Zoom integration guide

What the integration does

The CandidatesPrep Zoom integration lets trainers and administrators run live online classes from CandidatesPrep. You connect your own Zoom account once. After that, when you schedule a live session for one or more of your classes, CandidatesPrep creates the Zoom meeting on your account, with you as the host.

Students in those classes see the session on their CandidatesPrep dashboard and calendar, get a notification and an email, and a reminder shortly before it starts. A Join button appears a few minutes before the start and opens the Zoom meeting. If you change or cancel the session in CandidatesPrep, the Zoom meeting is updated or deleted and the students are told.

Before you start

Your organization administrator switches live sessions on in CandidatesPrep under Settings, General, "Live sessions (Zoom)". Organization administrators can then schedule sessions straight away. Trainers and sub-admins also need the "Schedule live sessions (Zoom)" permission, which the administrator grants on the Trainers or Sub-Admins page.

You need your own Zoom account. A free (Basic) Zoom account works, but Zoom ends every meeting on a free account after 40 minutes, so CandidatesPrep limits sessions on a free account to 40 minutes. Upgrading your Zoom plan lifts that limit; CandidatesPrep picks up the change automatically within an hour.

Adding the app: connect your Zoom account

Step 1. Sign in to CandidatesPrep at portal.candidatesprep.com.

Step 2. In the side menu, open Comms, then Live Sessions.

Step 3. Click Connect Zoom. You are taken to Zoom's own sign-in page. CandidatesPrep never sees your Zoom password.

Step 4. Sign in to Zoom, review the permissions CandidatesPrep asks for (listed below), and click Allow.

Step 5. You return to Live Sessions, which now says "Zoom connected as" followed by your Zoom email address. You can now schedule sessions.

Using the app: schedule a live session

On Live Sessions, click Schedule a session. Give it a title and an optional description, tick the classes it is for, and choose the date, start time, time zone and length. You can make it repeat weekly, choose how many minutes before the start the Join button opens, and set Zoom options: waiting room, muting students on entry, and automatic cloud recording (paid Zoom plans only).

Click Schedule on Zoom. CandidatesPrep creates the meeting on your Zoom account and notifies every student enrolled in the chosen classes. A weekly session creates one Zoom meeting per week, so you can change or cancel a single week.

When it is time, click Start next to the session. Zoom opens with you as the host.

To change the title, time, length or options, click Edit. The Zoom meeting is updated, and students are told if the time changes. To cancel, click Cancel; for a weekly session you can cancel only that week or that week and all later ones. The Zoom meeting is deleted and students are told.

Click a session's title to see which students pressed Join.

What students see

Students see a Live sessions card on their CandidatesPrep dashboard with each upcoming session, its host and time in their own time zone, and a countdown. They can add a session to their own calendar. The session also appears on their CandidatesPrep calendar.

The Join button and the meeting passcode appear only shortly before the session starts, and stay until an hour after it ends. Students join in the Zoom app or in their browser.

Permissions the app asks for

meeting:write:meeting, to create a scheduled meeting on your own Zoom account.

meeting:update:meeting, to change a meeting's title, time, length or options when you edit the session.

meeting:delete:meeting, to delete the meeting when you cancel the session.

meeting:read:meeting, to read back the meeting's join link, and to get your host start link when you click Start.

user:read:user, to show which Zoom account is connected and whether it is on the free plan.

The app does not access your recordings, chat, audio, video, screen shares or transcripts, and it does not act on anyone else's Zoom account.

What data is stored

CandidatesPrep stores your Zoom user ID, email address, display name and plan type, and the access and refresh tokens Zoom issues when you connect. The tokens are encrypted before they are stored and are never shown to anyone. For each meeting it creates, CandidatesPrep keeps the meeting ID, join link, passcode, title, start time and length, so it can show the session to the invited students. Your host start link is never stored.

Our Privacy Policy at candidatesprep.com/privacy explains how this data is handled and your rights. Your use of Zoom itself is covered by Zoom's own terms and privacy statement.

Removing the app

From CandidatesPrep: open Comms, then Live Sessions, and click Disconnect Zoom. CandidatesPrep asks Zoom to revoke its access and deletes your stored tokens and Zoom account details straight away.

From Zoom: sign in to the Zoom App Marketplace at marketplace.zoom.us, click Manage, then Added Apps, find CandidatesPrep and click Remove. Zoom tells CandidatesPrep, which deletes your stored tokens and Zoom account details immediately and lets you know in CandidatesPrep.

Either way, meetings that were already scheduled stay in your Zoom account and their links keep working until you delete them in Zoom. You cannot create or change sessions from CandidatesPrep again until you reconnect.

Troubleshooting

Live Sessions says "Your Zoom connection needs attention" or asks you to reconnect: Zoom no longer accepts the connection, for example because the app was removed in Zoom or your Zoom password changed. Click Reconnect Zoom.

You cannot choose a session longer than 40 minutes: your Zoom account is on the free plan. Upgrade it in Zoom; the longer lengths appear within an hour, or straight away if you disconnect and reconnect Zoom.

A student cannot see a session: check that they are enrolled in one of the session's classes and that the class is not paused. Students see sessions only through their classes.

The Live Sessions page is missing from the menu: live sessions are switched off for your organization. Ask your organization administrator to switch them on.

Contact

Email support@candidatesprep.com, message us on WhatsApp 0303-2263777, or write to us at CandidatesPrep, 2nd Floor, 1/1 3P PECHS Block 6, Nursery, Karachi 75400, Pakistan.