> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://f4c7a9e2d8b1-docs.tenzo.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Grading

> How Tenzo calculates a candidate's overall interview grade from screening questions

## How Overall Grades Work

The candidate's overall grade is a weighted average of answered screening questions, subject to a
hard-fail check for Required questions.

### Weights by importance

| Importance | Weight                                |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Info       | 0 (excluded)                          |
| Minor      | 0.5x                                  |
| Normal     | 1x                                    |
| Major      | 2x                                    |
| Required   | 1x (same as Normal, when not failing) |

### Informational interviews

When an interview contains only **Info** questions, Tenzo shows completion without an overall
score in the interview results, candidate list, PDF, and ATS note. These questions collect
information without assessing performance. Interviews that also include scored questions or
transcript-based grading criteria still show an overall score.

### Answer types

**Yes/No** — Binary. Grade is 100 if the candidate's answer matches the configured correct answer,
0 if not. Custom grading instructions override this if provided.

**Multiple Choice** — Binary. Grade is 100 if the candidate's answer matches any one or more of the
configured passing options, 0 if not. Custom grading instructions override this if provided.

**Number** — Interpolated by the LLM using the configured min/max and ideal values. Grade is 100 if
the candidate meets or exceeds the ideal value, 50–100 if within the acceptable range, and 0 if
outside the range entirely. Custom grading instructions override the numeric logic entirely if
provided.

**Date** — LLM-graded using the grading instructions if provided. If the question is Info importance
and no grading instructions are provided, the date is recorded but not graded.

**Text** — LLM-graded using the grading instructions if provided. Without instructions, the LLM
grades based on relevance and how well the answer addresses the question.

### Yes/No questions and the weighted average

Yes/No questions at **Minor, Normal, or Major** importance are included in the weighted average.
Their grade is 0 or 100.

Yes/No questions set to **Required** are excluded from the weighted average when the candidate
passes — they act as a pure gate. If the candidate fails a Required Yes/No, the overall score is
set to 0.

### Required hard fail

If any Required question receives a grade of 0 and the candidate answered it, the overall score is
set to 0, overriding the weighted average.

### Unanswered questions

Questions the candidate did not reach are recorded as Unknown and excluded from both the weighted
average and the hard-fail check. The completion ring separately tracks what share of counted
questions the candidate answered.

## Examples

### Number grading example

**Question:** "How many years of Python experience do you have?"

**Config:** Min = 2 years, Ideal = 5 years (bigger is better)

| Candidate answer | Grade | Reason                              |
| ---------------- | ----- | ----------------------------------- |
| 6 years          | 100   | Exceeds ideal                       |
| 5 years          | 100   | Meets ideal                         |
| 3 years          | 67    | Interpolated: 50 + (3−2)/(5−2) × 50 |
| 2 years          | 50    | At the minimum threshold            |
| 1 year           | 0     | Below minimum                       |

The interpolation formula between min and ideal is:
`50 + ((answer − min) / (ideal − min)) × 50`

### Overall score example

Three questions on a job:

| Question                                | Answer type | Importance | Weight | Grade        |
| --------------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------ | ------------ |
| "Legally authorized to work in the US?" | Yes/No      | Required   | —      | 100 (pass)   |
| "Describe your Python experience"       | Text        | Major      | 2      | 80           |
| "Years of experience"                   | Number      | Normal     | 1      | 67           |
| "Ability to commute"                    | Yes/No      | Normal     | —      | Not answered |

The "Legally authorized to work in the US?" passed, so it's excluded from the weighted average
(acts as a gate only). The "Ability to commute" isn't answered, so it's excluded from the weighted
average.

**Weighted average = (2 × 80 + 1 × 67) / (2 + 1) = 227 / 3 ≈ 76**

If the candidate had failed the Yes/No instead, the overall score would be **0** regardless of the
other grades.