HackerRank Glossary
Last updated: March 5, 2026
Here is a glossary of all the terms and definitions you need to know while using the HackerRank for Work platform.
General
Term | Definition |
Recruiter | A license type assigned to users who can create and edit tests, questions, and reports and send invites to candidates. Users with recruiter licenses who are a part of the enterprise plan can also use HackerRank Interview to create and conduct interviews. |
Interviewer | A license type is given to users who can create questions in the library and take technical interviews using HackerRank Interviews. |
Developer | A license type is given to users who can create questions and interviews and access candidates. A developer license is usually assigned to a software developer or technical manager within the company. |
Team Admin | This is a type of user who has complete access to manage other users within their team, |
Company Admin | This type of user has complete access to manage all the teams within the company, including all tests, questions, and interviews, and modifying company-level settings. A company admin usually has a recruiter or developer license. |
Roles | There are job positions in any company for which candidates are hired. At HackerRank, it is a collection of different skills that match the skills required for a particular job opening. |
Flexible User Roles | Feature that allows company admins to adjust granular permissions for all users with a specific role, like Developer or Recruiter. Click here to learn more. |
Skills | A Skill is the knowledge of a technical topic or an ability to perform a technical task that can be assessed in a given period of time. |
Tests
Term | Section | Definition |
Test | General | Online assessments available on the HackerRank platform that companies use to assess candidates for various roles. Tests were formerly known as CodeScreen. |
Active Tests | General | Tests that are in the published state can be used to send invites to candidates. |
Archived Test | General | Tests that are not in use can be archived. Archiving a test removes it from the active test list without deleting it. |
Starred Tests | General | You can use this feature to make a particular test appear at the top of your tests tab. This will help you find important tests quickly. |
Test Sections | General | Logical categories within a test are used to group questions of similar type or that can test a candidate on a particular concept. |
Locked Test | General | Tests in this status are not editable by anyone within the company. Test owners or company admins can lock a test to prevent anyone from making any changes to its questions and settings. |
Try Test | General | A feature within the test that allows the Recruiters to perform a trial run of their tests before inviting candidates. During the trial, you can validate each test question by submitting the answer and viewing the results. |
Share Test | General | A feature within a test that allows test owners to share the test with other teams or users within their organization. Test owners can control the level of access that other teams or users can have to the test. |
Clone Test | General | A feature that allows you to create a copy of a test. The cloned test will have the same questions and settings as the original one. You can, however, modify the same later. |
Draft Test | General | Any test that has not been published is in Draft status. Test owners cannot invite candidates to a test in draft status. |
Cutoff Score | Test Settings | A score is set to tests that are used to filter out unqualified candidates from the test. All candidates with scores greater than the cutoff score will automatically be marked qualified. |
Test Instructions | Test Settings | A set of guidelines that can be set at the time of test creation for candidates to follow while attempting the test. |
Public Test | Test Settings | Tests can be accessed by anyone who has the URL to the test. |
Private URL | Test Settings | Tests that are password protected can be accessed by individuals who have the correct password to the test. |
Test Expiration Time | Test Settings | The time frame for the test is marked by the start login date/time and end login date/time. The test URL remains active within this time frame, and candidates can only attempt the test between the start and end times. |
Proctoring | Test Settings | The feature enables the hiring company to monitor a candidate's focus on the test screen while they are attempting the test. Using this feature, recruiters can assess their candidate's authenticity and note any suspicious activities or malpractices during the test. |
Confirmation Email | Test Settings | Enabling this setting will email the candidates after they complete a test. |
Reminder Email | Test Settings | Enabling this setting will send a reminder to candidates before a test. Only one reminder is sent to each candidate. |
Email Template | Test Settings | A sample test invitation format that already has some detail in place and can be edited further to meet the test requirements. Recruiters can save different email invite formats in the form of email templates, reuse them later, and share them with others within their team. |
Admin Email | Test Settings | A field in the Test Settings where you can put the email addresses of individuals who should receive candidate reports for the test. These individuals are other than the test owner or recruiter who invites the candidate. |
Test Summary report | Test Report | A short overview of the report of a candidate who is invited to a test. The test summary page contains the current test status (e.g., "test completed-evaluation required, test completed, etc.), the candidate's details, their score for each question that is present in the test, etc. |
Detailed Report | Test Report | A detailed test report explaining a candidate's performance in a test. The Test Reports are generated after the candidates have submitted a Test, and their answers are evaluated, and scores are assigned if applicable. |
Timeline | Test Report | This tab under the candidate report will have complete details about the candidate's actions from the start to the end of a test. |
Plagiarism Flag | Test Report | A flag denotes if a candidate's code submission is similar to other codes available on the internet. |
Test Insight | Test Insights | Datapoints that provide a complete statistical analysis of the progress of a test. The test insights help recruiters analyze the trend of their candidates’ performance compared to the time taken and scores they achieved in a particular Test. |
Distribution of Candidate Score | Test Insights | A graph represents the different scores achieved by candidates who have submitted the test. You can use this score graph to understand the approximate number or percentage of candidates who are successful with the test and can potentially be hired. |
Median Attempt Time | Test Insights | Indicates the median value from different candidates’ test completion times. This median value is a benchmark correlation to separate the faster and slower test takers. |
Median Time to Full Score | Test Insights | Indicates the median value from different test completion times. It considers only those tests in which candidates have achieved a full score. This median value serves as a benchmark correlation to separate test takers who achieved a full score in the shortest possible time. |
Median Time | Test Insights | This graph represents the median time taken to solve each question in the test. |
Median Score | Test Insights | For every question in the test, this graph represents the median value of the scores achieved. |
Candidate Status | Test Insights | A pie chart that represents the distribution of candidates who have passed or failed the test and those who are yet to be evaluated for the test. |
Test Health Dashboard | Test Health | A dashboard that offers an up-to-date view of the health of the test. It consists of a set of metrics that assist you in taking immediate steps to enhance the quality of your hiring process. |
Candidate Response | Test Health | The measure of the number of candidates who start the test to the number of invites delivered to the candidates. |
Invite Email Delivery Rate | Test Health | The percentage of candidates who received their invites in the inbox without it bouncing or getting marked as spam. |
Invite Email Open Rate | Test Health | The percentage of candidates who received your invites and opened them instead of ignoring or deleting them. |
Test Link Click Rate | Test Health | The percentage of candidates who clicked the link to take your test after opening the invite email. |
Test Start Rate | Test Health | The percentage of candidates who clicked on the invite link to take the test has completed the steps and started the test. |
Assessment Quality | Test Health | You can find out how well your tests are helping in evaluating the candidates' strengths and weaknesses with the help of Assessment Quality. It is based on various inputs, from the design of the tests to candidates' experience in taking them. |
Attempt Duration Distribution | Test Health | Determines whether your test's length is well-calibrated - not too long or short. |
Attempt Rate | Test Health | The metric to know how many candidates started the test and submitted an answer to at least one question. It measures the initial impression your test gives the candidates when they first see it. |
Completion Rate | Test Health | The metric is to know how many candidates are willing to see it through to the end, submitting an answer to every question on the test. A high completion rate means your test is well-calibrated to your candidates' abilities. A low completion rate means your candidates got stuck or frustrated midway through the test-taking process. |
Candidate Feedback | Test Health | This measure measures the overall candidate experience of your test. It gives the average rating across all candidates who chose to provide feedback. |
Score Distribution | Test Health | A bell curve of the U-shaped curve metric is based on the distribution of scores candidates receive on tests. Tests with a wide score spread that are not too easy or too hard are more likely to lead to a positive hiring outcome. |
Interviews
Term | Definition |
Interview | A real-time pair programming environment is needed to support remote technical interviews ranging from simple coding challenges to full-stack development scenarios. The interview was formerly known as CodePair. Click here to learn more. |
My Pads | A list of all the interviews you created. |
HackerRank Lobby | A virtual waiting room for the candidate and the interviewers participating in an interview. When multiple interviewers access a single interview, the candidate or interviewer can wait in the HackerRank Lobby until they can enter the interview. Click here to learn more. |
Whiteboard | A virtual tool that lets candidates and interviewers sketch diagrams using easy tools from the toolbar. When you end the interview, the sketches on the whiteboard are captured and available in the candidate’s report. Click here to learn more. |
Scorecard | A private scorecard to manually evaluate the candidate's skills during an interview. It displays a set of skills to be analyzed based on the role that the candidate is getting hired for. Click here to learn more. |
Recommended Questions | A set of interview questions, curated specifically for interviews that take less than 30 minutes to solve, is designed to have a quick read time. It comes with a set of interviewer's guidelines that provide hints, solution code, complexity analysis, potential follow-up questions, etc. |
Interview Templates | A structured set of questions to assist you in asking similar questions to every candidate applying for a particular role. Interview templates will reduce bias and provide a way to benchmark and compare candidates to get the right fit. |
Leave Interview | A button inside the Interview allows interviewers to leave the interview without disturbing others. This feature is particularly helpful when multiple interviewers simultaneously present in the same interview. |
End Interview | A button inside the Interview that ends the session for all the participants present in the interview. |
Candidates
Term | Definition |
Badges | Candidates can participate in various challenges in HackerRank. Upon completing those challenges, they will be awarded Badges. |
Benchmarking | Measure to compare candidate’s scores on specific skills against a cohort of candidates who have been assessed on the same set of skills. |
Candidate | Individuals who attempt or are invited to attempt tests or interviews on the HackerRank platform |
Candidate Packet | One-stop solution for a candidate’s skills summary inside HackerRank. It hosts a collection of reports and scorecards of all the tests and interviews that a candidate has taken part in for a particular role. |
Contest History | The history of all the contests in the HackerRank Community (HRC) in which the candidate participated in the past. |
Public Profile | Activities of the candidate in the HackerRank Community (HRC). It includes the candidate's certificate, badges, and contest details. The Public Profile is a part of the Candidate Packet. |
Skill Summary | Summary of a candidate's performance in all the skills that are mapped to a particular role in which they are being evaluated.
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Timeline | List of events, including tests and interviews on HackerRank in which a candidate has participated historically, arranged chronologically, according to their occurrence. The timeline is a part of the Candidate Packet. |
Verified Skills | Skills in which a candidate has successfully completed the HackerRank Skill Certification test. |
Library
Term | Section | Definition |
Question | General | A technical problem to evaluate the candidate on a particular skill. Questions can be of different types. |
Library Questions | General | A collection of all the readymade questions created by HackerRank. These questions are of various types and complexities, categorized across multiple programming languages. These questions come under HackerRank Questions in the Library. Library Questions are often referred to as Library content. |
Custom Questions | General | Questions created by you and other company members using the HackerRank account. These questions come under the "My Company Questions" section in the library. Custom Questions are often referred to as Library content. |
Archived Questions | General | This comprises all the custom questions archived by you or any other member of your company using the HackerRank for Work account. |
Cloning a Question | General | Making a copy of a particular question. |
Leaked Question | General | A question on the internet matching structurally and semantically with the HackerRank library question. Leaked questions are filtered out in the library by default. |
Programming questions | General | Question types such as Coding, HTML<CSS<Javascript, Database, and Approximate solutions are recommended for junior developers. |
Projects Questions | General | Container-based real-world challenges that allow you to evaluate programmers who are familiar with each layer of software technology and are adept at front-end programming, back-end programming, Full-stack development, DevOps, Data Science, and databases. |
Question Insights | Question Insights | These data points provide a complete statistical analysis of a question, helping the hiring company analyze the performance of that question under multiple parameters. |
Author | Question Insights | The one who created the question. |
Attempts | Question Insights | A number of the candidates submitted a response to the question. |
Recommended Time | Question Insights | Suggested time to solve the question. |
Median Score | Question Insights | 50% of the candidates who attempted the question scored less than or equal to the number mentioned. |
Median Attempt Time | Question Insights | 50% of the candidates who attempted this question took less than or equal to the time mentioned. |
Median Time to Full Score | Question Insights | 50% of the candidates who scored 100% answering this question took less than or equal to the time mentioned. |
Score Distribution | Question Insights | A graph that elaborates the distribution of the score percentage of candidates who attempted a response to the question. |
Usage Over Time | Question Insights | A graph that explains how many candidates attempted to answer this question per month from its inception to date. |
Candidates by language | Question Insights | This pie chart shows the percentage of candidates answering this question based on language. |
Language Stats | Question Insights | A statistical table of candidates by language and the Median Score, Maximum Score Obtained, and Median Time Taken. |
Insights
Term | Definition |
Test Usage Dashboard | Embedded Looker dashboards give you deeper insights into the various activities related to Tests performed from your HackerRank account. It helps you analyze which of your company's recruitment teams are being efficient and effective with conducting tests and the candidates’ responses to them. The Test Usage Dashboard is present inside the Insights tab of your HackerRank account, and only company admin users can access this dashboard. |
Interview Usage Dashboard | Embedded Looker dashboards give you deeper insights into the various activities related to interviews performed from your HackerRank account. It helps you analyze which of your company's recruitment teams are efficient and effective in conducting interviews and the duration of interviewing the candidates. The Interview Usage Dashboard is present inside the Insights tab of your HackerRank account, and only company admin users can access this dashboard. |
Interview Questions Dashboard | Embedded Looker dashboards in your account that display the overall statistics of HackerRank questions and the custom questions that are used in your interviews. |
Legacy Reports | Set of dashboards and trends to view the activities of the Recruiters and the developers in the form of charts. These are the former representations of insights from your HackerRank account and will be deprecated soon. The improved dashboards are the Test Usage Dashboard, Interview Usage Dashboard, and Interview Question Dashboards, as explained earlier. |