What Is an Online Technical Screening and How Do You Pass It?

An online technical screening is the first filter a company applies after reading your resume. Passing it is what earns you the onsite loop. It takes one of two shapes. The first is a timed coding test of 60 to 90 minutes that you complete alone on a platform such as HackerRank. The second is a 30 to 45 minute coding call, live or recorded, with an engineer or a third-party interviewer. Most companies run exactly one of these before committing interviewer time to you.

If you searched for the general definition of an online technical assessment and its question types, that is answered in What is online technical assessment?. This page covers the screening step itself: its three formats, what passing takes, and how to prepare in a week.

Format 1: the automated coding test

An automated test is a set of two to four problems served by a platform such as HackerRank, CodeSignal, or Codility. It has a fixed time limit and hidden test cases that grade your code the moment you submit. Nobody watches you live. However, the platform may record tab switches and your webcam, and some tests lock the browser. Your score is the number of test cases passed per problem, often weighted by difficulty. A recruiter compares it to a threshold before deciding.

Format 2: the live screen with an engineer

A live screen is a 30 to 45 minute video call with an engineer from the company. The engineer gives you one or two problems in a shared editor such as CoderPad or HackerRank's interview tool. The editor runs code, so you are expected to write a working solution. The engineer grades your reasoning as much as the result. Expect to explain your approach before typing, state the time and space complexity when you finish, and answer one follow-up that changes a constraint.

Format 3: the outsourced screen

Some companies hand the screening call to a third party such as Karat. Its interviewers run a standard session of about 45 to 60 minutes and write a report the company reads later. The format is a few short knowledge questions followed by one coding problem. The interviewer follows a script rather than a conversation. Karat offers a redo interview on request when the hiring company allows it, so ask the recruiter whether that applies.

How it differs from an online assessment and a recruiter screen

An online assessment (OA) is the automated test alone. Companies such as Amazon use the term for their own version. In other words, the screening is the step and the OA is one format the step can take. The Amazon online assessment, the Google online assessment, and the Microsoft online assessment each have their own page.

A recruiter phone screen is a 20 to 30 minute call with a non-engineer. It comes before the technical screening. It checks your experience, your interest, your location, and your salary range, and it contains no coding. Passing it means the recruiter sends you the screening link. It is a check on fit rather than on skill.

What passing looks like

For an automated test, passing usually means all test cases on two of three problems. All test cases on the hardest problem plus most of the others is also common. For a live screen, one full working solution with clean code and a correct complexity statement is usually enough. A second problem is a bonus. Thresholds vary by company and by how many candidates are in the pool that week. They are rarely published, so treat any number you read as one candidate's report rather than a rule.

Partial credit exists in both formats. A solution that passes the sample cases but times out on the large hidden ones still scores something. An interviewer will note that you found the right approach even if the code has a bug. What scores nothing is silence: an untouched problem, or a live screen in which you never explained your plan.

A seven-day preparation plan

• Days 1 and 2: pattern review. Work through the twelve or so coding patterns that cover most screening problems, such as two pointers, sliding window, and breadth-first search. Solve two problems per pattern.
• Days 3 and 4: timed sessions on the real platform. Use the practice mode on HackerRank or CodeSignal, whichever your recruiter named. Complete two 60-minute sets under the clock so the editor and the input format are familiar.
• Day 5: speaking while coding. Solve two problems out loud in front of a friend or a recording. State the approach first and the complexity last. This is the skill the live screen grades.
• Day 6: review misses. Return to every problem you did not finish in the timed sets and solve it without the clock.
• Day 7: rest and logistics. Test your webcam, browser, and internet. Read the platform's rules. Stop practicing by the evening.

How to Prepare

• Learn the patterns rather than the problems. Grokking the Coding Interview organizes the common screening questions by pattern, so a new problem maps to a known approach.
• Know what the platform asks. What type of questions are asked in online assessment? lists the question types by format.
• Rehearse the live format. A mock interview with an engineer reproduces the 45-minute screen, including the explain-first habit.
• Fill data structure gaps first. Grokking Data Structures for Coding Interviews covers the arrays, hash maps, trees, and graphs that screening problems use.