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Getting started for candidates

This guide walks you from signup to your first submitted assessment. It applies both to invited candidates (you received an email from a hiring team) and self-serve users practicing on public challenges.

1. Create your account

If you were invited by a company:

  1. Open the invitation link from your email. It takes you to the invitation page.
  2. If you don't have an account yet, click Create Account. The signup form is pre-filled with your invitation details.
  3. Sign up with email/password or a social login.
  4. After signing in you are returned to the invitation page — click Accept to join the organization.
  5. You land on your dashboard, where any assigned tasks are already waiting.

If you're signing up on your own:

  1. Go to the registration page and sign up.
  2. On the role selection screen, choose Candidate. (You do not need an organization to use SkillFoundry as a candidate.)
  3. You land on your candidate dashboard.

Invitation links expire. If you see "Invalid or expired invitation", ask the hiring team to resend the invite.

2. Find a task

Your dashboard has two tabs:

  • Overview — tasks assigned to you by a hiring team, plus curated public challenges you can try.
  • My Tasks — your attempt history with statuses (Not Started, In Progress, Submitted, Expired) and scores.

You can also browse GitHub PR challenges — tasks built from real open-source pull requests where you solve the same problem the original author did, then compare your approach with the accepted solution.

3. Start the assessment

Click a task to open its detail page. Read the description, requirements, and any linked documentation, then click Start. This creates an attempt and opens the code workspace.

Before you start, check two things:

  • Time limit — some tasks are timed. The timer starts when you start the attempt.
  • AI policy — a banner in the workspace tells you whether AI assistance (Copilot, ChatGPT, etc.) is allowed for this task. This is set per task and per organization. If AI is not allowed and usage is detected, your submission is flagged for review. See Monitoring and data collection.

4. Work in the code workspace

The workspace has three areas:

  1. Task details — the ticket: summary, acceptance criteria, documentation links, and comments/Q&A.
  2. Code workspace — a file explorer, code editor, and terminal with Run, Run Tests, and Submit buttons.
  3. Customer chat — an AI-simulated customer/stakeholder. Ask it clarifying questions the way you would a real product owner. Asking good questions is part of how you're evaluated, so use it.

Tips:

  • Run the tests early and often. Test results are the largest part of your score, and running tests before submitting catches obvious problems.
  • Your file changes are saved to the attempt as you work, but do not close the tab assuming everything is finished — always verify test results before submitting.
  • If you navigate away from the workspace, the platform records a pause event; timed tasks keep counting down.

Prefer to work in your own editor?

Many tasks support an IDE mode using the SkillFoundry VS Code extension: you clone the real repository and work locally with your usual tooling. See Taking an assessment in VS Code.

5. Submit

When you're done, click Submit. A confirmation dialog appears — read it carefully:

Submission is final. After you confirm, you cannot edit this attempt again.

After submitting you return to your dashboard. The task appears under My Tasks as Submitted, and a score appears once evaluation completes. For some task types you can start a fresh attempt from the task detail page if you want to try again.

6. See your results

  • My Tasks shows your score per attempt once scoring completes.
  • The Behavioral Analysis page (if enabled by your organization) shows how you work over time: an overall behavioral score (0–10), skill bars for things like problem-solving approach and time management, and personalized recommendations.
  • If gamification is enabled, completing tasks earns XP, streaks, and achievements — see Learning paths and gamification.

Under Settings you can configure:

  • Profile — display name, bio, skills, links (GitHub, LinkedIn, portfolio), timezone.
  • Notifications — email/SMS channels and per-event toggles (task assigned, evaluation complete, and so on).
  • GitHub integration — connect your GitHub account to import your own pull requests as practice tasks.

What SkillFoundry monitors while you work

During an assessment SkillFoundry records how you work — activity such as file opens, edits, and test runs (activity, not content) — to understand your working process and protect assessment integrity. It never records keystrokes or clipboard contents, and in IDE mode your code only leaves your machine as a git diff when you submit. Full details, including exactly what is and isn't collected, are in Monitoring and data collection. You can view every collected event live from the transparency panel.

Quick answers

  • Can I use Google / Stack Overflow? Yes, unless the task instructions say otherwise. Reading documentation is a positively scored behavior.
  • Can I use AI tools? Only if the task's AI policy allows it — check the banner in the workspace.
  • What if my internet drops? Your work is saved as you go, and telemetry is buffered and re-sent when the connection returns. If the workspace state looks wrong after reconnecting, refresh the page.
  • What if I run out of time? You'll be prompted to submit. Submit whatever you have — partial progress is still evaluated.

More in the FAQ and Troubleshooting.