Can HackerRank, CodeSignal or CoderPad detect AI? What each tracks by default, what employers add, and where AI is allowed, per their docs.
"Can HackerRank detect AI" is a question with a different answer for almost every candidate who asks it, which is why the advice online is so inconsistent. The same platform can run one company's test with nothing more than a paste log and another company's with a webcam, a screen recording and a locked-down desktop app, and the candidate usually cannot tell which until the instructions appear.
We wrote this for engineers with a coding assessment or a live coding interview ahead who want to know what is being tracked. It goes through what HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad and Codility say in their own documentation about what they monitor, which checks are always on and which the employer has to enable, what the employer receives, and where each platform allows AI. We make Verve AI, an interview copilot, and everything we say about these platforms comes from their own support pages as they stood in October 2026.
Can HackerRank, CodeSignal or CoderPad detect AI?
Each of them can detect some signs of outside help, and how much depends on what the employer has switched on. Their monitoring comes in three layers, and whether the question is "can HackerRank detect AI" or the same thing about another platform, knowing which layer you are in answers most of it.
- The first layer runs in the browser on most tests: it logs when you leave the test window, records what you paste, replays your keystrokes and compares your code with other submissions.
- The second layer is proctoring, which the employer chooses to add and which you are asked to consent to: a webcam, a shared or recorded screen, and sometimes an identity check.
- The third layer is a desktop application that the test must be taken in, which can see or block other software on the computer. Two of the four platforms offer one, and it is also optional.
Every one of these vendors describes what it produces as signals for a person to review, and none of them describes a flag as proof.
What does HackerRank track?
HackerRank's test integrity documentation lists two features that need no setup by the employer. Copy and paste tracking records pasted content and shows it in the report, and tab proctoring records how many times you left the test window and for how long. A similarity check against other submissions also runs by default.
The employer can add more in three steps. Secure Mode enforces full screen, restricts copy and paste and checks for more than one monitor. Proctor Mode adds a webcam and a screen share, with screenshots taken every 15 seconds and analyzed for unauthorized software, a category its documentation says includes external AI coding assistants, browser extensions and invisible overlay applications. Desktop App Mode moves the test into HackerRank's own application, which blocks other applications from running, and its documentation gives messaging, video conferencing and LLM applications as examples. That mode also prevents the test from running in a virtual machine or over remote access.
HackerRank also offers an AI plagiarism model that looks at how the code was written, including typing patterns, time taken and pasting. HackerRank reports a precision of 85% for it, meaning that about one flagged session in seven is flagged wrongly, and says human oversight remains crucial. Candidates are not shown these results, and its candidate help pages direct questions to the recruiter.
What does CodeSignal track?
CodeSignal's reports include a keystroke replay for each question and a Suspicion Score. Its support article on the score says it draws on similarity to other solutions, suspicious paste events and copying of the task description, and that a flag could mean the test-taker was using generative AI. The same article cautions that a high score is not a guarantee of cheating, because innocent behavior can look suspicious.
Proctoring is a setting the employer chooses, and you are told before you start if it applies. When it does, your camera, microphone and screen are recorded for the whole session, and you provide a photo of your face and a government-issued photo ID. One detail is unusual: CodeSignal says the proctoring data is reviewed by CodeSignal only, is not shared with the company that requested the test, and is deleted within 15 days. The company receives a result marked as verified or rejected, with a reason.
The rules for its General Coding Assessment are strict about AI. They allow searching for syntax references and state that the use of AI is not allowed, including for syntax.
What does CoderPad track?
CoderPad is used mostly for live interviews, where an interviewer is in the pad with you. Its documentation says the interviewer is alerted when a candidate pastes code from an external source or leaves the editor, for example by switching tabs, and that the playback of the session marks each of those moments, including how long you were away.
CoderPad advises interviewers to treat those alerts as prompts for clarification and not as grounds for immediate disqualification. It does not document a detector for external AI tools in live interviews. Its approach is to make AI use visible instead: an assistant called AI Assist is available in pads by default, and every prompt and response is saved for the interviewer to review.
Its take-home product, CoderPad Screen, checks for plagiarism, unusual speed, leaving the editor, pasting and changes in location, and webcam snapshots are an optional extra that is off by default.
What does Codility track?
Codility states that proctoring is disabled by default and is enabled test by test. When it is on, the behavioral signals include pasting into the editor, switching tabs, unusually fast completion and attempts to copy the task description, and the employer can add webcam snapshots, screen recording or a full recording of the session.
Two Codility features are aimed squarely at AI. Typing Pattern Detection looks for the rhythm of someone retyping a solution produced elsewhere, including on a second device. Codility says the flag suggests a high likelihood and not certainty, that it should not be used alone to reject a candidate, and that the candidate is not told the signal is being collected. Device Integrity, which was in preview when we checked, requires the test to be taken in Codility's desktop app, and the app checks the computer for known cheating tools and reports whether any were found.
Can these platforms detect an app that is hidden from screen sharing?
A test that runs in a browser tab can observe that tab. It can tell that the tab lost focus or that text was pasted, and with proctoring it can see what a screen share shows, but a web page has no view of the other software on your computer. Codility says this plainly in its own documentation, describing hidden desktop applications that are invisible to screen sharing and adding that proctoring cannot catch what it cannot see.
That is the reason two vendors now offer a desktop application of their own. HackerRank's Desktop App Mode and Codility's Device Integrity both run on the computer itself, where they can see or block other programs, and an AI tool running alongside a test taken in one of those apps should be expected to be found. Both are optional settings, and you will know one is in use because you are asked to download and install it before the test.
Can they tell when code was written by AI?
They try to, by looking at how the code arrived and not only at the code. Typing-pattern analysis, HackerRank's AI plagiarism model and paste logs all target a solution that appears fully formed. Replay shows a reviewer whether you built the answer in steps or produced it in one pass.
The more reliable check is a conversation about the code. CoderPad Screen and Codility can both ask automated follow-up questions about the code you submitted, and both vendors recommend that a flagged test be followed by a live interview in which you explain or modify your solution. A candidate who understands their own code passes that step, and one who cannot explain it does not, whatever the report says.
Are you allowed to use AI in a coding assessment?
More often than candidates expect, the test itself includes AI. HackerRank has AI-assisted tests and interviews with a built-in assistant, CodeSignal has assessments with its Cosmo assistant and interviews that use coding agents, CoderPad has AI Assist, and Codility offers an assistant and, in interviews, coding agents inside the editor.
Two things hold across all of these modes. The AI that is permitted is the one built into the platform, and the employer receives the full transcript of what you asked it, so how you use it is part of what is being assessed. Where no such mode is offered, the employer's instructions at the start of the test set the rules.
What does this mean if you use an interview copilot?
Asking "can HackerRank detect AI" is only useful once you know which kind of session you are in, because a live coding interview and a proctored assessment are different environments. A live interview is a conversation with a person over Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, often with a shared editor. An assessment is a timed test whose monitoring is set by the employer and disclosed before you begin.
Verve AI is built for the live interview. In the desktop app, Stealth Mode keeps the copilot out of the screen you share, which is guaranteed for window and tab sharing on any meeting platform and for full-screen sharing in the Zoom and Microsoft Teams desktop apps. Our article on whether Zoom, Teams or Google Meet can detect an interview copilot covers what an interviewer can see on a video call.
A live coding round is also where Verve AI's handling of follow-up questions matters most. The Coding Copilot captures the problem with a hotkey and returns an approach, code and an explanation, and it shares one context with the live audio, so when the interviewer asks why you chose that approach or what its complexity is, the answer is about the same code. Since explaining your solution is the thing every platform and every interviewer falls back on, a copilot that helps you reason about the code aloud is more useful than one that only produces it. Our coding interview copilot page shows how that works.
For timed assessments, read the instructions each employer gives before you start, because they state what is monitored and whether AI is permitted. Recorded one-way interviews are covered in Can HireVue detect an interview copilot?, and you can start on Verve AI's free plan to rehearse a live round before one that counts.
AI screening interviews have their own rules, which we cover in Can Mercor detect cheating or AI in its AI interview? and micro1 Zara AI interview: how it works and what it monitors.
For how each test or interview is structured and scored, see our guides to the HackerRank interview and test, the CoderPad interview, the CodeSignal assessment, the Codility test and the Karat interview.
FAQ
Can HackerRank detect ChatGPT?
HackerRank documents several features aimed at outside help: tab-switch tracking and paste recording on every test, an AI plagiarism model that examines how the code was written, and in Proctor Mode, screenshots that are analyzed for external AI coding assistants. It reports 85% precision for the plagiarism model and says human review remains essential.
Does CodeSignal record your screen?
CodeSignal records your screen, camera and microphone only when the employer has enabled proctoring, and you are told before you start. CodeSignal says the recording is reviewed by its own team, is not shared with the hiring company, and is deleted within 15 days.
Does CoderPad know if you switch tabs?
CoderPad alerts the interviewer when a candidate leaves the editor during a live interview, and the session playback shows when it happened and for how long. It also flags code pasted from an external source. CoderPad advises interviewers to treat these alerts as prompts for a conversation.
Can Codility detect copy and paste?
Codility logs code pasted into its editor and shows it on the report's timeline when behavioral proctoring is enabled, which is a setting the employer turns on. It can also flag attempts to copy the task description and typing patterns that suggest a solution was retyped.
Do coding assessments check for a second monitor?
Some coding assessments do. HackerRank's Secure Mode and Proctor Mode require a single monitor and flag a new one connected during the test. Codility tells candidates to use one monitor when screen recording is on. The check is part of the optional proctoring settings on each platform.
Verve AI Team
AI Interview Copilot
