Categories: AI Interview Assistant, AI Recruiting
Hatchways Review: Are GitHub Assessments the Future?
If you’ve been in the tech world for more than a minute, you’ve got a horror story about a technical interview. We all do. I’ve been on both sides of that sterile, intimidating table—as a nervous candidate sweating over a whiteboard algorithm I hadn’t seen since college, and as an interviewer trying to gauge real-world problem-solving skills from a canned question. It’s a broken process. We know it, the candidates know it, and yet, we keep doing it.
It’s this shared industry-wide groan that makes me sit up and pay attention when a new tool promises to fix things. Enter Hatchways. Their pitch is simple but powerful: stop with the abstract puzzles and start running technical assessments that actually mirror the work a developer will do. They do this through GitHub, the one place every developer practically lives in. So, is this the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? Or just another layer in the already complex hiring stack? I’ve been digging in, and I have some thoughts.
First, Why Are We Still Hazing Developers?
Before we look at the solution, let’s just sit with the problem for a second. The traditional tech interview feels like a weird hazing ritual. It tests a candidate’s ability to perform under pressure, their short-term memory of sorting algorithms, and their neatness with a dry-erase marker. What it doesn’t test is their ability to read existing code, navigate a complex codebase, debug a tricky issue, or collaborate via pull requests. You know, the stuff they’ll be doing 99% of the time.
This approach not only gives you a fuzzy signal on a candidate’s actual ability but also creates a terrible experience. It filters for people who are good at interviewing, not necessarily people who are good at engineering. I’ve seen amazing developers freeze up in these situations. It’s time for a change.
The Hatchways Method: More Like a PR, Less Like a Pop Quiz
So, how does Hatchways propose we fix this? Their entire platform is built around a workflow that developers already know and use every single day: the Git workflow. It’s brilliant in its simplicity.
- You Send a Git Repo: Instead of a link to a sterile coding sandbox, the candidate gets an invitation to a private GitHub repository. This repo contains the project, the instructions, and everything they need to get started.
- They Submit a Pull Request: The candidate clones the repo, works on the task in their own local environment (with their own tools and setup—a huge plus!), and then submits their work as a pull request when they’re done.
- You Review and Hire Better: Your team then reviews the PR, just like you would with any other team member. You can see their code, their commit history, their thought process. It’s a real, tangible piece of work.
This whole process feels less like an interrogation and more like a micro-project. It’s a collaborative preview of what it’s like to work together. Honestly, it’s the kind of interview I wish I’d had earlier in my career.
Visit Hatchways
The Features That Actually Move the Needle
A cool concept is one thing, but execution is everything. Hatchways isn’t just a glorified way to email zip files. The platform is built with features designed to streamline this new way of hiring.
Assessments That Reflect Your Reality
This is the big one. Hatchways lets you move beyond generic FizzBuzz tests. You can use their library of pre-built assessments (for frontend, backend, full-stack, etc.) or, even better, build your own custom assessments. This means you can create a task that uses your company’s actual tech stack and mimics a real problem your team has faced. The signal you get from a candidate completing that is infinitely stronger than watching them reverse a binary tree on a whiteboard.
“Hatchways stood out to us as one of the few interviewing tools which provides customizable interviews for each company based on factors that studies have shown provides the most equitable and inclusive interviewing experience possible.”
– Marguerite M. Food, Tech Recruiting @ Plaid
That quote from Plaid says it all. It’s about creating a fair test that’s relevant to the job.
A Candidate Experience That Builds Your Brand
Think about the message it sends when your interview process respects a candidate’s time and skills. It shows you’re a modern, developer-first company. Allowing candidates to use their own familiar tools, work asynchronously, and showcase their skills on a real project is a massive win. You’re not just evaluating them; you’re selling them on your company’s culture. In a competitive market for talent, that’s a huge advantage.
Grading and Integrations That Save Your Sanity
Let’s be real, reviewing take-home projects can be a time sink. Hatchways helps with this by combining automated grading for certain checks with a clear, standardized rubric for human review. This consistency helps reduce bias and saves your engineering team precious hours. Plus, for larger teams, the Pro plan offers ATS integration with platforms like Lever, Greenhouse, and Ashby. This means assessments can be sent, tracked, and reviewed right within your existing hiring workflow. No more juggling a dozen tabs and spreadsheets.
The All-Important Question: Hatchways Pricing
Alright, let’s talk about the investment. A great tool is only great if you can afford it. Hatchways has a pretty straightforward pricing structure that seems designed to scale with you.
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Limited pre-built assessments, build your own, up to 10 invites. |
| Premium | Starts at $100/month | Premium pre-built assessments, unlimited invites, full tracking. |
| Pro | Contact Sales | All Premium benefits + onboarding, deep customization, ATS integration, analytics. |
The Free plan is genuinely useful. For a small startup or a team that only hires occasionally, being able to send 10 invites is a perfect way to test the waters. The Premium plan feels like the sweet spot for most growing tech companies. Unlimited invites for $100/month is very reasonable when you consider the time saved and the improved quality of hire. The Pro plan is clearly for larger organizations that need that seamless ATS integration and custom branding.
The Good, The Not-So-Bad, and The Realistic
Okay, so it sounds great. But is it perfect? Of course not. No tool is. Let’s get real about the potential downsides.
On the one hand, the benefits are clear: the real-world approach is a game-changer for getting a true skill signal, and the candidate experience is miles ahead of the old way. I believe that alone makes it worth looking into.
However, you have to consider a few things. First, there’s a reliance on GitHub. For 99% of developer roles, this is a non-issue; Git proficiency is a must. But for some niche roles, it could be a small hurdle. Second, there’s an initial setup investment. Crafting a good custom assessment takes thought and effort from your team. It’s not a magic wand you can just wave. You have to put in some work to get the best results. Finally, for a brand new startup bootstrapping on a ramen budget, any monthly cost is a consideration. But I’d argue the cost of a bad hire is significantly higher than $100 a month. A miss-hire can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars in salary, recruiting fees, and lost productivity. It’s a classic case of ‘invest now or pay later’.
So, Who Is Hatchways Really For?
After looking at it all, a clear picture emerges. Hatchways is for modern tech companies who are tired of the status quo. It’s for hiring managers and engineering leads who believe that how you hire is a reflection of your company culture.
It’s an ideal fit if you:
- Value practical, on-the-job skills over theoretical knowledge.
- Want to improve your hiring signal and reduce the number of bad hires.
- Care deeply about providing a positive, respectful candidate experience.
- Are ready to invest a little time upfront to build assessments that truly work for your team.
My Final Take: It’s Time to Evolve
The technical interview is long overdue for an evolution. We’ve clung to whiteboards and abstract problems for far too long, mostly out of inertia. A platform like Hatchways represents a logical, thoughtful, and frankly, more humane step forward. It aligns the assessment process with the actual job, respects the candidate’s craft, and provides a clearer signal to the hiring team.
It’s not a completely hands-off solution—you still need to be thoughtful about what you’re testing. But it provides a fantastic framework to do it right. The future of tech hiring looks a lot more like a well-crafted pull request and a lot less like a whiteboard, and I am absolutely here for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does Hatchways cost?
- Hatchways offers three tiers: a Free plan with up to 10 invites, a Premium plan starting at $100/month for unlimited invites and features, and a custom Pro plan for enterprises needing ATS integration and full support.
- Can I create my own custom assessments?
- Yes! All plans, including the Free one, allow you to upload or build your own custom assessments to match your specific tech stack and job requirements.
- Does Hatchways integrate with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)?
- Yes, the Pro plan includes integration with popular ATS platforms like Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby, allowing you to manage the assessment process within your existing workflow.
- Is this platform suitable for hiring junior developers?
- Absolutely. The assessments are customizable, so you can tailor the difficulty and scope of the project to be appropriate for any level, from junior to principal engineer.
- How is this different from just sending a candidate a take-home project?
- Hatchways standardizes the process. It provides a consistent platform, rubrics for fair evaluation, automated grading tools to save time, and integrates into your hiring workflow, making it far more efficient and scalable than manually managing take-home projects.
