# LinkedIn Skill Assessments ended: what replaced them > LinkedIn retired Skill Assessments and scheduled the badges for removal in 2024. What its help centre says replaced them and how to show skills now. Source: https://getlemma.io/blog/linkedin-skill-assessments-no-longer-available LinkedIn retired Skill Assessments and scheduled the badges for removal in 2024. What its help centre says replaced them and how to show skills now. Lemma team 9 October 2026 · 6 min read ![LinkedIn Skill Assessments ended: what replaced them](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/islu4peo/production/4cf831ac0c6b534879e22733fe783d10317658d1-2400x1350.jpg?w=2400&fm=webp&q=80&fit=max) LinkedIn Skill Assessments are no longer available. LinkedIn's help centre says it is discontinuing the tests in its jobs products, and that all badges from completed assessments would be removed from member profiles in 2024. In their place, LinkedIn asks members to show how they applied each skill by linking it to jobs, projects, education and credentials. If you searched for the assessments and found a dead end, that is the short version. The rest of this post covers what the assessments were, what LinkedIn says replaced them, and what you can show today instead. ## What were LinkedIn Skill Assessments? They were short online tests that let you earn a "verified skill" badge on your profile. LinkedIn [announced them on 17 September 2019](https://www.linkedin.com/blog/member/product/announcing-skill-assessments-to-help-you-showcase-your-skills), built with LinkedIn Learning experts. To pass, you had to score in the 70th percentile or above. Results were kept private to you, and passing let you add a badge that showed on your profile in LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Jobs. For many people, especially those without a matching job title, the badge was a cheap way to say "I tested this". That is why its disappearance still sends people searching. ## When and why did LinkedIn retire them? LinkedIn's help page, titled [Skill Assessments - no longer available](https://www.linkedin.com/help/learning/answer/a1690529), gives the official account. We last checked it on 14 October 2026. It does not give an exact shutdown date. It does say three things clearly: 1. LinkedIn is "discontinuing the use of Skill Assessments in our jobs products". 2. All badges from completed Skill Assessments "will also be removed from member profiles in 2024", in the page's words, and all data associated with assessments and badges at the same time. 3. The reason: hirers told LinkedIn that examples of how a candidate applied their skills were increasingly valuable for judging fit. That third point matters more than the feature itself. A multiple-choice test shows you could answer questions about a skill on one day. Hirers were asking for something else: where you used it. ## What replaced LinkedIn Skill Assessments? There is no direct like-for-like replacement. The same help page points members to their profile instead: tag skills to credentials, and link each skill to the specific jobs, projects or education where you used it. The idea is that a skill attached to real context reads as more credible than a skill on its own. Two other LinkedIn features now sit around skills: - **Endorsements.** Your 1st-degree connections can still endorse skills you list, and LinkedIn's [endorsements help page](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a565106) says you can list up to 100 skills. An endorsement records that a connection clicked; it does not record what they saw. We look at what that means for hiring in [why LinkedIn endorsements don't work as skill evidence](https://getlemma.io/blog/why-linkedin-endorsements-dont-work). - **Verified AI skill certificates.** In January 2026, [TechCrunch reported](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/28/linkedin-will-let-you-show-off-your-vibe-coding-chops-with-a-certificate/) that LinkedIn started showing certificates issued by partner tools, including Descript, Lovable, Relay.app and Replit, based on how people actually use those products. Each partner sets its own standard, and they cover proficiency in that tool rather than a general skill. | What you can show on LinkedIn now | What it records | What it leaves open | | --- | --- | --- | | A listed skill | That you chose to list it | Whether you can do it | | Skill linked to a job or project | Where you say you used it | How well, and what the result was | | Endorsements | That connections clicked to vouch | What they saw, and when | | Licences and certifications | That an issuer awarded a credential | How you apply it now | | Partner AI skill certificates | Proficiency in one partner's product, by its own standard | Skills outside that product | | Retired Skill Assessment badges | Nothing; LinkedIn scheduled them for removal in 2024 | Everything | ## Does this change how recruiters read your profile? It removes one shortcut. A recruiter who used to filter for a badge now has the skill list, the context you linked, and whatever evidence you point to. LinkedIn's own reasoning tells you which of those carries weight: examples of how you applied a skill. That favours people who can show their work and disadvantages people whose work is hard to see. A senior engineer with ten years of titles is fine. A career switcher, a self-taught developer or someone whose best work is behind a company firewall has less to point to than before. ## What can you show instead of a LinkedIn skill badge? Evidence that someone can inspect without taking your word for it. The strongest options share three properties: they come from doing the work, they carry a date, and they show their source. - **Work you can link.** A repository, a deployed project or a design file. Explain your part if it was a team effort. - **An assessment that adapts.** A fixed multiple-choice quiz rewards memorising answers. An [adaptive assessment](https://getlemma.io/product/assessments) changes difficulty after every answer, so its result places you on a scale rather than just passing you. - **Sessions with other practitioners.** Teaching or learning a skill live, rated by the person you worked with, shows how you explain and debug, not only what you recall. - **A current record.** Evidence from last month says more than a badge from four years ago. ## How does a Skills Passport fill the gap? A [Lemma Skills Passport](https://getlemma.io/product/passport) is built from exactly that kind of evidence, one skill at a time, and summarises each skill with an SCI score from 0 to 100. [How the SCI score works](https://getlemma.io/blog/how-sci-works) explains the parts, and the [methodology](https://getlemma.io/methodology#evidence-types) lists every evidence type and its limits. Three details are relevant if you relied on LinkedIn's badge: - **Assessments are adaptive.** Lemma assessments ask between 15 and 25 questions on a 1 to 10 difficulty scale and stop once your level holds steady. Your best result counts, failed attempts carry a small capped penalty, and retries have a cooldown, so retaking until you pass by chance does not work. - **Linked work is checked.** GitHub, Figma and Vercel work is linked through your own account, so ownership is checked against that platform. Up to two linked proofs count per skill. - **The document is signed.** The Passport is signed by Lemma, so whoever receives it can check it was issued by Lemma and has not been altered. Evidence is append-only, with corrections and disputes recorded rather than erased. You do not have to choose between this and LinkedIn. Share the Passport link from your profile's featured section or next to the relevant skill, and let LinkedIn do what it does well: helping people find you. We set the two side by side in [Lemma vs LinkedIn](https://getlemma.io/compare/linkedin). ## What should you do with your LinkedIn skills section now? Treat it as an index, not as proof. A short, honest list does more than 100 skills with no context. 1. **Prune.** Keep the skills you would be comfortable being tested on tomorrow. 2. **Attach context.** Link each one to the job, project or credential where you used it, as LinkedIn suggests. 3. **Point to evidence.** For the two or three skills that matter most for the roles you want, link to something inspectable: a repository, a case study or a Passport. 4. **Keep it current.** If you have not used a skill in years, either refresh the evidence or move it down the list. If you are hiring, the same logic applies from the other side. The badge is gone, so ask for the thing LinkedIn says hirers valued: an example of the skill applied. Our [skills-based hiring guide](https://getlemma.io/blog/skills-based-hiring-guide) covers how to build that into a process, and the [technical skills assessment template](https://getlemma.io/blog/technical-skills-assessment-template) gives you a rubric to score it. ## Frequently asked questions Why are LinkedIn Skill Assessments no longer available? LinkedIn's help centre says it discontinued Skill Assessments in its jobs products because hirers reported that examples of how a candidate applied their skills were increasingly valuable for judging fit. Can I still get my old LinkedIn skill badge back? No. LinkedIn's help centre says all badges from completed Skill Assessments would be removed from member profiles in 2024, together with all data associated with assessments and badges. Are there LinkedIn skill tests for AI tools now? In January 2026 TechCrunch reported that LinkedIn began showing verified AI skill certificates issued by partner tools such as Replit and Lovable, based on how people use those tools. These cover specific products rather than general skills. What is the best way to show a skill on LinkedIn today? Link the skill to the job, project or credential where you used it, and point to evidence someone can inspect, such as a repository, a portfolio or a Skills Passport. A listed skill on its own is a claim. ![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/islu4peo/production/f5f399e61c91e2d9a4f0d8ce278cf3ae9f0efd35-1672x941.png?rect=0,0,1672,836&w=1600&h=800&fm=webp&q=70&fit=crop) ## Show the evidence, not the claim. Lemma records what you actually did, from live sessions to adaptive assessments and linked work, in one signed Skills Passport. Join the early-access list to start yours. [See how the Passport works](https://getlemma.io/product/passport) ## Read more - [Verification · 4 min read ### Why LinkedIn endorsements don't prove skills](https://getlemma.io/blog/why-linkedin-endorsements-dont-work) - [Methodology · 5 min read ### What is skill verification?](https://getlemma.io/blog/what-is-skill-verification) - [Methodology · 5 min read ### How the SCI score works](https://getlemma.io/blog/how-sci-works)