How blind hiring works, end to end
A client posts a project with a rubric. Applicants — one freelancer, or a squad of two to five — do a short, real piece of the work with their names hidden. The client scores each attempt against the same checklist, then the names are revealed and one is chosen. Here is every step, what it costs, and the parts we are not proud of.
Last reviewed 11 October 2026 · 7 minute read
Most marketplaces ask you to write about the work you have done. This one asks you to do a little of the work instead, with your name taken off it, and pays you nothing for that part. That trade is the whole product, so it is worth explaining in full.
The short version
A client posts a project and a rubric. Everyone who wants the job does a small, bounded piece of real work against that rubric, with the names hidden. The client scores each attempt on the same checklist without knowing who made it, then the names are revealed and the highest-scoring work is chosen. The money for each milestone is held before that milestone starts and released when the client accepts it.
What the client writes
Three things, and the third is the one that matters most:
- A project, with a budget and what it has to do.
- A diagnostic — a small task that is a real slice of the project, not a riddle. It has a time limit, and applicants see it before they apply.
- A rubric: the specific things that will be checked, written down before anyone answers. If a client cannot say what good looks like, the audition cannot be scored fairly and we say so on the page.
The diagnostic is one of five kinds, depending on what the project actually needs: a code snippet (CODE_SNIPPET), a system design (SYSTEM_DESIGN), a piece of copy and positioning (COPYWRITING_POSITIONING), a design critique (DESIGN_CRITIQUE), or a custom prompt (CUSTOM_PROMPT) written by the client. These are the values the app stores, named here exactly as the project page names them.
What an applicant actually does
- 1ApplyOne freelancer on their own, or a squad. The audition is identical either way and scored the same way; a team is optional, not a requirement.
- 2Do the diagnosticA bounded piece of the real work, inside the time limit the client set. It is not the project, and it is not a deliverable: it is small on purpose, because the point is to see how somebody thinks when they are given something real.
- 3Submit blindThe work goes in without a name attached to it. Not a profile, not a rate, not a logo, not a history.
The audition is unpaid
Nobody is paid for the diagnostic, and we do not pretend otherwise. It is the one real cost of applying here, and it is why we keep it small and time-boxed rather than letting clients ask for something that looks like the project itself. If that trade is wrong for you, this is not the right marketplace for you, and it is better to know that now.
How the scoring works
- Read blind: the client sees the work, and not whose it is.
- Same checklist: every attempt is scored against the rubric written before any of them arrived.
- Names after: scoring is finished before the names are revealed, so the reveal cannot change the score.
- Then choose: the client compares the scored attempts and picks one, and is free to pick a lower-scored one if they can say why.
That is the mechanism, and it is deliberately not a fairness policy. A policy is something we promise; a hidden name is something the software enforces.
What it costs
Clients pay nothing on top of the contract value — no posting fee, no subscription, no fee for reading applications. Freelancers pay a single fee on money that actually leaves escrow, taken when it is released rather than when the work is applied for, awarded or funded.
| Who pays | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Posting a project | Nobody | — |
| Applying, or doing the audition | Nobody | — |
| A milestone released to a freelancer | The freelancer | At release, on the released amount |
| A refunded milestone | Nobody | The full amount returns to the client |
For example, a project funded and released in full:
- Contract value
- ₹1,00,000.00
- Platform fee (10%)
- ₹10,000.00
- Reaches the freelancer
- ₹90,000.00
The money is held per milestone rather than per project: each one is funded before it starts, sits in escrow while it is worked on, and is released when the client accepts it. A milestone that is never accepted is never released, and a refunded milestone returns its full amount to the client.
What happens when it goes wrong
- A milestone nobody will accept can be disputed. Both sides put their case in writing and an operator reviews it, and the outcome is either a release, a partial release, or a refund.
- A refunded milestone returns its full amount to the client — the platform fee is only ever taken on money that is actually released to a freelancer.
- Arranging work, or paying for it, outside the platform is a breach of the terms. It removes the escrow protection for both sides, so the app flags contact details and off-platform payment attempts, and repeats are escalated by hand.
- A project that asks for the deliverable as its diagnostic is removed from the directory and reviewed by hand.
None of that is a guarantee, and it would be dishonest to present escrow or a rubric as one. It is a set of specific, written rules with an outcome attached to each, which is more than a promise.
What a scored audition is not
- It is not a trial project. It is small, time-boxed, and not usable as part of the finished work.
- It is not free labour dressed up as a test — which is why it cannot be the whole deliverable, and why clients who try to expand it get flagged to us.
- It is not scored on your profile. Ratings and history are not part of the audition score, though they are visible on your profile to anybody browsing.
- It is not a guarantee of anything. A client can still choose badly. We can make the decision better-informed; we cannot make it good.
Questions people ask
Do I get paid for the audition?
No. The diagnostic is unpaid — it is the cost of applying on Squadrie, and it is kept small and time-boxed for exactly that reason. The project itself is funded per milestone before each milestone starts.
Can a client see who made which submission?
Not while scoring. Submissions are scored with the names hidden, and the names are revealed only after scoring is finished, so the reveal cannot change a score that is already recorded.
Is a squad judged differently from a freelancer?
No. A single freelancer applying solo and a squad of two to five are given the same diagnostic and scored against the same rubric. Hiring a team is optional, not a requirement.
When is the fee charged?
On money released from escrow to a freelancer or a squad, and never before. Nothing is charged for posting a project, applying, or doing the audition, and a refund returns the full amount.
What if a client asks for too much in the diagnostic?
It is a breach of the terms. The diagnostic has to be a bounded slice with a time limit, not the deliverable. We review flagged projects by hand and can remove a client who uses auditions as free work.
How long does a scored audition take?
The time limit is set by the client when the project is written, and applicants see it before they apply, so the commitment is known up front rather than discovered afterwards.
Ready to see it from the other side?
Post a project with a rubric, or browse the freelancers and squads who are already working this way.