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    • Home
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    Scheduling: Optional attendees

    Written by Lindsey Stanifer

    Updated at August 19th, 2026

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    Table of Contents

    Use cases Add optional attendees Remove optional attendees Send interview request AI Assistant scheduling logic Choose a Time logic Optional attendee logic Permissions FAQs Will this be applied to public and inbound APIs? What happens when a required interview attendee is also listed within an optional Round Robin Group?

    You can add optional attendees to an interview, allowing all relevant team members to receive the invite without your AI Assistant putting emphasis on the optional attendees' OIT. This prevents the friction of moving a candidate into a No Availability status when your AI Assistant cannot find an open time among all attendees.


    Use cases

    • Teams who want to add multiple attendees to an invite without causing scheduling issues.

    Add optional attendees

    Regardless of whether you are manually scheduling a candidate for an interview or if you are utilizing the auto-scheduling feature, once you have added more than one attendee to the interview, a Required pill will display for each interviewer. To mark an attendee as optional,

    1. Hover over the preferred attendee’s Required pill.
    2. Select the Mark as optional tooltip that displays. Optional attendees will then have an Optional pill next to their name in place of the Required pill.


       
    3. Repeat this process for all preferred attendees.
      • Note: If only one attendee is remaining after marking other interviewers as optional, then they will be marked as a required attendee, and the ability to mark an attendee as Optional will be disabled.
    4. Schedule the interview.

    Required and optional attendees will be listed separately within the Interview Summary, starting with the required attendees.

    Remove optional attendees

    1. Mark as Required – If you want to mark an optional attendee as Required again, simply click the Optional pill to update it. 
    2. Remove Optional Attendee – To remove an optional attendee from the interview, simply click the x icon within their interviewer box.

    Send interview request

    AI Assistant scheduling logic

    When letting your AI Assistant schedule for you, they will look at the required attendees' open interview times (OIT) to find the best time to schedule the interview. Your assistant will try, however, to choose a time that overlaps with optional attendees' availability.

    Choose a Time logic

    When optional attendees are added to an interview and you choose a time, then all required attendees' availability will be shown.

    When scheduling an interview, you can hover over an available time to view how many attendees are available. The icons displayed will indicate the number of attendees who are available to attend the interview:

    • Fully Shaded – When the icon is filled in, then this represents required attendees.
    • Outline – When the icon is an outline, then this represents optional attendees.

    Sequential Interviews. When hovering over an available time, you will be able to view all of the sessions of the interview and the number of attendees that are available for each.

    • Note: If the Sequential Interview is scheduled in any order, then the order of the interviews will display depending on when each is available.
     

     

    Optional attendee logic

    • An optional attendee will receive the interview invitation when a scheduling request is sent.
    • If they respond No to the invitation, then the interview owner will not receive a request to edit, reschedule, or cancel the interview.
    • If a Round Robin Group (RRG) is marked as optional, and the attendee selected in it responds No to the invitation, the existing RRG logic will apply where the system will see if another user is available at that time.
    • If someone is available, then your AI Assistant will edit the interview and invite that user instead.
    • If someone is not available, then the attendee will not change.
      • Note: If an employee within a RRG declines an invitation for the selected time, then they will not receive another invitation.

    Permissions

    User Role

    Full Access

    View Access

    No Access

    Paradox Admins
    Company/Account Admin
    Full User - Edit Everything, Power User
    Full User - Edit Nothing
    Basic/Limited User
    Supervisor
    Hiring Manager
    Recruiter
    Reporting User
    Franchise Owner
    Franchise Staff

    FAQs

    Will this be applied to public and inbound APIs?

    Yes! The update to our public and inbound APIs will indicate optional interviewers.

     
     

    What happens when a required interview attendee is also listed within an optional Round Robin Group?

    The system will prioritize the interview attendee as a required attendee when looking for interview times.

     
     

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