file) PNG/JPG/PSD/BMP/GIF (for the image upload we already have) PDF

 

How to use:

	To create your question, select the file upload question type after clicking Create new.
	Select a time limit from the dropdown menu.
	Enter your question in the text box, including any relevant requirements the candidate will need to include. You can format the text of the question using the toolbar at the top of the box.
	Cancel or Create and add your question or exit the editor using the toolbar at the top of the page.

Managing your custom questions

Your created questions will be displayed on a table at the top of the Step 3: Configuration page. Hovering over a question will highlight it, and icons are at the far right of the question to help you view, edit, and delete it. To change the order in which the custom questions will appear during the assessment, drag and drop them into your desired order.

Create your own questions by clicking on the required tile and select your desired question type. A pop-up window will appear with the question editor. Questions are added to the table as you save them.

Select from our library of custom questions at the bottom of the page. This portion can be searched and filtered to help you find the ideal question.

	The pencil icon allows you to edit your question.
	The trash icon will delete the question from your list. You will be presented with a popup message asking you to confirm this, as deleted questions cannot be recovered.

Using the custom question library

The custom question library contains questions created by us, along with any questions you have created in previous assessments.

How to add a custom question from the library

The top ribbon allows you to search and filter the questions. The results of the filters you choose are displayed on the page, and will actively refresh as you make selections.

	Check the boxes to see only TestGorilla questions, your own questions, or both.
	Perform a keyword search to find relevant questions. Try searching for a particular skill or subject.
	Select a previous assessment from the drop-down to view questions you have used before. Questions you have used in other assessments are easily identified by a blue banner in the top-left corner labeled Used before.
	Search by question type or category by checking the relevant boxes.
	Details will expand the question, giving you further information: Why is this question relevant? What to look for in the answer?
	Click the Add button to add a question to your assessment. This will add the question to the bottom of the custom question table found at the top of the page.
	The Add button will be replaced with an Added button after the question is selected. Click this if you want to remove the question.

Reviewing your candidates' answers

When you scroll down on a candidate's results page, you'll see his or her individual answers to your custom questions. By clicking on a custom question, you'll be able to view the candidate's answer, including file uploads. You can also rate each individual answer here.

Our custom question rating system allows you to rate the answers provided by your candidates from their results page. You can score their submissions on a scale of one to five stars, and leave supporting notes for other team members to view.

If a question is auto-scored, you’ll see the rubric with criterion scores (1–5), plus overall raw and percentile scores. You can leave comments and override individual criterion scores if needed—the overall scores update accordingly.

Auto-scoring (essay)

Essay custom questions help you capture authentic, detailed responses that reveal a candidate’s thinking, communication, and role-specific knowledge. TestGorilla’s skills-trained AI can now automatically score these custom questions at scale. It applies a consistent, role-relevant rubric to every response, measuring each candidate against the same criteria and ensuring each candidate is evaluated fairly and objectively.

As you build your assessment, you can preview how the AI will score each question—giving you greater confidence in how responses will be interpreted before candidates even begin. While the AI does the heavy lifting, you stay in control: human reviewers can override any AI-generated score to better reflect your unique hiring needs.

It also dramatically speeds up decision-making. With instant scoring, you can eliminate manual review bottlenecks and move qualified candidates forward more quickly. Each score is fully transparent, tied to a clear rubric, and includes an audit trail when overrides are made—giving your team confidence in every decision.

How to use:

	Add an essay custom question to your assessment. Questions that will be auto-scored have the Auto-scored tag. If the question is from the TestGorilla Library, Auto-scored is already on; if you created it, toggle Auto-scored on.
	Each auto-scored question uses a scoring rubric with up to four criteria. Library questions come with a predefined rubric; for create-your-own questions, click Generate with AI then edit, delete, or + Add criteria. Click View scoring in action to see example responses for each score level, from Excellent to Very poor.
	You can also input a sample answer in the Try my answer tab and click Score to see how it will be scored against the rubric criteria. Each score contributes to an overall raw score and a benchmarked percentile score.
	Once you're satisfied, click Add to add the custom question to your assessment.

Analyzing responses:

	From the overview page, click on the candidate you would like to view responses for. Next, click directly on an auto-scored custom question to view.
	Candidate responses are scored out of 5 for each criteria. You can leave comments directly at the bottom of the rubric, as well as edit the individual scores should you not agree with it. The overall percentile and raw scores change to reflect any changes made to the score.

Common questions