CodeLive is a great way to assess candidates in a real-time technical interview.
There are three formats of CodeLive interview rooms:
- WHITEBOARD MODE: Using whiteboard-only mode - great for more free-flowing interviews where the interviewer wants to make up questions or has questions (which aren't set up in Codility already) which they want to copy/paste in themselves as the interview progresses.
- TEMPLATE MODE: Using a template of multiple pre-selected tasks - great for more structured technical interviews where you have multiple interviewers involved in running interviews and you want to ensure standardization. It's also useful if your interviewer has a standard set of questions they know they want to ask, or if the session is in lieu of CodeCheck session so you still want the candidate to be scored appropriately compared to other candidates.
- REPORT MODE: Using the candidate's completed CodeCheck screening session - one of our favorite approaches, where the interviewer can load the candidate's submitted screening test and use that as a starting off point - great if the interviewer wants to get the candidate to optimize their work, or dig deeper into a mistake they made to see if they can fix it.
You select which of these formats you'd like the CodeLive room to run when you're preparing the Room.
To set it up, go to the CodeLive tab, click "Create a new room" and select the format from there:

Tips for WHITEBOARD MODE:
- When the session is ready to go live, the host/s will enter using the link or email link you've sent them and will see the whiteboard tab available for them to paste in a specific question they'd like to cover and set up before the candidate enters or can leave it blank, ready to go live with the candidate.
- Once the Host/s are ready to go, they'll click on "start" at which point the candidate will be allowed into the session and the can connect via voice and video call as desired.
Tips for using TEMPLATE MODE:
- Create a test comprised of the tasks you'd like to use in the CodeLive session. This could be a test you create, or a test one of your colleagues has created fr everyone to use. You can select up to 6 tasks, and while you don't have to use every task in the CodeLive session, your candidate's final report will be scored based on the total points from all tasks whether attempted or not.
- When the session is ready to go live, the host/s will enter using the link or email link you've sent them and will see each of the tasks selected in different tabs on the left-hand side of the screen. They'll also have an extra blank whiteboard tab in case they want to do something totally custom together.
Tips for REPORT MODE:
- When the session is ready to go live, the host/s will enter using the link or email link you've sent them and will see the task/s that the candidate submitted in their screening test, as well as the candidate's submitted code in the editor already loaded. They'll also have an extra blank whiteboard tab in case they want to do something totally custom together.
If you have any additional questions about CodeLive formats or would like to leave your feedback, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or contact us at support@codility.com.