> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.equip.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Question Difficulty Levels and Years of Experience

> How Equip's difficulty levels map to years of experience, and how to choose the right level for your role.

<Tip>
  Choose **Medium** for candidates with 0-2 years of experience, **Hard** for 3-4 years, and **Expert** for 5 or more years. Equip then draws questions of the matching point value for each candidate.
</Tip>

## Difficulty Levels

Every question in Equip's content library is tagged with a **difficulty level**. When you create an assessment, you choose the difficulty of the questions that go into it.

The available levels depend on the [test type](/test-types):

| Test Type                      | Difficulty Levels                                      |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Quiz                           | Medium, Hard, Expert                                   |
| Coding (Programming, SQL, CSS) | Medium, Hard, Expert                                   |
| Excel                          | Medium, Hard, Expert                                   |
| English Communication (CEFR)   | Set by the recruiter, or adapts to candidate responses |

When picking a difficulty level, weigh two things:

* **The role's seniority**: how many years of experience you expect the hire to have.
* **How selective you want to be**: whether you are looking for the top 1% of practitioners or are happy with the top 20%.

## Matching Difficulty to Experience

For Equip's quiz content, each difficulty level maps to a **years of experience** range and a question point value. The builder shows the experience range next to each level, for example "(0-2 yrs exp)".

| Years of Experience | Difficulty Level | Question Points |
| ------------------- | ---------------- | --------------- |
| 0-2 yrs             | Medium           | 1 or 2 points   |
| 3-4 yrs             | Hard             | 3 or 4 points   |
| 5+ yrs              | Expert           | 5 or 6 points   |

Equip picks questions of the matching point value **at random** for every candidate. If you add 2 Medium questions for a skill, each candidate gets 2 randomly chosen 1-point or 2-point questions. Add 1 Hard question, and a 3-point or 4-point question is selected.

<Note>
  Because questions are drawn from a large pool, different candidates see different questions, in a different order, with shuffled answer options. See [Same or Random Questions](/same-or-random-questions) for details.
</Note>

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start with the role">
    In the assessment builder, enter the **Role** you are hiring for and select the **Years of Experience**. Equip suggests tests and skills at the appropriate difficulty.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the difficulty per skill">
    Check the difficulty level chosen for each skill in your quiz. Adjust it up or down based on how selective you want the assessment to be.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Sample the content">
    Visit Equip's [Skills Page](https://equip.co/skills) to see sample questions for a skill. This shows you what a Medium, Hard, or Expert question looks like in practice.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Hiring a senior engineer but want a wider funnel? Pick a level below the candidate's experience range. A 5-year engineer scoring well on Hard questions is still a strong signal, and fewer qualified candidates get filtered out.
</Tip>

<Warning>
  Setting the difficulty too high for the experience range you are hiring for can reject good candidates. A junior developer facing Expert questions will score poorly even if they are perfectly capable for the role.
</Warning>

## Related Resources

* [Create an Assessment](/create-assessment) - Set up a role-based assessment with suggested skills and difficulty
* [Same or Random Questions](/same-or-random-questions) - How Equip randomizes questions across candidates
* [Question Limits](/question-limits) - How many questions each test type allows
* [What is a Good Assessment Score?](/good-assessment-score) - Interpreting scores relative to difficulty and experience