Guide to creating an assessment

An assessment is a collection of tests and questions you combine to evaluate the skills and fit of your candidates for a specific role.

You can include:

• Up to 5 skills tests
• Up to 10 custom questions in a single assessment — 20 if you have a Plus plan
• Up to 5 qualifying questions
• AI interviews (on eligible plans), which give you structured video responses and deeper insight into how candidates think and communicate

Think of an assessment as a safe:

• Qualifying questions are the combination lock — candidates only “get inside” if they meet your basic requirements.
• Skill tests are the gems, cash, and other valuables: they’re the core of the assessment and have tangible value for your hiring decisions.
• Custom questions are the personal items you’d protect in a fire — things like context about your company, team, or role that matter a lot to you, even if they’re unique.
• AI interviews are like a video record of how your candidate thinks and communicates — unique insights you can’t get from traditional tests alone.

The skills tests and questions you use will depend on the role you’re hiring for. Every company has different needs, but we recommend building an assessment that measures several types of skills rather than focusing on just one area.

Extensive research has been done to understand which hiring methods best predict job success. One of the most important studies is Frank Schmidt’s meta-analysis of a century’s worth of workplace productivity data. The table below, from the Harvard Business Review, shows that multi-measure tests have the highest predictive validity among commonly used hiring practices.

We categorize our test library by test type so you can easily combine different types and build a strong, balanced assessment.

Example:
Imagine you're creating an assessment for a front-end engineer. You’ll get the best predictive results if you combine tests from different test types, for example:

Test name	Test type
Angular test	Role-specific These tests measure your candidate’s ability to apply their job-related skills and knowledge.
CSS test
Critical thinking test	Cognitive ability These tests measure your candidate’s general thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Numerical reasoning test
Culture add test	Personality & culture Helps you understand how someone is likely to fit into your existing team and culture.

These tests can then be supplemented with questions of your choosing. The questions could be related to your job role or company, or be used to find out more about your candidate.

The first step of the assessment creation process is where you will:

1. Name the job
2. Add a job description
3. Choose the assessment language
4. Select the job role for the assessment

	Name your job We recommend naming your job something that makes it easy for you to distinguish from others. If the assessment is for a position you regularly hire for, you may wish to include the job title and the date the posting went live. If you are hiring for multiple offices, try adding the location to the name.
	Add your job description When you provide a job description and select a role, TestGorilla’s AI Job Builder automatically suggests relevant skills tests, custom questions, and AI interviews for your assessment. This helps you quickly build a balanced, role-specific assessment.
	Job role Selecting a job role enables us to recommend tests that might suit your needs. You can search by keyword or scroll through the list for the nearest match. If you are on the Free forever plan, you can create assessments using the 5 Essential Skills test, AI Resume Scoring on every applicant, your own one-way and conversational AI video interviews, custom questions, and qualifying questions.
	Language of assessment By default, we present all assessment content in English. Changing the language will allow you to create an assessment in that language. This will change the full candidate experience to the chosen language, as well as change the test library to your chosen language.

In this step, you’ll decide which assessment tools to include in your assessment. You can select from:

• Skills tests (up to 5)
• Custom questions (up to 20 on the Plus plan)

• Conversational AI video interview: 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 interview: 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 Plus plans.

• AI Resume Scoring: available on all plans. No additional credit cost.

To help you, the system will provide AI-powered suggestions based on your job description. These recommendations cover all tool types, so you can quickly build a balanced, role-relevant assessment.

You can accept AI suggestions, replace them, or add your own choices in the next step.

Once you've selected your evaluation tools, click Continue to move to Step 3: Configuration, where you’ll select tests and questions in detail.

In this step, depending on your selected assessment tools, you will choose specific skills tests and custom questions to use. If you added a job description, the system will provide AI-powered suggestions for both. If you don’t know where to start, using the suggestions is a good place!

• Skills tests – You can include up to 5. Think about the skills and attributes required for your role and use tests that match these. Alternatively, think of what hard and soft skills would make for a good candidate and select tests that cover those areas.
• Custom questions – These let you gather additional information, such as a candidate’s background, motivation, or portfolio. You can add up to 5 questions on Free and Core plan (20 on Plus plan) in formats like essay, multiple choice, file upload, or one-way video. For a full walkthrough of how to create, edit, and manage custom questions, see our dedicated article.
• Conversational AI interviews – These let you assess a candidate’s communication skills, behavioral competencies, and role experience through structured video responses that are instantly scored by AI. You can add one conversational AI video interview per assessment (Plus plan only). Each interview is evaluated against clear rubrics for fairness and consistency, and you can review, override, or comment on the results at any time. For a full walkthrough, see our dedicated article.

This example shows Skills tests, but the layout is the same for other evaluation tools. Each numbered area highlights a key feature you can use to build your assessment.

	Tools panel. Shows which assessment tools you selected in Step 2. You can switch between tools here. The tools panel updates automatically as you add or remove items, showing the total number of included and the estimated time the candidate will have to complete the assessment.
	Assessment tool section. Configure the selected tool. For Skills tests, you can add up to 5; for Custom questions, up to 20 (depending on your plan).
	AI-powered suggestions.  Recommended items based on your job description.
	Add selected suggestions button. Add all selected suggested tests at once.
	View details. Click the eye icon to see more information before adding a test or question. For skills tests, the details window shows: Overview – what the test measures. Covered skills – the key skills candidates will be evaluated on. Test relevance – which roles or scenarios the test is suited for. Description – a detailed explanation of how the test works and what it assesses. About the subject-matter expert – who created and validated the test. Preview sample questions – up to 4 sample questions from the test. For custom questions, the details window shows: The question text Why the question is relevant Scoring criteria used for auto-scoring Option to view scoring in action
	More actions. Browse the test library, or remove this evaluation tool from the assessment.
	Strength. As you add skills tests, you’ll see a Strength meter at the top of the section. This can be viewed from Step 3: Configuration, or in Step 4: Finalize. This provides guidance on whether your chosen mix of tests follows best practices for effective assessments. The meter evaluates factors such as: Test balance (e.g., no more than two cognitive ability tests, 2–3 role-relevant skills tests). Coverage of different test types (at least one situational judgment or personality & culture test). Total duration (ideally 30–70 minutes). Placement of personality & culture tests (at the end of the assessment). The meter will show 100% when your selection meets all recommended criteria, helping you build a strong, balanced assessment.

If you don’t want to use AI suggestions, or you’d like to explore more options, you can browse the full library of tests and questions.

While browsing our test library, you can:

	Search or filter. Find items by name, or narrow the list using filters. For skills tests: TestGorilla / My company tests, Skills for, Test focus, Test duration, Test format, Popular, New. Customers on a Plus plan can create their own tests for use in assessments. To select from your own library of tests, select My company tests from the filter dropdown. For custom questions: Assessment name, Library, Format, and other filters.
	Read details. Each card shows basic information such as duration, type (e.g., multiple choice, essay, file upload), and tags (e.g., Popular, New).
	Add or remove items – Click Add to include a test or question in your assessment. Items already added will display as Added (you can remove them from the same spot).

Click Continue to move onto the final stage of creating an assessment.

This is the last step of creating your assessment. This is where you can apply the finishing touches before inviting your candidates. Here you can do a final reorder of your tests and custom questions, and apply advanced settings.

The page has 2 sections:

Tools All included skills tests and questions are listed in the order they will appear in the assessment. Hovering over a selection will change its color to indicate it is selected. When highlighted, click & hold a test to move it up and down the list. Clicking on the trashicon will removethe test from your list. You’ll also see the Strength meter here, giving you a final check on whether your assessment follows best-practice guidelines.

Assessment settings Next to Tools is the Assessment settingssection. We have a full article here that goes into more detail about these, but here is a quick rundown of the features: Job invitation details. This field is optional. If you enter a title here, it will serve as the official name of the assessment for the candidate, helping them clearly identify the job role linked to the invitation. Qualifying questions.  Questions are asked before the assessment to establish if the candidate meets the minimum requirements for the role. Candidates who answer any of these questions incorrectly are disqualified. Manage team access.Allows you to restrict access to your assessment for certain users. Intro/outro video. Upload a branded video to appear at either the beginning or end of your assessment. Anti-cheating settings. Choose whether you want to use snapshots as part of your assessment. Extra time for tests. Apply up to 90% additional time to your selected tests. This only applies to TestGorilla tests — not custom questions or My company tests. Accommodation for candidates.Choose whether you want to allow candidates to request an accommodation based on a disability or language difficulty. Show results to candidates. Choose whether you want to automatically redirect candidates to their TestGorilla Profile, from which they can see their assessment results. Deadlines and expiration date. Choose whether you want to set a deadline for your assessment. Expand the relevant section to see the complete options for each and to add them to your assessment.

Click Finalize to complete creating your assessment. This will direct you to the assessment overview. 

Our test library features two tests that need input from you; the culture add survey and the motivation test. Both of these tests require you to choose your own answers, to provide the most accurate results for your company. We have an in-depth guide here that can help you with doing this.

Once you’ve created your assessment, it’s time to have people take it. We recommend doing the following:

• Customize the invitation email. You have the option to personalize the invitation email rather than using our default messaging. This allows you to ensure the tone of it matches your company’s tone, while also giving the opportunity to include more information. You can do this from the job overview page. 
• Take the assessment yourself as a preview. This allows you to see the questions that will be asked, ensuring they suit your advertised job role. If you notice anything in your assessment you'd like to change, you can make edits to it if you have only tested it with yourself or other team members added to the account.
• Invite candidates. You can invite candidates through single or bulk email, or public links. Our guide to Candidate communications provides more details about this.