Build an Online Recruitment Test in Quelixa

What will it actually ask?

Lina: Monday in Singapore. Eight people are through scrutiny, and the next step is a written test that does not exist yet.

Mei Tan: I sent you my questions last week. And one more at midnight.

Elena Novak: Then let us turn them into a paper everyone can sit, from wherever they are.

David: From five countries, on the same day?

Lina: From eight countries, in one twelve-hour window. This chapter builds it: the questions, the paper, and the sitting.

Lina: This is chapter six. We build a written test from nothing — a bank of reviewed questions, a timed paper, and a register that calls the candidates.

A test is built in four layers

Lina: A test in Quelixa is four layers, and each one is reused differently.

Lina: The question bank holds questions, each with its answer key, and each reviewed before it can be used.

Lina: A paper picks questions from the bank and sets the rules: how long, in what order, what happens if you leave the window.

David: And the register is the day itself?

Lina: The register is one sitting: this post, this date, these candidates.

Lina: And the call is what the candidates receive. Build the first two once, and every future sitting reuses them.

The bank, in topics

Lina: The bank is organised by topic. General aptitude, numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning — and product design, which is ours.

David: So a topic is just a shelf.

Lina: A shelf, and the count beside it is how much it holds today.

Drawable, or not yet

Lina: And this is the bank itself. The top row is the question the whole screen answers: what can I use?

Lina: Thirty-six questions are drawable — reviewed, valid, ready.

Lina: One is a draft. It is Mei's question from last night, which Elena entered this morning.

David: Why can't she just use it?

Lina: Because nobody has checked it yet. A draft never reaches a candidate.

Mei's question

Lina: Here it is. A new market reads right to left — what do you check first?

Lina: Four answers, and one ticked as correct. The wrong ones are the kind a hurried designer might pick, which is what makes it a real question.

Lina: And the flag that matters: reviewed. It is off.

David: Who turns it on?

Lina: Somebody who did not write it. That is the whole review, and the button for it is right there.

Three tests for every question

Lina: Three tests every question has to pass before it belongs in a paper.

Lina: It tests the job. Not general knowledge — something the person would face in their first month.

Lina: One answer is defensible, and the others are plausible. A question with a silly wrong answer is really a question with three options.

Lina: And someone other than the author has checked it. The system enforces that last one for you.

David: Which of the three do teams skip?

Lina: The third, usually. Checking a colleague's questions feels awkward — which is exactly why the system insists on it.

In the bank

Lina: Elena reads it, agrees, and marks it reviewed.

Lina: The status changes from draft to in the bank.

David: Only for this paper?

Lina: For any paper, for any post that tests product design. Written once, reviewed once, reused.

The paper, one short

Lina: Now the paper. It already holds nineteen questions, every one reviewed.

Lina: And the composition at the bottom says what a candidate will actually receive: nineteen questions, in thirty minutes.

David: Nineteen is an odd number for a paper out of a hundred.

Lina: It is. Twenty makes every question worth five per cent — and Mei's question is the twentieth.

The rules of the paper

Lina: The top of the paper holds its rules.

David: Thirty minutes from when?

Lina: From the moment a candidate starts, not from when the window opens.

Lina: Questions and options shuffled, so two candidates never see the same order.

David: Because they are sitting at home.

Lina: Because they are sitting at home. For the same reason, leaving the test window is recorded — three times is allowed, and a fourth raises a flag for the recruiter.

Lina: And the score is not shown the moment she hands in. It comes with the result, once the register closes.

Fixed, or drawn

David: And Mei's question goes on.

Lina: As question twenty.

Lina: There are two ways to build one. Random draws give every candidate a different set from the bank — useful when hundreds sit a test over weeks.

Lina: Fixed questions give everyone the same twenty.

David: And for eight people on one day?

Lina: Fixed is the fairer choice. Nobody can say their questions were harder.

Lina: And the composition turns green: twenty questions, thirty minutes, ready to attach to a sitting.

One sitting

Lina: That afternoon Elena opens the register — the record of this one sitting.

Lina: Friday the sixteenth, online, thirty minutes, with an invigilator named. And look at the total marks and the pass mark.

David: She did not type those.

Lina: She did not. They come from the post — set in chapter three, before anyone applied.

Lina: Underneath, the paper we just finished, and a window from nine in the morning to nine at night, in UTC. Twelve hours, so everyone can sit it in daylight.

David: And it already knows who is waiting.

Lina: Eight candidates, straight from scrutiny.

Eight rows, still codes

Lina: Fetch the candidates, and the score sheet fills: one row each.

David: Still under codes.

Lina: Still under codes. They are not called yet — until they are, blind review holds.

How the test is run, written down

Lina: Further down, the procedure — under ISO 10667, the international standard for delivering an assessment.

Lina: What is measured, how it is scored, and that feedback goes to candidates.

Lina: And one field still empty: who validated the procedure.

David: Is that page for an auditor, or for the candidates?

Lina: Both. Candidates read it on their own portal, and it stays on the record for anyone checking later.

Four of five

Lina: Tuesday morning, and the register grades itself: four of five. The missing one is that validation.

David: Does that stop her from calling them?

Lina: It does not. A standard is not a gate. But the flag stays until somebody accountable signs.

David: So she calls them anyway.

Lina: She locks the register, and the call letters go out.

The call brings the names back

Lina: This is where chapter five left them.

Lina: And the moment they are called for the test, the names come back.

David: Why give them back at all?

Lina: Because from here on, people have to meet them. You cannot interview a code.

Called, by name

Lina: The same eight rows — by name now.

David: And they have all been told?

Lina: Every one of them has a call letter and an online invitation, sent the moment she locked it.

Signed off

Lina: By mid-morning James, the recruitment manager, has read the procedure and signed it.

Lina: Five of five. And if anyone asks in a year how this test was run, the answer is on this page, with a name against it.

David: Could Elena have signed it herself?

Lina: She built the test, so it should be someone accountable for how it is run. Here, the recruitment manager.

What Sofia sees

Lina: And on Sofia's side, that evening, the portal has moved.

Lina: Her next step is the written test, on Friday, online.

Lina: And her updates say why: called for the written test, and the online test is ready.

David: Four days' notice.

Lina: Four days, with the date and how she sits it on her own dashboard.

Opens soon

Lina: Her online tests page shows the paper: twenty questions, thirty minutes, and the window. The button says it opens soon.

David: So she knows exactly what she is walking into.

Lina: Exactly. Nobody is surprised by the length of a test on the morning.

Chapter six, in five lines

Lina: Five lines.

Lina: Questions live in a bank, each with an answer key, and a draft never reaches a candidate.

Lina: A paper sets the rules: time, order, the window, when results appear.

Lina: A register is one sitting, and its pass mark comes from the post.

David: And the standard?

Lina: Graded on the record, and signed by a person.

Lina: And the call is the moment the names come back.

Friday, nine o'clock

Lina: Thursday afternoon. Everything is ready, and there is nothing left to do but wait.

Mei Tan: What if someone's connection drops halfway through?

Elena Novak: Every answer is saved as they give it. They sign in again and carry on.

Lina: And tomorrow we watch them sit it. That is chapter seven.

Lina: Next time, eight people in eight countries sit the paper, and the register marks it.

David: See you in chapter seven.