Scoring a Multiple Choice Question

On HackerRank, multiple-choice questions (MCQs) can be assigned with a score in two ways: at the question level or the test level. To ensure a consistent scoring, HackerRank introduced an updated scoring system in 2020 where the test level score took precedence during the evaluation.  

For accounts created before 2020, the default was to use question-level scores, leading to conflicts in how tests are scored. This article aims to explain how the current and old scoring systems work and what happens to the tests within a conflict state.  

Current Scoring System

In the current scoring system, question-level scoring is straightforward, but a test setter can also assign a test-specific score for all MCQ questions in a particular test, including negative markings for incorrect answers. When you set a test-level score, it overrides any custom scores previously assigned to individual questions, and all questions in the test will adopt this current score. If no test-level score is set, questions with custom scores will retain individual scores.

Important: This scoring system is available for all accounts created after 2020. From July 2024, all accounts older than 2020 will also have the current scoring system.

Old Scoring System

In the previous system, users could not directly set a custom score for an MCQ question through the interface. However, a custom score could be assigned when the MCQ question was bulk uploaded via a CSV file, which included an extra field for specifying the score.

In the old scoring model, if a test-level score was set, all MCQ questions without a custom score would inherit this test-level score (defaulting to 5 if no score was specified). MCQ questions with a custom score assigned through the CSV upload would retain their custom scores, ensuring accurate and customized scoring for each question.

Tests created before 2020 with MCQ questions assigned custom scores and retaining them at the test level create a conflict with the current scoring system that overrides any custom scores. Therefore, those specific tests still follow the old scoring model.

Example of Scoring Systems

Old Scoring

Let’s imagine a test has 4 MCQ questions and the test level MCQ correct score is set at 10.  

As we are talking about the older MCQs let’s assume only 2 questions were provided with a custom score at the question level:

Question                        Score

Question 1                       5

Question 2                      2

Question 3                      x(No custom score) 

Question 4                      x(No custom score)

Here’s how the test will be graded in the old and the current version of the test:

Questions marked with an asterisk (*) have scores that differ between the old and current versions.

Current Scoring

For the same example test as above the current scoring system looks like :

Here all the questions retained the test level score 10, the questions without a custom score were cloned and assigned with a test level score. 

Note: Some tests in the old scoring system have questions with custom scores different from the overall test score. To prevent changes in grading, these tests will continue to use the old scoring system and will display the following message

You can continue using these tests as you prefer, and the experience or scoring of these tests will remain the same. However, these tests cannot be cloned further due to the state of conflict in the scoring system. 

Multiple Correct Answers and Negative Scoring for Incorrect Answers

The multiple-choice questions get evaluated automatically. While creating a question, the question setter marks the correct answer. Later, candidates' responses are compared to the correct answer for scoring the question during automatic evaluation.

You can assign a total score to an MCQ question while creating it. If there is more than one correct answer for a question, each correct answer is assigned an equal fraction of the total score. 

Note: No point is assigned if a candidate selects more answer options than the number of correct answer options.

Scoring With Multiple Correct Answers 

A multiple-choice question is assigned 5 points. There are two correct options. Therefore, each option is for 2.5 points. If a candidate selects only one correct option, then the candidate gets only 2.5 points. However, if a candidate selects more than two options, then the candidate receives zero points

You can customize the score for each question while creating a question. You can also change the score for the complete test with multiple-choice questions from the MCQ settings located in advanced settings. In that case, the score you set at the test level will override the score assigned to each of the MCQ questions present in the test.

Scoring With Negative Marks for Incorrect Answers 

The MCQ settings also allow you to assign a negative score for the incorrect answers. You can set a score for both correct and wrong answers. Negative marking for wrong answers ensures that candidates do not indulge in guessing the answers. 

Suppose you assign a score of -1 for each wrong answer. Each time a candidate selects a wrong answer, the score is deducted by 1 point.

The following example illustrates a case when there are multiple correct answers for a question with negative marking:

Suppose a multiple choice question is assigned 5 points for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong answer. This question has two correct answers: A and C.