# Candidate assessment: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "pre-employment assessment platform" and as "skills testing tool for hiring", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/talent/candidate-assessment/2026-11

**Standing:** TestGorilla leads with 51% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [TestGorilla](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/testgorilla/index.md) | 51% | 5% | 56 |
| 2 | [Criteria Corp](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/criteria-corp/index.md) | 12% | 6% | 36 |
| 4 | [Codility](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/codility/index.md) | 4% | 9% | 34 |
| 5 | [EmployTest](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/employtest/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 15 |
| 7 | [HackerRank](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/hackerrank/index.md) | 2% | 7% | 41 |
| 8 | [CodeSignal](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/codesignal/index.md) | 2% | 7% | 14 |
| 9 | [Harver](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/harver/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 11 |
| 17 | [Vervoe](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/vervoe/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 22 |
| 18 | [Mercer | Mettl](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/mercer-mettl/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 19 | [SHL](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/shl/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 15 |
| 21 | [The Predictive Index](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/the-predictive-index/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 22 | [HireVue](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/hirevue/index.md) | 0% | 25% | 20 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 133 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Criteria Corp, Harver, Plum; alternatives JobCannon, SHL, TestGorilla, Vervoe
- GPT-5.4 mini: Criteria Corp; alternatives HighMatch, TestGorilla, Testlify, The Predictive Index
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: TestGorilla; alternatives Criteria Corp, The Predictive Index, Vervoe
- Perplexity Sonar: Criteria Corp; alternatives Codility, TestGorilla, Vervoe
- Grok 4.20: Criteria Corp; alternatives Harver, TestGorilla, Thomas International
- Mistral Small: Codility, HackerRank; alternatives TestGorilla, Thomas International
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: TestGorilla; alternatives Canditech, Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank
- Llama 4 Maverick: Thomas International; alternatives Codility, EmployTest, HackerRank, Weirdly
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: TestGorilla; alternatives HackerRank, PI Online, Spark Hire, Vervoe
- Kimi K2: TestGorilla; alternatives Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, HireVue
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: TestGorilla; alternatives Criteria Corp, HireVue, Thomas International
- MiniMax M2.5: Prevue HR, TestGorilla; alternatives Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, HireVue
- GPT-6 Luna: Criteria Corp; alternatives TestGorilla
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Codility, Thomas; alternatives HackerRank, HireVue, Weirdly

## Sources the answers cite

69 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- testgorilla.com: 28 answers, 37 citations
- leadchangegroup.com: 27 answers, 42 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 25 answers, 26 citations
- capterra.com: 24 answers, 42 citations
- getapp.com: 21 answers, 29 citations
- criteriacorp.com: 18 answers, 30 citations
- g2.com: 17 answers, 26 citations
- firsthr.app: 14 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://leadchangegroup.com/pre-employment-testing-software/mid-market (22 answers)
- https://capterra.com/pre-employment-testing-software (15 answers)
- https://resources.rework.com/tools/recruiting-ats/best-pre-employment-assessment-tools-2026 (13 answers)
- https://firsthr.app/compare/hiring/pre-employment-assessment (12 answers)
- https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-pre-employment-assessment-tools (12 answers)
- https://employtest.com/ (11 answers)
- https://getapp.com/hr-employee-management-software/pre-employment-testing/org/mid-size-business (11 answers)
- https://saasworthy.com/list/pre-employment-testing (11 answers)
- https://testgorilla.com/pricing (11 answers)
- https://testgorilla.com/blog/how-to-choose-pre-employment-assessment-platform (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Proctorio: 5 of 5 labels negative. "Aggressive monitoring (eye tracking, mouse movement, gaze detection), algorithmic bias against students with darker skin tones, invasive browser lockdown" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- ProctorU: 4 of 5 labels negative. "alleging these companies engaged in unfair and deceptive practices" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- HireVue: 5 of 20 labels negative. "What to avoid on a tight budget ... HireVue is built for enterprise-scale AI video interviewing and starts at ~$35,000/yr with no free tier." (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)
- Honorlock: 3 of 7 labels negative. "Similar invasive monitoring concerns, network traffic analysis, privacy complaints" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: TestGorilla at 51%.

- Criteria Corp: 19% to 12%, −7. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 133, unchanged.
- Codility: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 14 → 4 of 133.
- EmployTest: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 20 → 5 of 133.
- Harver: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 16 → 9 of 133.
- Bryq: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 13 of 133.
- Testlify: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 20 of 133.
- TestGorilla: 52% to 51%, −1. Inside the floor by 12 points · rank 1 of 133, unchanged.
- HackerRank: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 7 of 133, unchanged.
- CodeSignal: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 9 → 8 of 133.
- Vervoe: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 13 → 17 of 133.
- Mercer | Mettl: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 23 → 18 of 133.
- SHL: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 18 → 19 of 133.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.