HackerRank is opening Chakra, an AI agent that runs technical job interviews, to its customers on October 7, 2026, TechCrunch reports. Chakra ran more than 500,000 interviews during about six months of testing. Snowflake, Snorkel and Capgemini were among the companies that tried it. Candidates may use AI tools while they work. Chakra then judges how well they use them.
How a Chakra interview works
HackerRank sells coding tests and interview tools that companies use to hire software developers. Chakra is its new AI interviewer. It puts the candidate in a live development environment with a real code repository and a real-world problem to solve, according to HackerRank's product page.
While the candidate works, Chakra watches and asks follow-up questions about the choices they make. TechCrunch says it is testing critical thinking and problem-solving. It also checks how candidates frame a problem for an AI tool and how they judge what the tool gives back.
HackerRank co-founder and CEO Vivek Ravisankar explained the change to TechCrunch. "The previous modality of evaluation was evaluating the output," he said. "Now, because of AI, anybody can produce an artifact."
HackerRank's Chakra page shows the kind of note a hiring manager might see. "The outcome is plausible, but the candidate did not show they understood or could defend what they accepted," one example reads.
AI is allowed, and cheating flags dropped
Letting candidates use AI changes the incentive to cheat, Ravisankar told TechCrunch. Suspicious-activity flags in Chakra interviews are 70% to 80% lower than in comparable traditional HackerRank tests, the report says.
Chakra still watches for help it does not allow. HackerRank says it flags unauthorized apps, naming Cluely, as well as help from a second device.
What hiring managers get
Results go to hiring managers as detailed reports, TechCrunch says. HackerRank's pages add more detail:
| Feature | What HackerRank describes |
|---|---|
| Scoring | Competency scores, strengths and gaps, with the evidence behind each score |
| Hiring systems | Direct integration with popular applicant tracking systems |
| Custom workflows | An MCP server for connecting other tools |
| Security | SOC 2 compliance, encryption, and single sign-on with multi-factor login |
| Pricing | Not published |
An applicant tracking system is the software companies use to manage job candidates. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is a common standard for connecting AI tools to other software.
Bias and regulation
Automated hiring tools can inherit bias from the data behind them, TechCrunch notes. It also points to growing rules, such as New York City's requirement for bias audits. Ravisankar is confident in the approach. "AI is way less biased than humans, if you tune it properly," he said.
HackerRank says Chakra goes through third-party bias audits and complies with New York City's Local Law 144, the bias-audit law. Candidates rate the experience 4.8 out of 5 on average, according to the company.
What this means for developers
If you are looking for a job, practice explaining your work out loud as you code. Using AI is allowed in a Chakra interview, but you will be asked to defend what you accept from it. A correct answer you cannot explain may count against you.
If you hire developers, run Chakra next to your existing human interviews first. Compare its recommendations with your panel's decisions before you let it screen candidates alone. Ask HackerRank for its latest bias-audit results, and check local rules such as New York City's Local Law 144 if they apply to you.
If you write interview questions, this is a sign of where the field is going. Tests that only check the final code are easy to pass with AI. Questions about why a candidate made each choice are harder to fake.
Watch how regulators respond. Automated hiring already faces audit rules in New York City, and an AI that runs the whole interview will draw closer attention.
This article was first published on Tech AI Wire.
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Sources
- HackerRank's AI interviewer offers a glimpse into what job interviews could become - TechCrunch
- AI Interviewer - HackerRank
- Chakra - HackerRank
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