HR AI Index
Index › Talent acquisition › Technical hiring assessm › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Technical hiring assessments for small business buyers

Asked as “coding assessment platform”, and as “technical interview tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
CoderPad
Contested
26% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessCoderPad26%ContestedThis pageMid-marketHackerRank28%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseHackerRank42%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01CoderPad26%5%38accepted challenger
02TestGorilla21%16%38accepted challenger
03Coderbyte9%15%27accepted challenger
04TestDome9%0%15accepted challenger
05HackerRank9%45%47criticized challenger
06CodeSignal7%28%32criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07Codility0%52%33criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
HackerRank vs CoderPadHackerRank vs CoderbyteCoderPad vs Coderbyte

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01CoderPad26%
02TestGorilla21%
03Coderbyte9%
04TestDome9%
05HackerRank9%
06CodeSignal7%
07Codility0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Codility
52%
17 of 33 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“**Who to Avoid:** Generic coding challenge platforms (e.g., HackerRank, Coderbyte, Codility for general coding).” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
HackerRank
45%
21 of 47 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“**Who to Avoid:** Generic coding challenge platforms (e.g., HackerRank, Coderbyte, Codility for general coding).” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
TestGorilla
16%
6 of 38 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“**Who to Avoid:** **TestGorilla** (specifically for small businesses with fluctuating hiring needs).” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Coderbyte
15%
4 of 27 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Who to Avoid:** Generic coding challenge platforms (e.g., HackerRank, Coderbyte, Codility for general coding).” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 883 links across 175 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews35 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
hackerrank.com
vendor site · HackerRank33 answers · 67 citations · 10 models
codesubmit.io
vendor site · CodeSubmit33 answers · 44 citations · 10 models
codesignal.com
vendor site · CodeSignal31 answers · 50 citations · 11 models
testtrick.com
vendor site · TestTrick24 answers · 33 citations · 8 models
testgorilla.com
vendor site · TestGorilla22 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
coderpad.io
vendor site · CoderPad18 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
codility.com
vendor site · Codility17 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
utkrusht.ai
17 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
g2.com
16 answers · 40 citations · 8 models
testlify.com
vendor site · Testlify16 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
goodfit.so
vendor site · Goodfit14 answers · 14 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/online-coding-interview-tools
32 answers · 10 models
codesubmit.io/blog/coding-assessment-tools-2024
22 answers · 8 models
codesignal.com/blog/5-coding-assessment-platforms-for-your-technical-hiring
22 answers · 9 models
hackerrank.com/writing/best-coding-assessment-tools
19 answers · 10 models
hackerrank.com/writing/best-developer-assessment-platforms-for-startups-hir…
19 answers · 9 models
codesubmit.io/blog/coding-assessment-tools
18 answers · 8 models
testgorilla.com/blog/coding-assessment-tools
15 answers · 7 models
goodfit.so/guides/best-coding-assessment-platforms
14 answers · 7 models
codility.com/how-to-choose-technical-assessment-platform
13 answers · 8 models
testtrick.com/blogs/best-technical-assessment-tools
11 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best coding assessment platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which technical interview tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top technical assessment platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best coding assessment platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a coding assessment platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which technical assessment platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceno first choiceHeldTestlify
Two alternativesCoderPad, TestDome
against: CodeshareCoderbyte
Two alternativesTestGorilla, Xobin
against: VS Code Live Shareno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniTestGorilla
Two alternativesCodility, HackerRank
CoderPadChanged
One alternativeCodeInterview
CodeSignal, Codility
Three alternativesDevSkiller, HackerRank, TestGorilla
TestDome
One alternativeCodeSignal Build
against: Codility, HackerRankno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashTestDome
Three alternativesCodeSubmit, CoderPad, Coderbyte
against: CodeSignal, HackerRankCoderPadChanged
Two alternativesCodeSubmit, Coderbyte
against: CodeSignal, HackerRankCoderPad, Coderbyte
Two alternativesCodeSubmit, TestGorilla
Coderbyte
Four alternativesAdaface, Playcode, TestDome, TestTrick
against: CodeSignal, Codility, HackerRank, TestGorillaCodeSubmit
Five alternativesAptora, Clarity, CoderPad, Coderbyte, Eval-X
against: CodeSignal, HackerRankagainst: CodeSignal, Codility, HackerRank, Mercer | Mettl, TestGorilla, Vervoe
Perplexity SonarCoderPad
Three alternativesCodeSignal, CodeSubmit, HackerRank
CoderPadHeldCoderPad, TestDome
Four alternativesCodeSignal, Codility, HackerRank, TestGorilla
Criteria Corp, TestGorilla
Three alternativesAdaface, Coderbyte, TestTrick
no first choiceagainst: CoderPad, Codility, HackerRank, TestGorilla
Grok 4.1 FastCoderbyte
Two alternativesCodeSignal, TestDome
against: Codility, HackerRank, LeetCodeCoderPadChanged
Two alternativesPlaycode, VS Code Live Share
against: CodeSignal, Codility, Greenhouse, HackerRank, LeetCodeTestGorilla
Four alternativesCodeSignal, CoderPad, Codility, HackerRank
against: KaratTestDome
Three alternativesCoderScreen, Coderbyte, TestGorilla
against: HackerRankno first choiceagainst: Codility, HackerRank, TestGorilla
Mistral SmallCodeSignal
Three alternativesCodeSubmit, HackerRank, TestGorilla
MeetGeekChanged
Two alternativesHackerRank, Hireflix
CodeSignal, TestGorilla
Three alternativesCodility, HackerRank, Woven
against: KaratHackerRank
Two alternativesCodeSignal, Coderbyte
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashCoderPad, TestGorilla
Three alternativesCoderbyte, HackerRank, TestDome
against: CodeSignal, CodilityTestGorillaChanged
Four alternativesCoderPad, HackerRank, Hireflix, Toggl Hire
CodeSignal
Three alternativesCoderPad, TestDome, TestGorilla
against: Codility, HackerRankCoderbyte, TestGorilla
Two alternativesCoderPad, HackerEarth
against: Codewars, HackerRankCodeSignal, CoderPad, TestGorilla
One alternativeToggl Hire
against: Codility, HackerRankagainst: CodeSignal, Coderbyte, Codility, HackerRank, HireVue
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceCleverX, CoderPad, HireMikeChangedno first choiceTestGorilla
Two alternativesCoderbyte, MeritTrac CodeTrac
no first choiceagainst: Codility, Criteria Corp, TestGorilla
Qwen 3.7 FlashAdaface
Three alternativesCoderPad, DevSkiller, TestGorilla
against: HackerRankTestGorillaChanged
Two alternativesCoderPad, Hirevire
CoderPad
Three alternativesCoderbyte, HackerRank, TestGorilla
HackerRank
Two alternativesCodeSignal, CoderPad
no first choiceagainst: Coderbyte, Codility, HackerRank
Kimi K2CodeSignal
Four alternativesCoderPad, Coderbyte, HackerRank, TestDome
CoderPadChanged
One alternativeCodeSignal
CoderPad, TestGorilla
Two alternativesCodeAid, CodeSignal
against: Codility, HackerRankTestDome, TestGorilla
Three alternativesCodeSignal Build, Coderbyte, Vervoe
no first choiceagainst: CodeSignal, CoderPad, Coderbyte, Codility, HackerRank
GLM 4.7 FlashXTestTrick
Four alternativesCodeSignal Build, Coderbyte, TestDome, TestGorilla
CoderPadChanged
Five alternativesCodeSignal, TestGorilla, TestTrick, Willo, myInterview
against: HackerRankCodeSignal, HackerRank
Four alternativesCodeSubmit, CoderPad, Codility, Testlify
against: PrampHackerRank
Three alternativesCodility, Playcode, TestGorilla
no first choiceagainst: Coderbyte, Codility, HackerRank, TestGorilla, Testlify
MiniMax M2.5no first choiceCoderPadChangedCoderbyte, TestGorilla
Four alternativesCodeSignal, CoderPad, HackerRank, Toggl Hire
against: CodilityGeektastic, HackerRank
Two alternativesCoderbyte, Codility
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:40yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:34yes15 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes19251 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:16yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:59yes4217 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:58yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:06yes2629 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:21yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:05no034 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:35yes1024 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:47yes26102 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:55yes519 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:50no03 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:35yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes1957 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:39yes185 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:21yes3520 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:53yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:08yes2018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:33yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:08yes2087 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:26yes2025 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:11yes1838 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:19yes581 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:26yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:23yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:25yes1223 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:47yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:26yes2816 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:52yes2012 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:17yes1620 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:34yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:12yes1039 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:57yes2544 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:08yes1435 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:28yes1223 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:21yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:23yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:01yes2224 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:25yes188 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:40yes4118 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:14yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:12yes1819 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:13yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:24no025 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:07yes937 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:29yes2453 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:30yes816 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:32no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:40no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:57yes1058 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:38yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:22yes1310 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:53no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:14yes1215 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:11yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:46no031 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:10no065 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:11yes1563 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:33no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:33yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:08yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:56yes2228 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:21yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:02yes4419 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:15yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:24yes3037 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:47yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:47yes2233 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:32yes2936 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:55yes28154 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:47yes1029 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
ClarityHire read as Clarity
Unresolved, counted raw
CodeInterview
CoderByte Live
Codeshare
Codewars
Criteria Corp/Codecheck
Daily.dev Recruiter / CodeSubmit
Devitools
Eval-X
Geektastic
GitHub-based assignments
HackerRank CodePair
Pastebin / GitHub Gists + Email
Pramp
Qodo
VS Code Live Share / Replit
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in talent acquisition

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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