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Equip’s library includes many ready-made programming questions across multiple languages and difficulty levels. But sometimes you have a very specific problem you want candidates to solve. For that, use Custom Tests to create your own Programming Test, complete with your problem statement, languages, and test cases.
Equip recommends its own coding content for most teams. Library questions have been battle-tested by thousands of candidates, and unlike Equip quizzes, you can pick the exact coding question and see it in results. Build a custom challenge only when you need a problem the library does not cover; see Issues with Custom Coding Challenges for why setup mistakes are costly.

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Setting Up the Challenge

Custom programming tests are created from the Custom Tests section of your Recruiter Dashboard, then added to any assessment.
1

Open Custom Tests

Log in as a recruiter and open the Custom Tests section from the sidebar of your Assessments Dashboard.
2

Create a new Coding Challenge

Click the Coding Challenge tab, then Add New, and select Programming Test.
3

Write the problem statement

Describe the task clearly: what the program should do, the input format, and the expected output format. Ambiguous instructions are the most common reason candidates get stuck.
4

Choose languages and boilerplates

Enable the programming languages candidates may use, and provide a boilerplate (also called driver or starter code) for each one. The boilerplate handles reading input and printing output so candidates can focus on the logic.
5

Add test cases

Write the sample test cases and real test cases that Equip will use to run and evaluate submissions, then save the test.
Custom tests belong to your whole team. Teammates can view, edit, and reuse the same programming test across multiple assessments.

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Test Cases

Programming tests are auto-evaluated: Equip runs each submission against the test cases you define and grades it automatically. You provide two kinds of test cases when creating the challenge. Cover the obvious happy path, but also add edge cases: empty inputs, boundary values, and large inputs where relevant.
Be exact with input and output formats. Even a tiny mismatch, such as a stray space or a missing newline in your expected output, can mark every submission incorrect. Equip does not triage broken custom coding questions, because these issues are nearly always a setup error in the question itself.
Before inviting candidates, preview the assessment and solve your own challenge end to end. It is the fastest way to catch boilerplate or test-case mistakes, and previews are free and unlimited.

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Choosing Languages

You decide which languages candidates can submit in. Every enabled language needs its own boilerplate so the candidate starts from working scaffolding that reads input and prints output in the format your test cases expect. Equip supports C, C++, C#, Dart, Go, Java, JavaScript, NodeJS, TypeScript, Kotlin, PHP, Python (including an AI/ML environment), Ruby, Rust, Scala, Swift, and SQL. See Supported Programming Languages for the exact versions.
A programming test must have at least one language enabled; the assessment builder will not let you proceed without one. If you need a language that is not listed, contact us on live chat and we can enable additional languages for your account.

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Adding the Test to an Assessment

A custom test cannot be shared with candidates directly. It must sit inside an assessment.
1

Open the assessment settings

From your dashboard, open the settings of a new or existing assessment.
2

Go to the Tests tab

Select the Tests tab and click Programming in the left sidebar.
3

Add your test

Hover over the Add Programming button and select My Content, then pick your custom programming test.
Each programming test holds one question. To give different candidates different problems, create several custom challenges and use the Randomize option in the Test Order tab so each candidate receives one at random. See Randomizing Coding Questions.