After a hailstorm, two kinds of contractors show up in a neighborhood. One climbs the roof, chalks the test squares, photographs the hits, and tells you plainly what they found. The other looks at the gutters from the driveway and tells you that you need a full replacement. Only one of those is an inspection.
Real hail damage on an asphalt roof looks like a bruise, not a hole. The impact fractures the mat under the granules, and the granules wash out over the following months, exposing the asphalt to UV and starting the clock on a failure that will show up years later. That is why a roof can look almost normal from the ground and still be functionally finished.
A proper inspection marks off test squares on every slope, counts hits within each square, and checks the soft metals — gutters, vents, flashing, and the AC condenser fins — because soft metals record the storm even when the shingles hide it. It also checks the direction of the damage, since hail driven by wind hits some elevations and misses others entirely, and a carrier will ask about that.
What you should get at the end is photographs, a count, and a straight answer. Sometimes that answer is that the roof took cosmetic damage and has years of service left. A contractor who cannot tell you that — who only ever finds total losses — is not inspecting anything.
If a storm has come through, get the roof looked at within the claim window your policy allows, keep the photos, and do not let anyone start tearing off before your carrier has seen it. The inspection itself should never cost you anything.