HackerRank Chakra

Scores link to the transcript, and your team makes every decision

No bias audit covers Chakra’s scoring, and its legal status is unclear

HackerRank began in July 2009. Its two founders left jobs at Amazon and IBM to build what was then called InterviewStreet. HackerRank's own history page lists four funding rounds since then. The latest was $60 million in March 2022, led by Susquehanna Growth Equity. No court case names HackerRank as a party.

It fits teams that already trust HackerRank's name

Priced per interview, with a 99.50% uptime target and a 30-day exit

HackerRank publishes no rate for Chakra. Its own blog gives only the shape of the price.

Confirm what a quote includes. Screenshot Analysis, the check for unrecognised tools on a candidate's screen, needs HackerRank's paid AI Add-on. The webcam check for a missing or extra face carries no such extra charge. HackerRank publishes no minimum company size, seat count or interview volume for Chakra.

HackerRank's Master Subscription Agreement governs Chakra, along with everything else it sells. Fees are due once a year, paid upfront. Once you place an order, you cannot cancel it, except as the agreement allows. A separate Service Level Agreement covers uptime. HackerRank aims for 99.50% uptime each month. It takes the service down for planned maintenance every Friday, between 10pm and 11pm Pacific time. Miss that 99.50% figure, and you get a refund on a sliding scale. That starts at 5% back for falling just under it, and rises to a full refund under 90% uptime. If uptime falls under 90% in a month, you can leave on 30 days' notice. Check these terms, and any remedy beyond the refund, before you sign.

You get a 30-day window to pull your own data out once the contract ends, before HackerRank cuts off access. After that, HackerRank deletes or returns your candidates' personal data, whichever you choose. If you never say which, its policy defaults to deletion. Data drawn from facial detection is deleted within three years of a candidate's last contact with HackerRank, at the latest. It can go sooner once its purpose is done. Inside Chakra, a recruiter can export every candidate's scores and written summaries for one interview setup as a single file. The recording and the transcript do not come out that way. Re-inviting a candidate who already tried the interview deletes their earlier report. Only HackerRank's support team can bring it back. A bulk deletion request across many candidates is handled separately. HackerRank anonymises the data within 14 days of receiving your request and your candidate list.

What should you ask on the call?

1. Is the interview recorded as video, or only as audio? Your own pages disagree. Good answer: A plain answer in writing, plus how long you keep the file.
2. Where does Chakra sit under New York City’s Local Law 144, the city’s rule on AI hiring tools? Your FAQ names Screen, Interview and your plagiarism and image checks, but not Chakra. Good answer: A direct answer in writing, not a note to ask our own lawyer.
3. Do either of your published bias audits, or a new one, cover the Interviewer and Reporter agents? Those two score a candidate. Your webcam check does not. Good answer: A dated audit that names those two agents.
4. What does an active Chakra account cost us, beyond any plan we already hold? Does Screenshot Analysis add to that? Good answer: A written figure for both, before the demo ends.
5. Do you have a customer result for Chakra itself, not for Screen or HackerRank generally? Good answer: A named customer and a number, or a plain no.
6. Your blog names Eightfold as a connection too. Does Chakra send results to Eightfold the way it does to Workday, Ashby and Greenhouse? Or does that link only send the invitation? Good answer: A clear yes or no, not an answer that depends.
7. If uptime falls under your 99.50% commitment, is the refund our only remedy? Does your Friday-night downtime sit inside a window we can move? Good answer: A remedy beyond the refund, and a window we control.
8. What comes out when we leave? Can we export the recordings and transcripts, not only the scores? Good answer: Yes, in writing, or a plain no before we sign.

CodeSignal, Glider AI, Talview Ivy or HireVue, or buy nothing

The closest alternatives to HackerRank Chakra are CodeSignal, Glider AI, Talview Ivy and HireVue. A fifth option is to buy nothing at all.

CodeSignal publishes its price, and Chakra does not. CodeSignal’s own pricing page states a rate from $79 a month, billed annually. It lets you work out a budget before you speak to anyone.

Glider AI and Talview Ivy both publish no price either. A sales conversation starts every comparison in this group, Chakra included. Glider AI writes its own interview questions and runs the whole interview before a person steps in. Its ownership is unsettled too, after an announced sale. Talview usually wants about 150 to 200 interviews committed before it starts. Talview also watches the candidate’s camera and screen, like Chakra’s own checks.

If you want the interview inside a platform your team already uses, HireVue is built that way. It sells alongside Workday, SAP SuccessFactors or Oracle, rather than as a separate account the way Chakra is. The cost is losing the three-agent design Chakra builds its report around, and the evidence that comes with it.

Buy nothing yet if your hiring volume does not justify a new account and a new conversation on price. Also wait if you need a plain answer on where Chakra sits under New York City's law. Get that answer before you send real candidates through it. The bias-audit and notice duty in New York City falls on the employer, not the vendor.