When an employer says there will be a test as part of the interview, it is usually one of six kinds: an aptitude test, a personality questionnaire, a situational judgment test, a skills test, a work sample or job simulation, or a coding test. Some employers use one; others use two or three at different stages.
Each kind is prepared for differently, so the most useful first step is to find out which one you're facing. Below is what each looks like, an example question written for this guide, and how to prepare.
First, ask what the test is
Recruiters will usually tell you if you ask, and the invitation often names the company that runs the test. Find out:
- the name of the test, or the company behind it;
- what it covers, and how long it takes;
- whether it's timed, and whether you can go back to earlier questions;
- whether you take it at home or on site, and whether it's proctored or recorded;
- what you're allowed to use: a calculator, notes, a search engine;
- how the results are used, and whether you can retake it.
If you have a disability or a condition that affects how you take tests, ask about adjustments, such as extra time, before you start rather than after.
1. Aptitude tests
What they look like: timed multiple-choice questions on reasoning. Numerical questions use tables and charts, verbal questions give you a short passage and a statement to judge, and logical questions ask you to spot a pattern. They measure how you think rather than what you know, and the time limits are often tight.
Example (numerical): A support team handled 1,200 tickets in March and 1,500 in April. By what percentage did the number rise? (a) 20% (b) 25% (c) 30% (d) 300%. Answer: (b). The rise of 300 is 25% of 1,200.
Example (verbal): "All new staff complete safety training in their first week. Staff who haven't completed it may not work on the warehouse floor." True, false or cannot say: a new employee who missed the training may work in the office. Answer: cannot say. The passage only covers the warehouse floor.
Example (logical): What comes next: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30…? Answer: 42. The gaps grow by two each time: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12.
How to prepare: practice in the same format and under the same time limit; refresh percentages, ratios and reading charts; don't get stuck on one question; and check the instructions on guessing. Test publishers often provide practice material: SHL, for one, offers free practice tests. If you know which test you'll take, read our guide to the CCAT, the Wonderlic or SHL's tests. Our guide to psychometric assessments explains how these tests are scored.
Practise before the real interview
Answers come easier once you have done the work. Cohesyve runs AI job simulations of the real work and gives you a scored report on where you lost marks. 3 free tests, no card.
2. Personality questionnaires
What they look like: statements to rate from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree", or groups of statements from which you pick the one most like you and the one least like you. They're usually untimed, and there are no right answers: employers typically compare your profile with what the job needs.
Example (rating): "I like to have a plan before I start a piece of work." Strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree.
Example (forced choice): Which is most like you, and which least? (a) I enjoy meeting new people. (b) I finish what I start. (c) I stay calm under pressure.
How to prepare: there's nothing to study. Answer honestly and consistently, and don't try to guess an ideal profile: you may well guess wrong, and answering as someone you're not makes it hard to stay consistent. Take it when you're alert and unhurried. The Predictive Index, for example, says plainly that a high score on its behavioral assessment isn't a better score. Our guides cover the Predictive Index and the Caliper. Some employers use short games instead, such as the pymetrics games, which Harver, the company behind them, says measure traits such as attention and risk tolerance.
3. Situational judgment tests
What they look like: a short work scenario, followed by several possible responses to rate, rank, or choose the best and worst from.
Example: A customer emails to say their order hasn't arrived. You find it went to the wrong address because a colleague mistyped it. Which response is best, and which is worst? (a) Apologize, explain that a colleague made the error, and forward the email to them. (b) Apologize, send a replacement to the right address, and tell your manager about the error so it doesn't happen again. (c) Tell the customer the delivery company will be in touch. (d) Ask the customer to wait a few more days in case it turns up. Best: (b), which fixes the problem and deals with the cause without blaming anyone. Worst: (c), which misleads the customer and fixes nothing.
How to prepare: read the organization's values, since they shape what counts as a good response; notice whether the instruction asks what you should do or what you would do; and judge each option on its own merits. Our guide to situational judgment tests covers the formats and scoring.
4. Skills tests
What they look like: a test of one skill the job needs: Excel, typing, bookkeeping, writing, a language, or software named in the job ad. Some are multiple choice; better ones ask you to do the task in the tool.
Example (Excel): This sheet lists 500 orders, each with a region and an amount. Add a summary showing total sales by region and each region's share of the total. A strong answer uses formulas, such as SUMIFS, or a pivot table rather than typed-in numbers, so the summary updates when the data changes.
How to prepare: list every tool the job ad names, and practice the common tasks in each until they're quick. For Excel, that means lookups, SUMIFS, pivot tables and formatting. Time yourself, and read each question twice before you start.
5. Work samples and job simulations
What they look like: a piece of the real job. You might reply to a customer, sort an overflowing inbox by priority, analyze a small data set and recommend what to do, prepare a short presentation, or handle a role-play call. They can be timed online tasks, take-home exercises or part of an assessment day.
Example: You're an account manager. A client writes: "We were promised the new reports by Friday. It's Monday and we have nothing. We're reconsidering the contract." Reply in under 200 words. A strong reply acknowledges the problem without excuses, gives a date you can keep, offers something useful now, and says who they can call.
How to prepare: ask what the task involves and how long you'll have; practice a similar task against the clock; state your assumptions; finish every part at a basic level before polishing any of them; and proofread. Treat it as real work, because that's how it will be judged.
6. Coding tests
What they look like: programming problems in an online editor, sometimes with SQL or debugging questions, or a take-home project. Many are scored automatically by running your code against test cases, including hidden ones. HackerRank, for example, scores by the test cases your code passes, and the output has to match the expected format exactly.
Example: Write a function that takes a list of order IDs and returns the first ID that appears twice, or null if none does. The list can hold a million IDs. A strong answer keeps a set of the IDs already seen, so it reads the list only once; handles an empty list; and is tested on edge cases before it's submitted.
How to prepare: practice on the platform the employer uses, in the language you'll choose; read the constraints, because they tell you how fast your solution needs to be; test against the sample cases and your own edge cases; and check the rules on switching tabs, searching and AI tools before you start. See our guides to HackerRank tests and the CodeSignal General Coding Assessment.
On the day
- Use a quiet room, a charged laptop and a stable connection, unless the test is designed for a phone.
- Have ready whatever you're allowed: a calculator, paper, a pen.
- Read the instructions to the end, including the time limit and whether you can go back.
- Pace yourself: check where you are at the halfway point.
- If something breaks, take a screenshot and tell the recruiter straight away.
Cohesyve, which publishes this guide, runs practice job simulations for your role: written and spoken questions plus tasks from the job, scored the way employers score them, with a report on where you lost marks.