Getting started

From Zero to aWorking Assessment

The full TestHike flow, from creating an assessment to reviewing a candidate's graded result.

1. Get access to the dashboard

Everything on the admin side happens in the TestHike dashboard, reachable from a web browser — no installation needed for your team. Contact us to get your organization set up.

2. Build your first assessment

Choose questions from the built-in library, write your own around your stack, or mix both. Set a weight for each question — every assessment's weights must add up to 100% before it can be published. See Creating an Assessment for the full walkthrough.

3. Invite candidates or students

Each candidate gets a short invite code in the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, sent by email along with a link to download the free TestHike desktop app. There's nothing else for them to set up.

4. Let the assessment run

Candidates complete the assessment within the window you set. If you want them to try the platform first, you can offer a mock assessment — an unscored practice run that shows correct answers immediately and skips the desktop security controls entirely.

5. Review results

As candidates submit, scores, code, and activity information appear in your dashboard. Coding and multiple-choice questions are scored instantly; written questions need a quick manual review before the final weighted score is ready. See Automatic Grading for exactly how scores are calculated.

What's next

Read The Candidate Experience to see exactly what candidates go through, or the Security overview if your team needs to review the assessment security model before rolling this out.