An assessment sends a candidate a task, question set, or third-party test — either built into Kula or run through a connected tool like HackerRank — and brings their submission and score back onto their profile.

This article covers both ways to send one: as part of a job's interview plan, or ad hoc, without setting one up first.

Who can do this: Recruiter or Hiring Manager on the job's hiring team, or any Admin or Super Admin.

Where to find it: Candidate's profile (ad hoc), or the job's Interview Plan tab (as part of a stage)

Send it as part of an interview stage

Set this up once on the job's interview plan, and Kula prompts you every time a candidate reaches that stage.

• Open the job and go to the Interview Plan tab.

• Under the stage you want, click Add Activity and choose Assessment.

• Name the assessment and select the team members who'll review and score it.

• Add your questions — up to 10,000 characters, with HTML formatting.

• If candidates need reference material, attach it — up to 10 files, 10 MB each, in PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLSX, or ZIP.

• Once a candidate reaches that stage, their pipeline card shows Needs action. Open their profile and click Send Assessment — they get an email prompting them to complete it.

• Send it ad hoc, right now or on a schedule

• You don't have to set up an interview plan activity first. From the candidate's application page, you can send an assessment directly — immediately, or scheduled for a later time. The activity is mapped to the candidate's current stage and shows up under an Ad hoc section on the job, the same way an ad-hoc email or interview invite does.

Sending through a third-party tool

• If your account has HackerRank, HackerEarth, CriteriaCorp, or CodeInterview connected, sending works the same way — the trigger lives on the candidate — but the candidate completes the test in that tool, and the score or report syncs back to their Kula profile automatically once they submit.

• Setting up any of these integrations is an Admin/Super Admin task, done separately from sending; see the tool's own integration article for that setup.

One tool-specific limit: a HackerRank test can only be sent once per candidate. If it's already sent or still pending, you can't resend it — cancel or wait for it to resolve first.

A video on how to add the assessment to the Interview plan:

Good to know

• Only HireFlix video assessments support bulk sending today. Every other assessment type — Kula's built-in assessments, HackerRank, HackerEarth, CriteriaCorp, CodeInterview — is sent one candidate at a time.

• Kula doesn't enforce a deadline on assessments. There's no setting to make an assessment auto-expire after a certain number of days — track and follow up manually if a candidate is taking too long.

• A candidate needs an email on file to receive an assessment. Without one, Kula blocks the send the same way it blocks other candidate communications.

• A completed assessment stays visible even after the candidate moves to a later stage — it doesn't disappear from their profile once they're past the stage it was attached to.

• The scorecard on an assessment is optional, not mandatory by default — you can toggle whether a scorecard is required for a given assessment activity as you set it up.

FAQ

• Do I need to set up an interview plan before I can send an assessment? No. You can send one ad hoc, directly from the candidate's application page, either right away or scheduled for later — no interview plan activity required. For more, see Creating and Editing an Interview Plan (link to be added).

• Can I send the same assessment to a group of candidates at once, instead of one at a time? Only for HireFlix video assessments — those support sending in bulk to candidates in a stage. Every other assessment type sends to one candidate at a time. For more, see How to Integrate Hireflix with Kula (link to be added).

• A candidate says they never got the assessment email — what do I check? Have them check spam first, then resend it from their profile — delivery issues are usually caught and cleared this way. For more, see Receiving and Completing an Assessment as a Candidate (link to be added).

• Can I set a deadline so an assessment automatically expires? Not currently — Kula doesn't auto-expire assessments or enforce a completion window. You'll need to track and follow up on outstanding ones yourself. For more, see Assessment FAQs (link to be added).

• The candidate moved past the assessment stage — can I still find their submission? Yes. A completed assessment stays on the candidate's profile regardless of what stage they're in now. For more, see What's on a Candidate Profile? (link to be added).

Need help?

If you have questions or need assistance, reach out to us at support@kula.ai or use the in-app chat.