Knockout questions (auto-rejection rules) automatically reject careers-page applicants who don't meet a job's must-have requirements, based on their answers to specific application-form questions — no manual review needed.

How it works

• Auto-rejection rules run against custom fields on the job's application form. Supported field types: Single-select, Multi-select, Yes/No, Number, and Date.

• You need at least one custom field of a supported type on the form before you can build a rule — add the field first, then set up the rule.

• Rules are off by default for every job.

Setting up a rule

• Open the job's application form settings (from the job posting or the application form template) and turn on the Auto-rejection rules toggle.

• Click Set up auto-rejection (or Add rule if the job already has rules).

• Give the rule a descriptive name — for example, "Requires 5+ years experience."

• Under Select criteria, choose the custom field to evaluate, then choose a condition. The available conditions depend on the field type: Single-select/multi-select use Include any or Include all; Yes/No uses Include any or Exclude all; Number or Date use Greater than, Lesser than, Greater than or equal to, Lesser than or equal to, or Equals.

• Enter or select the value that completes the condition. Click Add criteria to add another condition to the same rule if needed.

• Under Rejection reason and email, choose a rejection reason. Turn on Add rejection email to have Kula email rejected candidates automatically, and pick a template. Turn on Schedule rejection email to delay it by a number of weekdays — leave it off to send immediately.

• Click Create rule.

How rule logic works

• A rule with multiple criteria uses AND logic only — a candidate must match every criterion in the rule to be rejected by it. There's no OR logic within a single rule.

• Kula blocks saving duplicate criteria, conflicting criteria that no candidate could ever satisfy, or a criterion that would reject every candidate — you'll need to fix the flagged criterion before saving.

• If a candidate leaves a knockout question unanswered, that criterion doesn't reject them.

• A job can have multiple rules. They're evaluated in the order shown in the rules list — Kula checks each rule in turn and stops at the first one a candidate fully matches. You can drag rules to reorder evaluation priority, toggle a rule on/off without deleting it, or edit or delete it via the row's icons.

• If you delete a custom field a rule depends on, or change its type, Kula disables that rule and flags it until you fix the criteria.

What happens when a candidate applies

• When a candidate submits, Kula checks the job's active rules in order and stops at the first full match.

• For that candidate, Kula marks them Rejected (by Auto-Rejection Rule), applies that rule's rejection reason, sends the configured rejection email on its schedule, and logs the rejection — including which rule triggered it — on the candidate's activity feed. If no rule fully matches, the candidate proceeds through the pipeline normally.

• Knockout rules only evaluate candidates who apply through the careers page — they don't run against candidates added manually, sourced, or imported.

Good to know

• AI-scoring auto-rejection and Knockout Questions are separate systems with separate email settings. Turning on a rejection email for one doesn't turn it on for the other — check each path's email setting independently if you want every auto-rejected candidate to hear from you. (As of this writing, both paths do support sending an automatic rejection email — see the Needs Verification note above for the history here.)

• A third auto-reject path — the fraud detector — only fires a rejection on its first automatic run. It won't trigger again if a recruiter later runs a manual fraud review or changes the candidate's status by hand, so a human double-check doesn't accidentally cause a second, silent rejection.

• Cloning a form template doesn't always clone its knockout rules correctly, and this is still an open, in-progress issue. If you clone a form specifically to reuse its knockout rules, check the cloned rules before relying on them.

• A Rich Text field can incorrectly show up as an option when building a knockout rule condition, even though Rich Text isn't one of the field types rules actually support (Single-select, Multi-select, Yes/No, Number, Date). This has been reported alongside the cloning issue and, as of this writing, hasn't been confirmed fixed — avoid selecting a Rich Text field for a rule condition if you see it offered.

• Knockout rules currently have to be set up per job. You can import a job's rules from a global Application Form template to avoid re-entering them from scratch, but there's no single view to manage rules across every job at once.

• A rejected candidate — whether rejected by a person or by a rule — only ever shows under the Rejected status, never under All Stages. Filter by Rejected directly if you're trying to find them.

• Bulk-rejecting candidates applies one reason (and one email, if sent) to everyone selected — this isn't specific to knockout rules, but worth knowing if you're reviewing candidates a rule flagged rather than auto-rejected.

FAQ

• Can a candidate reapply after being auto-rejected by a knockout rule? Yes. They can submit a new application, and it's evaluated against the rules the same as any other.

• Can I manually override an auto-rejection? Yes. Move the candidate to a different stage from their profile, the same way you would for any candidate.

• How do I see which rule rejected a candidate? Open their activity feed on their profile — Kula logs the specific rule name for every auto-rejection.

• If I have multiple rules on a job, do they all get checked, or does it stop at the first match? Kula evaluates rules in the order shown in your rules list and stops at the first rule a candidate fully matches — it doesn't keep checking the rest after that.

• Does turning on a rejection email for my knockout rules also cover AI-scoring auto-rejections? No — they're configured separately. Set the email option on each auto-reject path individually if you want both to notify candidates.

Need help?

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