TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for interpreting candidate answers to facilitate an in-person interview process, and more particularly, for automatically detecting spacing errors or bugs in the source code of handwritten candidate answers during the course of an interview.

BACKGROUND

In many settings, employers may offer interviews having a plurality of interview questions that require handwritten or typed candidate answers. As an example, a handwritten answer may be written on a whiteboard or a blackboard, and a typed answer may be typed on a keyboard. Interview questions may test an interview candidate's aptitude in different types of source code or programming language and the candidate answers may be presented in a source code format. Multiple interviews may be conducted by a single interviewer during the course of one day or a plurality of consecutive days. Often times, interviewers experience fatigue from conducting many interviews during a single day and/or become distracted from conducting interviews due to the demands of their regular workload. Other times, interviewers may not be able to concentrate on the source code of the candidates interview response answers when reviewing handwritten or typed candidate answers to interview. As a result, interviewers may make a mistake on an evaluation of a candidate answer. In particular, interviewers may overlook spacing irregularities, use of incorrect syntax or variables, and/or fail to detect other errors in evaluating the source code answers provided by interview candidates.

Accordingly, what is needed is a system that facilitates the interview process by detecting spacing errors, bugs, or source code alignment in the source code candidate answers that an interviewer might have missed when conducting a manual review of candidate answers. Additionally, what is needed is a system that provides interviewers more time to evaluate and assess the logic and thought processes expressed in the candidate answers, instead of burdening the interviewers by requiring the interviewers to evaluate details of the syntax and/or spacing of the candidate source code answers. Moreover, what is needed are techniques that provide to interviewers suggestions of source code questions to the interviewers in cases where interviewers are required to candidates with respect to specific programming languages unfamiliar to the interviewers.

Furthermore, what is needed are image analysis techniques that capture handwritten candidate answers in real-time and that perform image analysis classification techniques to compare incorrect answers with correct answers. Additionally, what is needed are techniques based on image analysis for automatic detection of source code alignment and spacing across a plurality of lines of the source code, and techniques for comparison of a candidate answers to candidate solutions previously stored in a database. Finally, what is needed are notification and transmission means for interview questions and answer results to be communicated to a plurality of interviewers at a user interface.

The disclosed systems and methods address one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the prior art.

SUMMARY

One aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a system for determining candidate answers during an interview. The system may include a memory storing executable instructions, and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations. The operations may include capturing, by an image sensor, a plurality of images comprising a plurality of candidate answers; detecting, based on the captured images, a first bounding box comprising the candidate answers; detecting, based on the captured images, a second bounding box comprising a plurality of alphanumeric characters, a first one of the characters being located on a line of software code; calculating a distance from a side of the first bounding box to a side of the second bounding box; and determining, based on the calculated distance, a software code alignment.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a method for determining candidate answers during an interview. The method may include capturing, by an image sensor, a plurality of images comprising a plurality of candidate answers; detecting, based on the captured images, a first bounding box comprising the candidate answers; detecting, based on the captured images, a second bounding box comprising a plurality of alphanumeric characters, a first one of the characters being located on a line of software code; calculating a distance from a side of the first bounding box to a side of the second bounding box; and determining, based on the calculated distance, a software code alignment.

Yet another aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for determining candidate answers during an interview. The operations may include capturing, by an image sensor, a plurality of images comprising a plurality of candidate answers; detecting, based on the captured images, a first bounding box comprising the candidate answers; detecting, based on the captured images, a second bounding box comprising a plurality of alphanumeric characters, a first one of the characters being located on a line of software code; calculating a distance from a side of the first bounding box to a side of the second bounding box; and determining, based on the calculated distance, a software code alignment.

