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Free Mechanical Reasoning Test

25 questions9 min

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What Is the Mechanical Reasoning Test?

The Mechanical Reasoning Test checks how well you can work out what a simple machine will do. Each question describes a lever, a set of gears, a pulley system, a spring or a sealed fluid and asks one thing, with four possible answers and exactly one correct. JobCannon wrote these 25 questions as free practice and scores them instantly, with no signup.

The questions are short word problems, so there are no diagrams to decode and the test works on a phone as well as a laptop. They cover four areas: levers and balance, gears and rotation, pulleys and springs, and pressure in liquids and gases. Early questions need one idea, while later ones chain two or three, such as a compound gear train or a block and tackle. Electricity is deliberately left out. The correct answer is identified by its wording and its position changes from question to question, so a pattern in where answers sit will not help you. Your result is a percentage score in one of five bands, plus a separate score for each area, so you can see whether levers, gears, pulleys and springs, or fluid pressure cost you the most.

Keep reading

It helps to know what this test is. It is original JobCannon practice material for self-assessment, not a published or licensed aptitude test, and it has no published norms and no reliability or validity study behind it. That means no percentile, no IQ figure and no claim that your score predicts how you would do on an employer's test. What it can do is show which ideas you already apply fluently and which need revising. The practice page has worked examples for each of the four areas, solved step by step, so you can learn a rule before you try it under test conditions.

What You'll Discover

Your overall mechanical reasoning score as a percentage, placed in one of five bands from Building Mechanical Foundations to Mechanical Reasoning Standout

Your Levers & Balance score: turning force, pivots and what it takes to keep a plank or a rule level

Your Gears & Rotation score: gear ratios, direction of turn, and speed and torque through a gear train

Which of the four areas is costing you the most points, so you know what to revise first

Your Pulleys & Springs score: how a block and tackle trades distance for force, and how springs combine side by side and end to end

Your Fluids & Pressure score: pressure at depth, simple hydraulics, and how a gas behaves when it is squeezed

What a Question Looks Like

Question 1 of 25

You need to loosen a tight nut with a long-handled spanner. Where should you grip the handle to need the least force?

24 more after this · 9 min totalAnswer this one

How It Works

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is the mechanical reasoning test free on JobCannon?

Yes. The test, the instant score and the four topic sub-scores are free, and you do not need to create an account or enter an email address to see your result. The 25 questions take about 9 minutes. The test is original JobCannon practice material, so it is a good way to check your basics before a real assessment, but it is not the test any particular employer will give you.

What does a mechanical reasoning test measure?

A mechanical reasoning test measures how well you apply basic physical principles to everyday machines: how a lever multiplies force, how gears change speed and direction, how pulleys share a load, how springs stretch, and how pressure behaves in liquids and gases. It is about understanding a handful of rules and applying them to a described situation. It does not measure how good you are with tools, and it does not depend on memorised engineering formulas.

Do I need to know physics formulas to take it?

You do not need to memorise formulas, but you do need the ideas behind a few of them. The most useful are that force times distance from the pivot balances on a lever, that a gear ratio is a ratio of teeth, that a pulley system with more supporting rope sections needs less force over more rope, and that pressure is force divided by area. The practice page explains each one with a worked example, and a pen and paper help.

Are there diagrams in the questions?

No. Every problem in this version is described in words and numbers, so you picture the lever, gear train or pulley instead of reading a drawing. That keeps the test quick to load and easy to use on a small screen, but it is different from many employer tests, which often show an illustrated machine. If your target test uses pictures, sketching the setup yourself while you work through these questions is good preparation for it.

How is my score calculated, and what does it mean?

Each question has exactly one correct answer and earns the same credit, with no penalty for a wrong answer. Your percentage is the share you got right, and it places you in one of five bands from Building Mechanical Foundations to Mechanical Reasoning Standout. The bands describe your result on this set of questions only. JobCannon has no published norms for this test, so it does not give a percentile or compare you with other people, and it is not an IQ score.

Which jobs use mechanical reasoning tests?

Mechanical aptitude tests are common when hiring technicians, mechanics, maintenance and installation engineers, machine operators, engineering apprentices, skilled trades and some armed forces roles. The US military ASVAB, for example, includes a Mechanical Comprehension section. Formats differ from one employer to the next, so use this test to build the underlying skill rather than to predict the paper of one particular company.

How can I improve at mechanical reasoning?

Mechanical reasoning improves quickly with practice, because a small set of rules covers most questions. Work through one area at a time, write down the rule before you calculate, and then check whether the answer makes physical sense: the longer lever arm should need less force, and the smaller gear should spin faster. The practice page and the JobCannon guides on levers, gears and pulleys are the natural next step after this test.

Mechanical Reasoning Test

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