AI-Graded Questions: Text, Audio, and Video Answers

AI-graded questions let candidates answer in their own words, in writing or on camera, and have Equip AI evaluate every response for you. You set the question, the answer format, and an optional evaluation prompt; Equip scores each answer and can also produce a holistic report.

Use AI-graded questions when a multiple-choice option list cannot capture the answer: explanations, self-introductions, situational judgment, or spoken communication.

Question Types

AI-graded tests and one-way AI interviews support three question types:

Question Type	What the Candidate Does	How It Is Graded
One-Way	Responds to a fixed prompt in text, audio, or video	Evaluated by Equip AI
Multiple Choice	Picks the one correct option	Auto-graded instantly
Multiple Answer	Picks all correct options	Auto-graded instantly

Conversational AI interviews use their own content types. See Interview Content Types.

Answer Formats

Every One-Way question specifies one of three answer formats: Text, Audio, or Video. Each format has its own controls, set per question.

Format	Controls You Can Set
Text	Minimum and maximum word count
Audio	Minimum and maximum duration, number of retakes, auto-start recording, replay limit
Video	Same controls as Audio

Auto-start recording begins capturing without the candidate pressing a button, which prevents over-rehearsed answers.

Audio and video responses show a Processing status while Equip AI transcribes and evaluates them, then change to Graded.

Evaluation Prompts

An evaluation prompt tells Equip AI what a good answer looks like for a specific question. It is optional: without one, the AI grades the response on general relevance and quality against the question itself. A prompt can be up to 100 words, and the best ones read like instructions to a human grader:

Award full points if the candidate names a concrete project, explains
their own role in it, and mentions a measurable outcome. Deduct points
for vague claims with no specifics. Ignore grammar and accent.

Beyond per-question prompts, two test-level options shape the evaluation:

Setting	What It Does
Evaluation context	Background you give the AI about the role or test, applied to every question
Holistic report	On top of per-question scores, generates an overall report from a report template

You can manually override the AI score on any response. See Manual Grading.

Points and Negative Marking

Point values are set per question while building the test:

One-Way questions carry a points value that the AI awards fully or partially based on answer quality.
Multiple Choice and Multiple Answer questions can have optional negative marking for wrong answers and optional randomization of option order.

Negative marking on AI tests is opt-in, unlike Equip library quizzes where MCQ negative marking is always on. If you enable it, say so in your test instructions so candidates know guessing has a cost.

To offer question text in several languages, see Multilingual Tests.

Create a One-Way Interview - Build an interview from AI-graded questions
Manual Grading - Review and override AI-awarded scores
Custom Report Templates - Design the holistic evaluation report
Multilingual Tests - Offer questions in the candidate’s language

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AI-Graded Questions: Text, Audio, and Video Answers

Question Types

Answer Formats

Evaluation Prompts

Points and Negative Marking

​Question Types

​Answer Formats

​Evaluation Prompts

​Points and Negative Marking

​Related Resources

Question Types

Answer Formats

Evaluation Prompts

Points and Negative Marking

Related Resources