Frequently asked questions

General Information

What is Pudding?

Pudding is a new AI-powered candidate assessment platform that enables hiring teams to easily collect, compensate and rate digital work demos from candidates. Pudding lets hiring teams run virtual 'Concerts' which are short-term campaigns in which multiple candidates submit competing work samples as part of paid take-home assignments.

Pudding's agent guides and records work demos in realtime without judging quality. It asks deliverable-relevant questions that reveal the candidate's underlying thinking and strategies.

How is Pudding different from AI Interviews?

The work demo screenshare is supreme.

Common AI Interviews point a camera at the candidate, so what they observe is a person talking: facial gestures, vocal delivery, word choice, and claims about work nobody in the room can see. Pudding points the camera at the screen. The conversation is about the deliverable and the toolchain that produced it — the files, the repo, the revision history, the prompts and agent transcripts still open in the next window.

Literally dozens of different software tools and work samples can be analyzed and probed by a Pudding agent in realtime as the candidate navigates their desktop.

That keeps the assessment on evidence rather than assertion. Pudding's agent asks about what is visible: why this structure, why this tool, what the model returned and what the candidate changed. Nothing rides on how composed someone sounds, and there is nothing to rehearse, because the work was finished before the session started.

Who uses Pudding?

Hiring teams from hundreds of industries can use Pudding to assess candidates fairly and efficiently.

Candidates use Pudding to demonstrate their skills, build their portfolios with useful assets, and get paid.

What is a deliverable?

A deliverable is a digital asset submitted in response to Deliverable Guidelines prepared by a hirer. Pudding AI records and probes in realtime deliverables via screenshare videos calls. Deliverables can be screenshare-only or also include files from Dropbox folders, Google Docs, Google Slides, Github repositories, Figma files and Notion pages, with other formats in the works.

Pudding AI parses screenshare calls for concepts and text like prompt histories depending on what the candidate volunteers.

Who owns what?

Candidates retain IP ownership of deliverables unless an IP Assignment agreement is executed upon hire. Hirers have a limited license to retain and internally review deliverables for assessment purposes only.

What do I need to start?

Pudding was designed to be turnkey and transparent. It requires no custom contracts or commitments.

Sign up and start in Demo Mode to see Pudding in action.

Does Pudding work with DEI?

Yes. Pudding works with or without DEI. Hirers have full control over which candidates enter their concerts in Pudding. Candidates can either be selectively added to a concert or be allowed to join from a public job landing page.

Candidates

Why should I participate?

Your resume may be identical to those of other candidates. Also, the hirer interested in you has no means to determine if your resume or references are true reflections of your current ability. Many resumes are misleading, intentionally or not. Often, performance in one context or industry may not necessarily translate to another.

In many industries, performance is ambiguous or nebulous. Success is often measured via subjective factors, derived from social standing or rife with confirmation bias. Thus, the only dependable means to assess your ability to perform in the hirer's context is to see a tailored work sample.

What is in it for me?

You own your work. Until you are hired and you opt in to an IP Assignment agreement, you retain full ownership of your deliverables. In most cases you retain the right to use your deliverable for career advancement purposes.

Compensation is guaranteed for all deliverables, and is automatic.

If my deliverable is rated the best do I get hired?

No. Pudding is just one part of the hiring process. The hirer will evaluate you in a number of ways to determine if you are a good fit for their team.

Your ability to work as part of an organization must be evaluated separately.

What about AI?

Use of AI to supplement human ingenuity is expected, both in assesssments and in careers.

With this new reality in mind, forward-thinking hiring managers should customize Guidelines to inspire human-grade deliverables, and then evaluate them accordingly.

All candidates in a quorum on Pudding have access to AI, so the playing field is level.

Pricing & Hirers

What am I paying for?

Your spend in Pudding rewards Candidates for their time and gives you a limited license to retain and internally review deliverables for assessment purposes. It also supports Pudding's ongoing automation and platform maintenance.

Pudding mitigates the risk of bad hires in your organization and provides bias insurance — specifically, a system that proves you assess candidates objectively.

The goodwill your organization may build from treating candidates fairly is immeasurable, but real.

Why should I pay Candidates I do not end up hiring?

Compensating candidates for their time is not only the right thing to do, it is also required by law in many jurisdictions. In some cases, you may gain insights from candidate work, similar to those gained from resumes and in-person interviews.

Offering an honorarium reduces the likelihood that your best candidates will self-reject. Today, numerous social media threads are full of unhappy candidates who used legacy assessment systems conducted by brands that are now damaged.

How does payment work?

Your hiring organization can purchase credits in advance at a ratio of $1 to 1 credit, with a minimum balance required to launch particular asssessments, called "Concerts". Each time a candidate delivers work, credits are deducted from your balance, with 90% going to the candidate and 10% to Pudding. Credits are shared across an entire organization, including all of its teams and individual managers.

What about classification?

In the context of Pudding, Candidates are professional independent contractors who engage in short-term, deliverable-based projects—commonly known as 'Paid Take-Homes.' They are LinkedIn-verified, use their own tools, set their own schedules, and retain ownership of the deliverables they produce.

Pudding scans Deliverable Guidelines prior to concert launches to ensure they do not impose supervision of any kind or reference employee-facing resources. Candidates may accept or reject invitations to concerts in Pudding, and set their own preferred rates.

Per the Pudding Terms of Service, deliverables may not be applied commercially or in the usual course of business without a separate agreement, commonly known as IP Assignment, upon hire.

Why should I pay for poor quality deliverables?

All deliverables are compensated, irrespective of quality. If you are concerned about the quality of deliverables, you may vet your candidate pool in advance using your own methods outside of Pudding. Since you have full control over which candidates are invited, you can screen out candidates who might submit poor work.

What are the limits around compensation?

$40 minimum fixed fee per deliverable and per estimated hour.

10 hour maximum estimated hours to complete per deliverable.

Maximum $1K total compensation per Candidate, per year.

What about candidates outsourcing?

Unlike conventional assessments, there is no standardized *correct* answer to Pudding assessments.

All deliverables can be backed by explanations collected by Pudding AI in realtime screensharing sessions.