What is a Coding Score, and how do I interpret a candidate's GCA Coding Score?

Summary: In this article, you will learn what a CodeSignal Coding Score is, how to interpret a candidate's General Coding Assessment (GCA) Coding Score, and how to interpret GCA Core Skills scores.

Note: In Spring 2023, we will implement a new, recalibarted scoring system for all skills evaluation framework. To learn more about this change, read Understanding Coding Score 2023. To learn more about how to convert existing coding scores to the new framework, read Converting Historical Coding Score Thresholds to Coding Score 2023.

The Coding Score

After completing any CodeSignal Certified assessment, candidates are given a Coding Score that provides an objective measure of their coding skills. It measures code-writing and problem-solving skills, as well as the ability to produce clean code at a reasonable speed. 

• The Coding Score takes into account 4 different factors: 

1. Correctness of the solutions
2. Implementation ability
3. Problem-solving ability
4. Speed 

• Coding Scores are shown in percentiles. Coding Scores range from 300 (lowest score) to 850 (highest score).
• Only test-takers who do NOT submit any tasks receive a score of 300. The lowest score for test-takers who submit at least one task is 600.
• All CodeSignal Certified assessments, including the General Coding Assessment (GCA), give the test-taker a Coding Score (more details below).
• Once a candidate completes the test, their results will be in the “Pending” stage as our team reviews their session. We work to review results as soon as possible, typically within 1-3 business days. 
• If we are able to verify that no unusual activity took place during the candidate's session, we will verify the results and automatically share them - along with the Coding Report - with the companies the candidate has authorized to view them. Candidates can also manually share their Coding Report with additional companies.

Interpreting the GCA Score

The General Coding Assessment (GCA) is designed to measure a candidate's overall coding skills and breaks down a few aspects of coding ability: code-writing skills, implementation skills, problem-solving skills, and speed. 

The table below displays the average score associated with the tasks a candidate solved in the GCA. If a candidate correctly solved only the first task, for example, they can expect to receive a Coding Score of around 660. 

GCA Core Skills

In addition to giving a candidate's overall coding score, the GCA provides more detailed information on a candidates's core skills. Currently, the GCA calculates are three core skills: Speed, Problem Solving, and Implementation. The core skills are metrics from 0 to 100. 

Here is how to interpret the core skill scores:

If a candidate scores for example 67 in problem-solving, for example, it means they have "Good" problem-solving skills.

How Core Skills are calculated

The problem-solving and implementation scores depend on the tasks that candidates solved fully correct. Each task requires some level of implementation skills and some level of problem-solving skills,  and the score the candidate receives will vary depending on the set of tasks that the candidate solves.

Here is a summary of the score labels for the most common outcomes for the GCA.

Solving the first 3 tasks, for instance, means that the candidate has Good Implementation skills and Average Problem Solving Skills.

The speed score is being calculated based on the coding time for the tasks that the candidate solved. A speed score is 50 means the candidate solved the tasks in the average time expected for those tasks. A candidate can have a speed score equal to 100 even by solving only the first task because it only takes into accounts the solved tasks and compares the solve times against the average times for those tasks. The harder the task, the more impact it will have on the speed score.

Questions? Contact support@codesignal.com.