Overview
Screening questions help recruiters quickly assess whether an applicant meets the minimum criteria for a position, and serve as a critical filter for low quality applications. By integrating screening questions into your application flow, you can:- Improve the quality of candidate submissions by ensuring only qualified applicants move forward.
- Boost overall job board revenue by enhancing employer satisfaction and encouraging repeat postings.
Why are screening questions important?
Screening questions play a crucial role in the talent acquisition space in providing additional information to the recruiter about an applicant. They are utilized to increase quality of applications. Many jobs will require screening questions to filter applicants. To ensure that your application is received and reviewed, it may be necessary to implement screening questions.Screening Question Object
Format Attributes
- display_type:
SINGLE_LINE
|MULTI_LINE
|EMAIL
|URL
| null- Specifies how the text input should be displayed
- max_length: Maximum characters allowed (null for unlimited)
Common Attributes
-
id
string
: The globally unique ID of this object generated by Kombo. -
remote_id
string | null
: The raw ID of the object in the remote system. -
title
string | null
: The question that you need to display. -
description
string | null
: Additional information provided alongside the title. -
index
integer | null
: Specifies the order in which the question should be displayed. -
required
boolean | null
: Indicates whether the question is mandatory. -
precondition_question_id
string | null
: The Kombo ID of another screening question that acts as a precondition. -
precondition_options
array
: Array of valid responses that trigger the display of this question.
How to Implement Screening Questions with Kombo
There are 4 main steps to implement screening questions:- Fetching Screening Questions
- Displaying Screening Questions in Your UI
- Capturing and Validating Answers
- Submitting Screening Question Answers
1. Fetching Screening Questions
Before you can display any screening questions in your UI or submit answers, you will need to ensure that a job with screening questions has been created and published in your customer’s ATS. You can then start fetching this info by having the “screening questions” scope enabled in your scope config.
Scope config settings in Kombo dashboard
Sample API Request
Example Response Snippet
Example Response Snippet
Note: Each job’sscreening_questions
field can contain one or more questions. The order of these questions (defined by theindex
field) is recommended for display but not mandatory.
2. Displaying Screening Questions in Your UI

Job Application Form with Screening Questions
Guidelines
-
Render a Field per Question:
Display a corresponding input element within your job application form for each screening question in the
screening_questions
array. Depending on your product’s goal, you might consider only displaying required screening questions to minimize the candidate’s input. -
Match Field Type to Question Format:
The type of input you display should correspond to the
format.type
andformat.display_type
provided. For example:Type Recommended Format TEXT / SINGLE_LINE
Text input TEXT / MULTI_LINE
Text area NUMBER
Numeric input field or slider SINGLE_SELECT / MULTI_SELECT
Radio buttons, dropdown menus, or checkboxes BOOLEAN
Toggle, checkbox, yes/no dropdown, or radio buttons DATE
Date picker or input field with format validation FILE
File upload control INFORMATION
Display a static text UNKNOWN
Handle custom logic as needed -
Indicate Required Fields:
Clearly mark questions that are mandatory. For instance, add an asterisk “*” next to the question title when the
required
field istrue
. -
Display the description:
Show the
description
below the question when present. It is often a short sentence but can be a long block. It may include HTML for formatting and Kombo returns it unchanged, so render HTML appropriately in your UI. - Follow the Recommended Order: It’s recommended (though not required) to display the screening questions in the order they are provided in the API response to preserve any intentional flow.
Sample HTML Snippet
Below is an example snippet for displaying a single-line text question and a multi-select question:Example HTML Snippet
Tip: Adapt these examples to match your styling guidelines and frontend framework. Use real data from the API to populate questions dynamically.
3. Capturing and Validating Answers
Data Collection
- Gather Answers: Ensure that each candidate’s response is collected in a way that corresponds to the question’s expected format. For example, if a question is a multi-select, capture the answer as an array of option IDs. If the question is a text input, capture the answer as a string.
-
Implement Data Validation:
Validate user input on the client side:
- Check that required fields are not left empty.
- Ensure that input types match the expected format (e.g., numeric inputs for
NUMBER
questions). - Enforce constraints like
max_length
for text fields.
Example JavaScript Validation
4. Submitting Screening Question Answers
Once all candidate responses are captured and validated, include them in the payload when creating an application using Kombo’s create application endpoint.Sample Screening Questions Array
Sample Screening Questions Array
Sample API Request
Sample API Request
Error Handling: Implement robust error handling in your integration. For instance:
- 400 Errors: Likely indicate validation issues. Alert the candidate or log the error for review.
- 500 Errors: Signal server-side issues. In these cases, prompt users to try again later and contact Kombo support if the issue persists.
5. Consider Advanced Features + Edge Cases
While less common, there are some edge cases and additional features that you should consider.Auto-answering required screening questions
Please reach out to Kombo support if you would like to use this feature – and it is not already enabled for you.
Type | Answer |
---|---|
TEXT | - |
NUMBER | 0 (unless min and/or max are described, in which case we take the minimum number in the range) |
BOOLEAN | true |
SINGLE_SELECT | The first option |
MULTI_SELECT | The first option |
DATE | The current date |
FILE | An empty file |
Handling ATS-specific logic
Some ATS will include a score or disqualification value to a question. If these values can be read via API, we will ensure that the submitted answer does not disqualify the created candidate. Kombo will never try to manipulate or maximize a score.Display type
Thedisplay_type
for screening questions contain information about the display and validation. For example a screening question of type TEXT
can have an these display_type
properties: SINGLE_LINE
, MULTI_LINE
, EMAIL
and URL
. EMAIL
and URL
have additional validation rules.
Conditional screening questions
A conditional screening question is a question that should only appear based on the answer to another question. You will want to implement logic that only displays the conditional screening question to the applicant if this precondition is met. Answers to conditional screening questions may be required, although this requirement is only true if the precondition is met. An example of this could be: Question 1: Do you have a valid driver’s license?- Yes
- No
- Less than 1 year
- 1-2 years
Use Kombo’s sandbox integration in your development environment to test conditional screening questions and build your user interface.
precondition_question_id
is the id
of the first question, and precondition_options
includes the id
of the Yes option of the first question.
Example Screening Questions With Preconditions