CodeSubmit is built primarily as a take-home coding submission platform, not a live proctored exam tool. Its standard behaviour is to record your webcam and the work you do inside its editor, and to give the employer a recording plus a code timeline they can review. Full desktop screen capture is not the normal mode for a typical CodeSubmit take-home.
As with any assessment platform, the exact settings are chosen by the employer — so confirm what applies to your test rather than assuming.
What CodeSubmit typically captures
- Webcam video during the session, if the employer enabled it. Some CodeSubmit setups include a short introduction video where you explain your solution.
- Audio, when the video option is on.
- Your code as you write it — a detailed history rather than just the final file.
- A code playback or timeline showing how the solution was built, which is the feature most interviewers actually use.
- Time spent on the task and session metadata.
The important nuance: seeing how you wrote the code is a different and much more useful signal than watching your desktop. CodeSubmit leans toward the former.
The thing candidates care about most: is it timed?
CodeSubmit assessments are most often used as take-home assignments with a deadline rather than live proctored sessions with a countdown. That means you can usually work across several sittings.
It also means the code history is the integrity check. If most of the final solution appears in a paste or a bulk import rather than being typed, committed, and edited incrementally, that stands out in the playback. Writing your own code, including the parts you struggle with, is both the honest approach and the better-looking one in the timeline.
How to check what your specific test is doing
- Read the invitation. If video recording is enabled, it will normally say so, and there is usually a camera permission step.
- Note whether it asks for webcam access at the start. No prompt means no recording.
- Check the instructions for the format — "take-home, submit by a date" versus "timed, proctored session" implies quite different monitoring.
- Ask the recruiter if the email is vague. This is a routine question.
How to prepare
- Work in the CodeSubmit editor rather than developing elsewhere and pasting in. Your process is part of what is being assessed.
- Commit incrementally. Small, logical steps read far better than one large dump.
- Write the explanation. If a summary or introduction video is requested, use it to talk through trade-offs you considered — that is often the part interviewers watch.
- Check your camera and microphone before starting so a permission problem does not cost you time.
- Be in the environment you were told to be in. If the brief says solo work, keep it solo.
For employers
If you are using CodeSubmit for take-homes, the code timeline is the signal worth reading — it distinguishes someone who solved the problem from someone who produced a correct-looking file. Add webcam monitoring only where the risk justifies it, because it changes candidate experience and can suppress completion rates on exactly the passive candidates you most want to reach.
Whatever you choose, disclose monitoring in the invitation. Undisclosed recording damages trust and, in some jurisdictions, creates legal exposure.
Screening is more useful when the integrity method and the evaluation method are designed together. AI candidate evaluation covers how to score and rank submissions against the role's criteria rather than reviewing each one from scratch.
Bottom line
CodeSubmit records your webcam when the employer enables it, and captures your coding process and code history inside its editor — that playback, not desktop screen capture, is what reviewers normally use. Treat the assignment as a take-home with a deadline, write your code incrementally rather than pasting it, and check the invitation for what is actually switched on.