Is CodeSignal proctored?
By Aaron Cao · Updated
Sometimes. Proctoring on CodeSignal is a setting the employer enables per assessment, not a fixed property of the platform. Certified assessments usually run with webcam and screen recording; a short screening test may run with neither.
What does proctored mean on CodeSignal?
You want a straight answer before you click Start, and the platform's own wording rarely gives one. This section separates the monitoring layers CodeSignal can run, so you can tell which apply to your invitation. The short version: identity capture, screen capture, and behavior logging are separate switches, and a hiring team can turn on all of them, one of them, or none.
The layers, roughly from most visible to least:
- Webcam and identity capture. Photo or continuous capture of you and the space directly behind you.
- Screen recording. A capture of the display the assessment is running on.
- Focus and paste logging. Timestamps for tab switches, window blur, and large pasted blocks.
- Code similarity comparison. Your submission checked against prior and public solutions.
Only the first two need your explicit browser permission, which is why they are the easiest to confirm. The last two run server side and produce no prompt at all.
How do you tell which mode your assessment is in?
Three checks, in order. Read the invitation email, since proctored assessments name the requirement, usually as a line about needing a working camera. Open the system check page the link sends you to; if it tests your camera or asks to share your screen, that layer is on. Then read the consent screen shown immediately before the timer starts, which is where the recording disclosure has to appear.
A backend engineer interviewing for an L5 role at a public cloud vendor ran the system check the night before and found it requested camera access, which the recruiter's email had not mentioned. That gave them a day to clear the room behind the desk and to plan for a round where no assistant tool applies. The check took two minutes and changed the whole preparation.
Platform-by-platform breakdowns for other assessment vendors sit on the detectability topic hub.
What does proctoring not catch?
Proctoring is narrower than most candidates assume. A webcam frames your face and the wall behind you; it does not see a second monitor outside that frame, and it does not see a phone below the desk. Screen recording captures the machine running the assessment, not a separate device. Focus logging sees changes inside the assessment browser, not what happens on another laptop.
That is a description of the technical boundary, not a recommendation. The layer that actually catches people is not the camera, it is the similarity check plus the conversation that follows. Submitted work that no longer matches how you reason out loud in the next round is the failure mode candidates hit most often.
What SubcueAI captures during a live interview, and what it stores, is documented on the security page.
Where SubcueAI fits, and where it does not
SubcueAI is a live-conversation assistant. It ships as a native macOS and Windows desktop app that captures system audio plus your microphone and shows suggestions in a floating local overlay, and as a browser extension whose Side Panel does live assist for a meeting tab on Chromium browsers, capturing that tab's audio only. No meeting bot joins the call, and nothing is injected into the meeting page.
None of that applies to a proctored CodeSignal assessment. A proctored round records your screen, so a local overlay sits inside the recording. That is a hard limit, and it is why the honest answer to whether you can use it there is no. The rounds where it does apply are the spoken ones: the recruiter screen, the behavioral interviews, and a system design discussion held over a meeting app.
If the goal is being faster in the assessment itself, rehearsal is the lever, and timed practice runs on the mock interview page.