Terms of Service

FDE Circle is operated by FDE Circle ("we", "us", "our"). We provide a simulation-based training and assessment platform for Forward Deployed Engineers and the companies that hire them. By using the platform at fdecircle.com you agree to these Terms.

FDE Circle has two sides:

• TRAIN — a self-service scenario library for candidates who want to practise and build a verified FDE-Ready profile.
• ASSESS — an employer-facing tool that lets companies send assessment links to candidates and receive scored evidence reports.
• HIRE (coming Phase 5) — a talent marketplace where candidates who opt in can be discovered by vetted employers.

Candidates sign up with a Google account or email and password. You must provide accurate information and keep your account secure. You are responsible for all activity under your account.

Companies sign up with a work email — Google account or password, your choice. We recommend using a shared team inbox (e.g. talent@company.com) rather than an individual email so access survives team changes. You are responsible for keeping credentials secure and for all assessments created under your account.

We are in private beta. We reserve the right to approve or decline account requests at our discretion.

• Complete assessments honestly using only your own work and knowledge.
• Do not share scenario content, assessment prompts, or model answers with others. Doing so undermines the validity of the signal for every candidate and company on the platform.
• Do not use automated tools, AI assistants, or external help during timed assessments unless explicitly permitted by the scenario brief.
• Your assessment responses and scores are stored and may be shared with the company that sent you the assessment link. For self-started scenarios, your scores are visible on your profile unless you set your profile to private.

• Use assessment data only to inform legitimate hiring decisions for the role the candidate applied for.
• Do not share candidate evidence reports, scores, or personal data with third parties outside your organisation without the candidate's consent.
• Do not use our platform to discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic. Assessment scores reflect deployment simulation performance only.
• Assessment links you create may be sent to any candidate. You are responsible for ensuring you have a lawful basis to process their data under applicable privacy law.
• Inviting a candidate directly.Where you submit a candidate's name or email to invite them to an assessment, you represent and warrant that you have a lawful basis to contact that person — for example, your own recruiting activity, a referral, or publicly available professional information — and you authorise FDE Circle to send that person an assessment invitation and related information about the FDE Circle platform (including our Train product) on your behalf. You are responsible for compliance with applicable anti-spam and direct-marketing laws in respect of that outreach. FDE Circle acts solely as the sending mechanism at your instruction and does not independently verify the accuracy or lawfulness of contact details you submit.

Scenario responses (code edits, terminal commands, written answers, Loom URLs) are stored and used to generate scores. Scoring is performed by automated test suites and LLM-as-judge models. Scores are indicative — they reflect performance on the specific simulation, not a guarantee of job performance.

We reserve the right to re-grade submissions when we improve scoring models. Where re-grading materially changes a score, we will notify affected candidates.

When the Hire marketplace launches, candidates who opt in will be discoverable by vetted employers. Opting in is entirely voluntary and revocable at any time from your profile settings. We never share candidate contact details directly — all introductions are facilitated by FDE Circle staff.

A placement fee of 5% of the candidate's first-year total compensation is charged to the employer on successful hire. No fee applies to candidates.

Scenario content, rubrics, platform code, and all FDE Circle materials are our intellectual property. You may not reproduce, sell, or create derivative works from scenario content without written permission.

Your assessment responses remain yours. By submitting them you grant us a limited licence to store, score, display to relevant employers (per these Terms), and improve our scoring models.

• Attempting to reverse-engineer, scrape, or extract scenario content or rubrics at scale.
• Creating fake accounts or impersonating another person or organisation.
• Attempting to manipulate scoring by exploiting model behaviour rather than demonstrating genuine capability.
• Using the platform for any unlawful purpose.

Violations may result in immediate account termination and, where applicable, legal action.

The platform is provided "as is" during private beta. We make no warranty that scenarios reflect every real-world FDE situation, that scores predict job performance with certainty, or that the platform will be uninterrupted or error-free. We are continuously improving content and scoring — what you see today may change.

To the extent permitted by law, FDE Circle shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from use of the platform, including hiring decisions made on the basis of assessment scores. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or £100, whichever is greater.

You may close your account at any time by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, with or without notice. On termination, your profile and scores are removed from public view; stored response data is retained for 90 days then deleted unless legal obligation requires longer retention.

We may update these Terms as the platform evolves. Material changes will be communicated by email or an in-app notice at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Questions about these Terms: hello@fdecircle.com