Knockout Criteria | CONFIRM Docs

Knockout criteria turn a screening question into a pass/fail gate. When a candidate’s answer fails a knockout, they are automatically disqualified — no manual review needed. Use knockouts for true must-haves like work authorization, required licenses, or minimum experience.

How knockouts work

You mark a question as a knockout and configure its pass condition.
On the call, the AI agent asks the question and listens to the answer.
The agent evaluates the answer against your condition.
If the candidate fails, the agent wraps up the call politely — they aren’t taken through to interview scheduling.
The candidate moves to the Failed Screening stage in your pipeline, with their answers recorded so you can see exactly why.

Failed Screening is a terminal stage, but nothing is deleted — the candidate, their answers, and the call recording stay available in the candidate’s profile.

Marking a question as a knockout

In the screening questions list, each question has a Knockout / Regular toggle. Click it to turn a question into a knockout, then expand the Knockout Configuration panel to set the pass condition. You can also check Knockout question when creating a question.

Condition types

Condition	Candidate passes when…
Yes = Pass (strict)	They clearly answer “Yes”.
No = Pass (strict)	They clearly answer “No”.
Yes or Unclear = Pass (lenient)	They answer “Yes” or their answer is ambiguous — only a clear “No” fails.
No or Unclear = Pass (lenient)	They answer “No” or their answer is ambiguous — only a clear “Yes” fails.
Numeric Minimum	Their number is at or above your threshold.
Numeric Maximum	Their number is at or below your threshold.
Must Include Keywords	Their answer mentions at least one of your keywords (e.g. “licensed, certified”).
Must NOT Include Keywords	Their answer avoids your disqualifying keywords.
Custom Logic	Their answer satisfies pass/fail logic you describe in plain language; the AI evaluates the response against it.

The lenient yes/no modes give candidates the benefit of the doubt: an unclear or hedged answer passes, and only a clear wrong answer fails. Use them when a phone answer might reasonably be ambiguous.

Commute distance has its own dedicated knockout, configured separately on the job’s Distance section — see The Job Console.

Best practices

Keep knockouts few. Every knockout is a hard gate. Two or three true deal-breakers is typical; if most questions are knockouts, you’ll reject candidates you’d actually want to talk to.
Only gate non-negotiables. Work authorization, a legally required license, a hard schedule constraint. Preferences (“3 years preferred”) belong in regular questions, where the answer feeds the score instead of ending the candidacy.
Phrase the question unambiguously. The agent evaluates the spoken answer, so the question must invite a clean answer. “Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?” works; a compound or vague question invites ambiguous answers.
Match the condition to the question. A yes/no question with a numeric condition (or vice versa) won’t evaluate the way you expect.
Prefer lenient modes when in doubt. If a borderline answer should get human eyes rather than an auto-reject, use the “or Unclear” variants — or don’t make the question a knockout at all.
State deal-breakers in the job posting too. If a knockout filters out most applicants, the requirement may need to be clearer upfront.