Top 4 tools for creating custom questions in talent assessments

Why custom questions matter in modern hiring

Off-the-shelf skills assessments are science-backed and holistically test specific skill sets, such as communication. But sometimes, you need a bit more control in your screening process.

That’s when custom questions swoop in. They let you drill down on specific business problems and role requirements. For example, a problem-solving cognitive test can reliably measure a candidate’s general skill level. Meanwhile, your custom question could test problem-solving in projects or verticals unique to your business – say, a project budgeting challenge for the automotive industry.

On modern talent assessment platforms, custom questions also allow you to capture files, links, videos, and other media. This makes it easy to review job-specific work samples, which can reliably predict future job performance, especially when combined with job knowledge tests and structured interviews. 

So, custom questions raise the quality of your candidate pool because they let you:

• Screen for niche skills that are critical for role success

• Test soft skills with more flexibility

• Create in-depth scenarios for hard skills such as coding

• Assess culture add through value and behavior questions

What to look for in a custom question assessment tool

Of course, simply offering custom questions on an assessment platform isn’t enough. Here are the key features to look out for. 

• A high question ceiling: Make sure you can add all the questions you need.

• Multiple question formats: Check candidate knowledge using formats such as multiple choice, free text, video, file upload, and coding.

• Time limit: Apply time limits to answers to prevent cheating and control total assessment time.

• Question labeling: Add details such as question category, department, or role type, to neatly organize your question library.

• Unbiased scoring: Structure your manual evaluation criteria for easy reviewing and use AI scoring where possible.

• Clear reporting: Rank and break down candidate test scores.

• A strong pre-made test library: Pair custom questions with a wide range of job-related tests, from soft to hard skills.

• Collaborative hiring: Build custom questions with team members and set user permissions.

• Applicant tracking system (ATS) integrations: Sync candidate and assessment data easily with popular recruitment software.

Comparing the best tools for creating custom hiring questions

Here’s how each platform handles custom hiring questions.

1. TestGorilla

2. Vervoe

3. Codility

4. HighMatch

1. TestGorilla

Best for: Startups and enterprises that want to create tailored talent assessments

TestGorilla lets you add up to 20 custom questions to any assessment, alongside selections from its library of more than 350 tests. Whether you’re hiring a marketing manager or a software developer, you can easily customize questions that assess their hard skills, personality traits, and how they’ll fit into your organization. You can also build tests from scratch or mix and match existing tests to create custom assessments. 

On top of custom questions and tests, you can customize coding challenges for technical candidates. You can build these for specific languages (e.g., PHP, SQL) or let candidates choose their coding language. The interface guides you through the necessary steps, including adding inputs and test cases.

The TestGorilla assessment workflow is really straightforward. First, its AI suggests standardized tests (say, a problem-solving or a product management one) based on your role’s job description, or just the job title. Once you’ve added up to five tests, start adding custom questions. You can: 

• Generate custom questions quickly with AI suggestions, based on the job description

• Browse and filter TestGorilla’s expansive library of custom questions

• Select items from your team’s custom question library

• Build new questions on the fly

Candidates can answer questions with multiple choice, essay, one-way video interview, or file upload answers. You can set time limits for each question – say, 30 seconds for a video response and five minutes for a short essay. Plus, you can fully format your question using bold, tables, and external linking – and add sample answers for your internal evaluators. 

The custom question library is easy to use, saving you loads of time while preparing assessments. Filter by topic, role, answer type, and more. TestGorilla offers a good starter pack, from admin questions like “Please provide a link to your LinkedIn profile” to soft-skill-focused ones like “What do you do when you receive negative feedback from others?”

This flexibility is especially helpful when you need to check for that extra bit of context in an employee’s skill set – for instance, why they’re a good fit for the role and company culture, or what results they’ve had on a job-specific requirement.

TestGorilla answer scoring is also customizable. You can add criteria (e.g., “Considers impact of prioritization”) or use AI to generate new ones based on the role and the custom question. And unlike some competitors, including HighMatch, TestGorilla lets you enable auto-scoring, where AI rates essay and video answers. (You can check how the tool rates sample answers before sending your assessment.)

And don’t forget, you can still manually score answers to custom questions and override AI scores.

As candidates complete their assessments, you get a clean ranking of their scores (raw and as a percentile), broken down by individual tests and custom questions. Together, skills test and custom question results enable unbiased hiring decisions, since you focus on job-critical abilities and not reviewers’ personal affinities.

TestGorilla’s platform also encourages collaborative hiring with a candidate dashboard, integrations with ATS systems, and an API for working with third-party tools. 

Features:

• 350+ tests for technical, soft, and job-specific skills 

• Build custom questions

• Coding challenges to assess developers

• Create tests in 11 languages

• Add company branding and custom URLs to tests

• Unified dashboard for candidate management

• Bulk actions for large-scale hiring pipelines

Pros:

• Candidates complete assessments from any device without logging in

• Modern, easy-to-use interface with drag-and-drop

• AI custom question suggestions

• Customizable, automated scoring

• Standardized tests have rigorous quality control and anti-cheating measures

Cons:

• Custom questions capped at 20

Pricing:

• Free (forever): Includes access to five essential skills tests, AI resume scoring, five custom questions per assessment, and qualifying questions. No credits required.

• Core Plan: Starts at $96/month (billed annually). Includes 250+ credits per year, access to library of 350+ skills tests, access to TestGorilla Assessments for technical hiring, AI-scored custom questions, and a sourcing pool of over two million skills-tested candidates via TestGorilla Sourcing.

• Plus Plan: Custom pricing. Offers everything in Core, plus API access, 15+ ATS integrations, one-way AI video interviews, custom branding, custom coding challenges, advanced reporting, and a dedicated customer success manager.

Credit System:

• 1 credit = Invite one sourced candidate 

• 3 credits = Evaluate one candidate with a range of tools available in TestGorilla Assessments(Core plan). Credits renew annually and can be topped up at any time.

2. Vervoe

Best for: Businesses hiring more than 50 candidates per year

Vervoe is an assessment platform with more than 300 ready-made tests and, separately, customizable tests. You can also build custom tests from scratch, including questions that candidates answer with text, multiple choice, video, code, or in immersive third-party apps like MS Excel.

When you build custom assessments, Vervoe’s AI suggests which skills to screen for your role, along with possible questions. You can save and quickly recall any custom questions you create, including coding challenges. The AI can also auto-grade candidates’ answers based on pre-set criteria. 

However, unlike TestGorilla, you can’t add custom questions alongside its ready-made skills tests (only screening questions, such as those about salary expectations). Vervoe also isn’t a one-stop-shop hiring platform – for example, it doesn’t offer sourcing.

Features:

• 300+ tests

• Assessment Builder to create assessments

• AI grading

Pros:

• Vervoe consultants help users build custom tests

• Supports multiple question types 

• Detailed candidate reports 

• Offers an onboarding training program

Cons:

• Has a dashboard to track candidates, but reports can be exported in CSV format only

• No assessments to test language skills or culture add

Pricing:

• Free: Standard assessment library and builder, seven days only.

• Pay and go: Starting at $300 for 10 candidates. 

• Custom: Custom pricing. Tailored to suit client requirements.

3. Codility

Best for: Custom technical assessments

Codility is a talent assessment software system for technical roles. It features technical tests across real-life skills (e.g., data science), problem-solving (e.g., bug fixing), and technical knowledge (e.g., Java). For instance, you can assess data scientists, software developers, and more. 

On Codility, you can create your own “tasks” – or custom questions. These can be coding challenges (across 20+ languages and frameworks), multiple-choice questions, essays, or file uploads.

As a plus, Codility powers live two-way technical interviews, with tools like whiteboards. Unlike some competitors, it also offers enterprise-level user permissions and compliance, and collaborative hiring.

The downside is that you can only test technical skills. You’ll need other tools to assess candidates’ personalities, soft skills, and organizational fit.

Features:

• “Screen” tool lets you create customizable tests for 20+ coding languages and technologies

• Conduct real-time interactive technical interviews using “Interview”

• “Skills Intelligence” tool for mapping technical skills across your organization

Pros:

• Build in-depth custom tests for technical candidates

• Anti-plagiarism toolkit, including web crawling, similarity checkers, and IP tracking to prevent cheating during assessments

• Streamline candidate assessment with pre-built integrations, including ATS systems like Greenhouse and Lever

Cons:

• Only suitable for recruiting candidates for technical positions

• No way to assess personality traits, language skills, or culture fit

Pricing:

• Starter: $1,200/year for 120 invites

• Scale: $6,000/year (or $600/month) for 25 invites a month

• Custom: Custom pricing based on assessment volume

4. HighMatch

Best for: Creating mobile-first custom tests 

HighMatch is a talent assessment platform where organizational psychologists develop personalized assessments for testing candidates’ personality, cognitive aptitudes, situational judgment, and hard skills.

You develop custom questions in collaboration with HighMatch specialists. For instance, you share your hiring goals, role location, and team culture. According to the vendor, this approach ensures you test only the most job-relevant skills. However, it’s also more time-consuming and potentially costly.

Overall, HighMatch stands out for its mobile-first candidate screening, prioritizing a modern user experience and high completion rates. Unfortunately, it has a smaller test library than other platforms and doesn’t let you add custom questions yourself (you must collaborate with HighMatch).

Features:

• Personalized tests created by workplace psychologists 

• Automated screening form (e.g., salary expectations)

• Third-party integrations with ATS and conversational AI

Pros:

• Add custom intro and outro videos

• Screening survey helps to filter out non-viable candidates

• Highly personalized assessments

Cons:

• Can only customize questions in collaboration with the vendor

• No option to add custom video questions or conduct video interviews

• No coding or language tests 

• No candidate support available during assessments

Pricing:

Contact HighMatch for a quote

Choosing your custom question assessment platform

TestGorilla, Vervoe, Codility, and HighMatch are among the strongest assessment platforms offering custom questions. They provide science-backed pre-made tests and let you customize screening questions.

However, there are some limitations. For example, Codility is better suited to technical assessments, and HighMatch customizes assessments on your behalf, costing you time.  

TestGorilla stands out as a holistic talent assessment platform with fully customizable questions. You can choose between multiple formats, add up to 20 questions, and use AI to generate or auto-score entries. You can also pick from more than 350 science-backed skills tests to get a full, unbiased picture of candidate abilities, no matter the role.

Give TestGorilla a go for free!

Disclaimer: The information on TestGorilla’s competitors has been taken from the relevant competitor website and is accurate as of the date of publication.