Codility Reviews & Product Details

What stood out to me from the start was how Codility lets you focus on what really matters—understanding how a candidate thinks, solves problems, and writes code under time pressure. It’s not just about getting the right answer. You get a real sense of someone’s logic, coding style, and approach to debugging.

I’ve been using Codility as part of the hiring team at Zalando, where I work as a Senior Software Engineer in Berlin. We’ve used it to assess candidates for different roles, especially in the early screening stages. And honestly, the platform has made that process a lot smoother.

The timeline feature is one of my favorites. It shows how the candidate progressed through a task—from when they started, to when they copy-pasted code, or paused—helping us understand their thought process better. It’s been a great way to tell whether someone rushed, took time to plan, or struggled at a certain step.

Another big plus: the detailed playback view. You can actually replay how a candidate solved the task, with the question and code side by side. This keeps the evaluator in the right context and helps us evaluate not just what the candidate wrote, but how they arrived at the solution.

The platform also flags suspicious activity, like tab-switching or copy-pasting, which adds another layer of insight during evaluations. And the dashboard shows per-task scores, time taken, and complexity indicators. All of this helps us go beyond just a score and look at the full picture.

Codility does a solid job for backend and general coding assessments. The test variety includes real-world engineering challenges, and live sessions have worked well for remote interviews—we’ve had good experiences collaborating with candidates live and observing how they think out loud. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The UI can feel quite cluttered. There’s a lot of information packed into the dashboard, but not all of it feels necessary—or easy to navigate. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on what really matters.

Also, as a frontend-heavy team, we’ve often felt that Codility leans too much towards backend-style assessments. There’s limited support for evaluating real-world frontend skills—things like async logic, UI reasoning, or performance trade-offs. We've had to build and use custom tasks outside the platform just to evaluate frontend engineers more effectively.

While Codility does surface things like time complexity for solutions, a human review is still necessary to judge the actual quality of the code—especially for senior roles. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One thing I really liked about the recent updates in Codility is how much smoother and more intuitive the interface has become—it feels cleaner and easier to navigate, especially under time constraints. The questions also seem more practical now, focusing on real-world scenarios rather than just theoretical algorithms, which makes the experience more relevant. I also appreciated how the platform handles different programming languages better, especially with modern C++ features that used to cause issues earlier. The test reports are now more informative too, making it easier to understand where you went wrong—whether it was performance, logic, or edge cases. Plus, being able to review practice problems on mobile is a small but handy touch. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Yes, there are a few areas where Codility can still improve. Sometimes the execution environment feels a bit slow, especially when running multiple test cases or handling larger inputs—it adds unnecessary pressure during timed assessments. Also, while the real-time feedback is useful, it would be great if it included a bit more context, especially when something fails unexpectedly (like segmentation faults or timeouts). Another improvement could be in the code editor itself—basic features like auto-complete, function hinting, or even dark mode would make coding more comfortable. Lastly, the question difficulty can vary a lot, even within the same test, so a more balanced progression in complexity would make the overall experience fairer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's great to see how Codility keeps evolving. Building on my previous positive experiences, I've recently been impressed by a few new things that make the platform even better:

- The Introduction of Real-Life Tasks: What I really like now is the move beyond traditional algorithms. They have introduced tasks that mirror actual day-to-day work for a developer, like debugging an existing block of code, refactoring it for better performance, or working on a small feature within a larger project. This feels much more practical and relevant to the actual job, making the assessment a more engaging and fair evaluation of my real-world skills.

- Enhanced AI-Powered Assistance: The platform's autocompletion and code-writing assistance have become noticeably smarter. It’s not just about finishing a line of code; it feels more like an AI pair programmer. It provides more context-aware suggestions and helps catch silly mistakes on the fly, which lets me focus on the core logic of the problem rather than getting bogged down by syntax. This makes the coding process smoother and faster.

- Improved Candidate Feedback and Insights: After completing a test, the feedback provided seems more detailed than before. Instead of just a score, there's a better breakdown of performance, correctness, and efficiency. Seeing this granular feedback helps me understand my strengths and pinpoint specific areas for improvement, which is incredibly valuable for my personal development.

While I've always appreciated the platform's stability and support, these recent enhancements show a commitment to creating a more modern and practical assessment experience. It feels less like a generic test and more like a simulation of a real coding environment, which is something I genuinely like. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

High-Pressure Environment: The timed nature of the tests, combined with camera and screen monitoring (proctoring) in some cases, can create a stressful and unnatural coding environment. This pressure can hinder performance, not always reflecting a candidate's true ability to solve problems in a real-world, collaborative setting.

IDE Limitations: Although the built-in editor is good, it can feel restrictive compared to the fully customized local IDEs (like VS Code or IntelliJ) that developers use daily. The lack of familiar shortcuts, extensions, and debugging tools can be frustrating and slow down the coding process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Codility has truly transformed the way we approach technical hiring. As a Talent Acquisition Lead, I’ve found it to be an invaluable tool for assessing candidates’ coding skills in a fair, efficient, and scalable way. The platform offers a wide range of coding challenges that are both realistic and relevant to the roles we hire for, helping us identify top talent with confidence.

What I appreciate most is how Codility balances technical rigor with user experience. From a recruiter’s perspective, the automated scoring and detailed reports save us time and provide clear insights into each candidate’s strengths.

Codility also supports remote hiring beautifully, allowing us to run live coding interviews and asynchronous tests with ease. It’s helped us streamline our process, reduce bias, and make better hiring decisions.

Once you learn how to use it it can be easy to integrate in the recruitment process.

The Customer Support is ready to help all the time. We use the tool regularly for IT roles! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I would love to see more training materials available both for the managers and for the talent team. Sometimes the user experience is a bit tricky. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Codility gives real coding challenges like the ones asked in interviews. The test cases are strong and help catch edge cases. The timer and coding environment feel like a real test, which helps reduce anxiety during actual interviews. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes the explanation of problems can be a bit short or unclear for beginners. Also, there’s no built-in hints or detailed solutions after submitting, which can make it hard to learn from mistakes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think Codility is clean and looks really nice. It's a different take than other platforms, and the IDE is good. I also think it's just a beautiful platform. The initial setup is pretty easy and seamless. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think they need to really work on providing a better and more comprehensive experience for coders, not memorizing or doing random coding questions. I just feel like the problems should be more comprehensive to what someone will do day-to-day. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Codility is a widely used platform in the tech recruitment space, primarily for automated coding assessments. It offers a structured way to evaluate candidates' technical skills, and its effectiveness often depends on how it's integrated into the hiring process.

The Good

From a recruiter's perspective, Codility is excellent for standardizing the initial screening phase. It allows companies to quickly and objectively assess a large volume of candidates' coding proficiency, algorithm knowledge, and problem-solving abilities without consuming valuable interviewer time. The platform supports a wide array of programming languages, making it versatile for different tech stacks. Its automated grading and detailed reports provide clear, quantifiable results that can help filter candidates efficiently and identify those who meet a baseline technical standard. For candidates, it offers a consistent environment to showcase their coding skills, free from interviewer bias in the initial stage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

However, Codility also has its downsides. For candidates, the timed and isolated test environment can be quite stressful and may not accurately reflect how they perform in a collaborative, real-world development setting where access to resources (like IDEs or search engines) and peer discussions are common. Some talented individuals might struggle under pressure or with the specific style of algorithmic challenges presented, even if they're highly capable engineers.

From a company's standpoint, relying solely on Codility results can lead to missing out on candidates with strong non-algorithmic skills, such as system design, debugging complex existing codebases, or soft skills like communication and teamwork, which are crucial for success in a team. The platform primarily tests a very specific subset of engineering capabilities. Additionally, for smaller companies, the cost of using such a specialized platform might be a consideration.

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Codility’s interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy to focus on solving problems rather than wrestling with the tool. You can run multiple test cases at once, which dramatically cuts down the time needed to validate different scenarios. While you’re free to connect your favorite local IDE, the built-in browser IDE is surprisingly powerful and polished. Overall, Codility delivers a seamless coding experience—I loved using it for all the coding rounds, it was available. Highly recommended! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One challenge on smaller screens—especially laptops—is that the question pane and file pane consume a significant portion of the workspace, leaving less room for the code editor. To address this, consider adding a floating pane option that users can toggle on or off:

- Default Layout: Both question and file panes remain docked alongside the editor.

- Floating/Hidden Mode: Panes collapse into slim icons or slide-out panels, freeing up the full width for coding.

This toggle would let users instantly switch between a reference-rich view and a distraction-free coding environment, optimizing screen real estate without sacrificing quick access to problem statements or file navigation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Codility is one of our key platforms which we generally use throughout our hiring process, from inviting the candidate to write the initial assignment to conduct his live interview. It offers variety of features like Skills Intelligence, Provides code editor for live coding interaction etc. Their Analytics module is very good and provides immense details about the overall recruitment progress. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing as such but it's just it doesn't work well with Brave Browser. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Codility had all the necessary tools and features for conducting a paired programming interview without any extra fluff. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It was difficult to debug or step through code; it had to be done via print statements. This made things like knowing how to format an input correctly require a lot of trial and error that took away from the real interview question itself. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.