Skype previews a new feature that assesses candidates' coding skills over video interviews

In a bid to further augment its position in the business user segment, Skype has added a new preview feature called Interviews that allows interviewers test candidates in seven programming languages over Skype using a real-time code editor.

Currently this kind of remote technical screening tool is available with HackerRank, CoderPad, CodeInterview, Codility and  Interview Zen, among others.

Conducting video interviews to screen technical skills is a cumbersome process, as it often requires constant juggling between two different apps- the call and a code editor. Now to simplify and streamline this process, Skype Interviews allows you to have a video call on top of a code editor that runs in your Microsoft Edge or Chrome browser (version 32 or above).

Although it sounds interesting, the new feature has some limitations. For example, the code editor only runs through Microsoft Edge or Chrome browsers and your browser has to be set to English. The code editor supports seven programming languages- C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python and Ruby and has built-in syntax highlighting to help users spot errors as they work.

Users can also be tested on multiple programming languages at once and the code editor allows candidates to run their code and check their results.

No set up is required. A hiring manager simply need to click on the 'Start Interviews' button on the website to get a unique link to share with the interviewee. The programming languages can be changed by clicking the button on the upper left.

The feature is currently just in preview and Skype is urging those that try it out to provide feedback. There is no word as yet on wider roll-out plan of this feature.