Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("User," "you," or "your") and Aprann, Inc. d/b/a Branchmark ("Branchmark," "we," "us," or "our"). These Terms govern your access to and use of our website, developer workspaces, assessment tracks, APIs, employer dashboards, and associated services (collectively, the "Service").

By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service in any capacity—whether as a Candidate seeking employment or as an Employer evaluating talent—you affirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an employer, company, or legal entity, you represent and warrant that you possess full legal authority to bind that entity. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Service.

Eligibility: You must be at least sixteen (16) years of age (or eighteen (18) where local law requires majority for employment) to use Branchmark. By registering, you warrant that you meet this requirement and are not barred from using the Service under applicable law.

Account Integrity: You must provide accurate, current, and complete registration information. You are strictly prohibited from sharing your login credentials, creating duplicate or "burner" candidate accounts, or transferring your account. You are solely responsible for safeguarding your credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.

Employer Teams: Employer accounts are organized into company teams. Team owners and administrators are legally responsible for all invitations issued, roles assigned, position listings posted, and actions taken by team members on the platform.

Branchmark enables candidates to establish an objective, verifiable engineering record based on demonstrated performance rather than subjective resumes. To protect the legitimacy of your credential, you agree to the following assessment rules:

• Authentic Personal Work: Every line of code, test case, quiz selection, and architectural review submitted under your account must be your own original work. Impersonation, proxy test-taking, group collaboration, or outsourcing assessment tasks to any third party is strictly prohibited and may result in your attempt being voided, your record being removed, or your account being terminated.
• Permitted vs. Prohibited Tools:
  • Built-In Workspace Assistant: You are expressly permitted to interact with Branchmark's built-in assistant up to the task limit (twelve (12) messages per task). You acknowledge and agree that your complete assistant conversation transcript is recorded and provided to prospective employers as part of your task submission.
  • External AI & Solvers Prohibited: You may not use external generative AI models (including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Cursor), automated solvers, coding bots, or third-party browser extensions during an assessment task.
  • Internal Clipboard Containment: The workspace enforces internal-only copying and pasting. Pasting external code from outside applications is automatically blocked and recorded as an integrity signal. You agree not to bypass or interfere with this mechanism.
• In-Browser Camera Presence Check: Real assessment tasks require camera consent. Your browser checks a very small, low-resolution picture locally for brightness and movement, and no images or video leave your device. Obscuring the lens, feeding pre-recorded video, or using a virtual camera is prohibited. Events such as a covered camera or a long stretch without movement are recorded as advisory integrity signals, which employers see apart from your score. We may review them, and may void an attempt that we find was not your own work.
• Rolling 24-Hour Task Quota: To prevent grinding and ensure fair score comparability across candidates with varying free time, candidate accounts are currently limited to three (3) real task starts per rolling 24-hour period. We may change this limit. You agree not to circumvent it, for example with multiple accounts. Practice tracks are exempt from this quota.
• Baseline Record & Job Applications: You must achieve the baseline record (currently three (3) valid task submissions on real tracks) before applying to positions. Your record is shared with a company only when you affirmatively click "Apply" for a specific role.

Employers use Branchmark to evaluate verified engineering capability and streamline hiring. Employer organizations agree to the following covenants:

• Blind Review Commitment: Employers agree to evaluate applicants through Branchmark's blind review pipeline. Prior to shortlisting, candidates are identified solely by anonymous identifiers (C-XXXXXX) and objective proficiency metrics. Employers agree not to attempt to deanonymize, cross-reference, or uncover candidate identities prior to shortlisting.
• Accurate Job Listings & Pay Transparency: All position postings must represent genuine, active job openings. In compliance with applicable wage transparency statutes, employers must provide a realistic, good-faith pay range for every published role, as the product requires before a position can open, and must keep the role's other details accurate.
• Sole Responsibility for Hiring Decisions: Branchmark is an objective evaluation platform, not an employer, staffing firm, or employment agency. Employers bear sole and exclusive legal responsibility for all hiring, interviewing, background check, employment offer, compensation, and rejection decisions, as well as strict compliance with all federal, state, and international labor and anti-discrimination laws (including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, ADA, ADEA, UK Equality Act 2010, and EU Equal Treatment Directives).
• Respectful Candidate Engagement: Once an applicant is shortlisted and their identity is revealed, employers agree to communicate professionally and solely regarding legitimate consideration for the applied position. Spam, marketing solicitations, and abusive behavior are strictly prohibited.

Candidate Service Free: Creating an account, practicing, completing baseline tasks, maintaining a verified engineering record, and applying to job positions is completely free for candidates.

Employer Fees: Employer plans are arranged directly with us. The plan, any platform fee, any placement fee for candidates hired through Branchmark, the billing period, payment terms, and refund terms are set out in a written order form or agreement between us and the employer, and are invoiced to the employer. If an order form and these Terms conflict, the order form controls for that employer.

Taxes: Unless an order form says otherwise, fees are exclusive of applicable sales, use, value-added, and similar taxes.

Branchmark Intellectual Property: The Service, its underlying algorithms, evaluation models, user interfaces, documentation, and all proprietary assessment tracks—including our simulated company codebases (Northwind, Lumen, Harbor, Meridian, Tallow, Rook, Quill), task briefs, test suites, and hidden mutant suites—are the exclusive intellectual property of Aprann, Inc. and its licensors.

Strict Assessment Confidentiality: Assessment materials, simulated company scenarios, test suites, and problem definitions are confidential trade secrets of Branchmark. You agree never to record, screenshot, copy, redistribute, post, publish, or share any Branchmark task content, code, or solutions on external websites, forums, public repositories (e.g., GitHub), or social media.

Candidate Code License: Candidates retain all original copyright ownership in the code and solutions authored during tasks. By submitting work on Branchmark, you grant Branchmark a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to execute, compile, test, analyze, store, and display your submissions to prospective employers in connection with providing the Service.

You agree that you will not under any circumstances:

• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or derive the source code of the Branchmark platform or test runner sandboxes.
• Use automated scrapers, bots, crawlers, or unauthorized scripts to extract candidate profiles, job postings, or test problems.
• Introduce malicious code, viruses, worms, infinite loops, or computational attacks into our test execution microVMs.
• Attempt to bypass, defeat, or manipulate rate limits, sandbox security boundaries, network blocks, or anti-cheat monitors.
• Harass, abuse, defame, threaten, or discriminate against any candidate, employer, or employee of Branchmark.

Termination by You: You may terminate your account at any time via your account settings. Candidate deletion requests trigger a seven (7) day cancellation grace period, after which personal profile data, authentication credentials, and assistant transcripts are permanently erased in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Termination or Suspension by Branchmark: We reserve the right to immediately suspend or permanently terminate your account and void any verified records if you violate these Terms, cheat on assessments, interfere with sandbox infrastructure, or engage in unlawful conduct.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Branchmark does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or completely secure. Branchmark does not guarantee that any Candidate will receive interviews, job offers, or employment, nor does it guarantee to Employers that any Candidate will accept an offer or achieve specific job performance levels. Proficiency scores reflect performance on simulated tasks and do not constitute a legal certification of professional competence.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL APRANN, INC., ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, PARTNERS, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY), REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO BRANCHMARK IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM; OR (B) ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($100.00 USD).

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Aprann, Inc., its affiliates, officers, directors, and employees from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these Terms, your submitted code or job postings, your hiring decisions or employment practices, or your infringement of any third-party rights.

Informal Resolution First: In the event of any dispute, claim, or controversy, you and Branchmark agree to first attempt to resolve the issue informally by providing written notice to legal@branchmark.com for at least thirty (30) days prior to initiating formal proceedings.

If a dispute is not resolved informally, either party may bring it in the courts described in Section 13.

These Terms and any disputes arising hereunder shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. The state and federal courts located in Delaware have jurisdiction over disputes that are not resolved informally, except where the law of your home country gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere.

We reserve the right to amend these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date and provide reasonable notice (such as via an email alert or in-app notice). Your continued use of the Service following the posting of revised Terms confirms your binding agreement to the modifications.

If you have questions, legal notices, or inquiries regarding these Terms of Service, please contact our legal department at: