Aptitude Test Practice: Free Questions and a Full Prep Guide
An aptitude test is a timed, standardised exercise employers use to measure how you reason, not what you already know. It usually sits early in a hiring process, testing families such as numerical, verbal, logical, abstract and spatial reasoning. There is no fixed pass mark: employers set their own cut-off based on how other applicants for the same role scored.
An aptitude test is a timed, multiple-choice exercise used to measure how you think rather than what you have memorised. It usually appears early in a hiring process, after your application is reviewed and before you meet anyone face to face. Every candidate sees questions from the same bank under the same time pressure, which is why employers treat the results as comparable across applicants.
Most aptitude tests draw from a small set of families: numerical reasoning (working with numbers, tables and percentages), verbal reasoning (reading a passage and judging what it does or does not support), logical or diagrammatic reasoning (spotting a rule in a sequence), spatial reasoning (mentally rotating or folding shapes), and situational judgement (choosing the most sensible response to a workplace scenario). Different employers mix and match these depending on the role.
None of these are pass or fail in isolation. What most employers see is your score compared against a norm group of other candidates for a similar role, so a small edge in speed and accuracy over the field usually matters more than hitting a specific target. Practising the format under real time pressure is the single most useful thing you can do before test day.
The format at a glance
- Format
- Multiple choice, delivered online through a testing platform, usually with no way to go back once you submit a question
- Common families
- Numerical, verbal, logical or diagrammatic, spatial, and situational judgement reasoning
- Time pressure
- Numerical reasoning sections are tightly timed on a per-question basis, which is faster than most people expect going in
- Where it sits in hiring
- Commonly used early in the recruitment process, for initial screening or narrowing a shortlist, ahead of later interview stages (source)
- Scoring
- Compared against a norm group of previous test-takers rather than measured against a single fixed pass mark
- Who uses it
- Graduate schemes, apprenticeships, corporate hiring and public-sector recruitment
What it measures
Numerical reasoning
Numerical reasoning checks whether you can read a data table or chart correctly and do the arithmetic that follows: percentage change, ratios, rates and simple conversions. The maths itself rarely goes beyond school level. What it actually measures is whether you can extract the right figures from a table under pressure without mixing up rows, columns or units.
Verbal reasoning
Verbal reasoning presents a short passage and asks whether a statement is true, false, or cannot be determined from the text alone. It measures reading comprehension and discipline: whether you answer based only on what the passage states, rather than what you assume, infer, or already believe to be true from outside knowledge.
Logical and diagrammatic reasoning
This family shows a sequence of shapes, numbers or symbols and asks what comes next, or gives a short set of statements and asks what must follow. It measures pattern recognition and rule-following: your ability to spot the underlying logic quickly and apply it consistently, rather than general intelligence in the abstract.
Spatial reasoning
Spatial reasoning asks you to mentally rotate, fold, or fit shapes together, often shown as 2D nets folding into 3D objects. It measures visual working memory: your ability to hold and manipulate a shape in your head accurately, which is relevant to roles involving design, engineering, technical drawing or physical layout.
Situational judgement
Situational judgement gives you a short workplace scenario and several possible responses, then asks you to rank them or pick the most (or least) effective. It measures judgement rather than knowledge: whether your instinct for handling a colleague, a customer or a conflict matches what the employer considers a sound, professional response.
Practice questions with worked answers
Written by us to mirror the published format. Work each one out before you read the explanation — the method is the part that transfers, the answer is not.
- Q1Numerical reasoning
A jacket priced at £80 is reduced by 15%, and 20% VAT is then added to the reduced price. What is the final price?
- £76.16
- £81.60
- £68.00
- £92.00
Correct answer
£81.60. First apply the 15% reduction: £80 x 0.85 = £68.00. Then add 20% VAT to that reduced price: £68.00 x 1.20 = £81.60. A common mistake is applying both percentages to the original £80 instead of applying VAT to the already-reduced price.
- Q2Verbal reasoning
Passage: 'The new expenses policy applies to all employees who have completed at least one year of service, except those on temporary contracts.' Statement: 'An employee with 18 months of service on a permanent contract is covered by the policy.' Is this true, false, or cannot say based only on the passage?
- True
- False
- Cannot say
Correct answer
True. The employee has more than one year of service and is on a permanent contract, so neither exclusion in the passage applies. The statement follows directly from the stated rule, so it is true. Nothing outside the passage needs to be assumed.
- Q3Logical reasoning
Rule: if a delivery is marked 'priority', it ships within 24 hours. A particular delivery did not ship within 24 hours. What can you conclude?
- It was marked priority
- It shipped within 48 hours
- Cannot say
- It was not marked priority
Correct answer
It was not marked priority. This is the contrapositive of the rule: if priority implies shipped-within-24-hours, then not-shipped-within-24-hours implies not-priority. Because the delivery missed the 24-hour window, it cannot have been marked priority. No information about a 48-hour window was given, so that option cannot be concluded.
- Q4Abstract reasoning
A sequence of shapes rotates 90 degrees clockwise at each step and gains one dot: Shape 1 has 1 dot facing up. Shape 2 has 2 dots facing right. Shape 3 has 3 dots facing down. Which describes Shape 4?
- 4 dots facing left
- 4 dots facing up
- 3 dots facing left
- 5 dots facing left
Correct answer
4 dots facing left. Two rules run in parallel: the facing direction rotates 90 degrees clockwise each step (up, right, down, left), and the dot count increases by one each step (1, 2, 3, 4). Applying both rules to Shape 4 gives 4 dots facing left.
- Q5Situational judgement
You notice a colleague repeatedly presenting a teammate's work as their own in front of your manager. What is the most effective first response?
- Say nothing and let the teammate handle it themselves
- Raise it privately with the colleague to give them a chance to explain
- Report it to HR immediately without speaking to anyone first
- Bring it up publicly in the next team meeting
Correct answer
Raise it privately with the colleague to give them a chance to explain. Situational judgement questions usually reward the response that is proportionate and resolves the issue at the lowest effective level first. A private conversation addresses the behaviour directly, preserves working relationships, and leaves room for a genuine misunderstanding, before escalating further if it continues.
How scores are read
Below average
Fewer correct answers, or more time used, than most other candidates who sat the same test. Usually means the format itself needs more practice, not that the material is beyond you.
Average
In line with most candidates sitting the same test for a similar role. Many employers set their cut-off around or just above this range.
Above average
Faster and more accurate than most candidates for the role. This is where a strong practice routine tends to move people from average.
Top decile
Among the highest-scoring candidates on that test. Rare to reach without deliberate, timed practice beforehand.
A note on cut-offs
Published pass marks vary by employer, provider and role level, and most are never made public. There is no single percentage that counts as 'passing' an aptitude test in general.
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How to prepare
Time every practice question from the start
Don't practise untimed and add a clock later. The time pressure is part of what the test measures, so build your accuracy and your pace together from your very first practice session, not as a separate step at the end.
Learn the data-reading habit, not just the maths
Before doing any calculation, read the table's row and column headers, units, and any footnote about what a figure represents. Most wrong answers on numerical questions come from misreading what a number means, not from getting the arithmetic wrong.
Answer verbal questions from the passage alone
If a statement sounds plausible but the passage does not actually say it, the correct answer is usually 'cannot say', not 'true'. Practise catching yourself when you start reasoning from outside knowledge instead of the text in front of you.
Drill one weak family at a time
Spreading a few days of prep thinly across five test families rarely moves any of them much. Identify your weakest family from a short diagnostic set, spend most of your remaining time there, and keep the others at a light maintenance level.
Rehearse the actual interface
Some testing platforms don't let you go back to a previous question, some show a running timer, some don't allow rough working on screen. Do at least one full practice set in conditions close to what you expect, so the interface itself isn't a surprise on the day.
Flag and move on when you're stuck
Spending three minutes fighting one question you're unsure of usually costs you two or three easier questions later in the set. If nothing comes to you within your allotted time, take your best guess, note it, and keep moving.
Treat the days before test day like taper week
Cramming new material the night before tends to add anxiety more than accuracy. Spend the final day or two on light, familiar practice sets, confirm your test link and equipment work, and get a normal night's sleep.
Employers use it to screen candidates by reasoning ability before investing time in interviews, typically early in the process for initial screening or shortlisting. It gives every applicant the same questions under the same conditions, which makes results easier to compare across a large pool of candidates.
Do a short diagnostic set across the families involved, identify your weakest one or two, then spend most of your remaining time on timed practice in those areas. Rehearsing the format under real time pressure matters more than reviewing theory.
Not a universal one. Most employers compare your score against a norm group of similar candidates and set their own internal cut-off, which is rarely published. A score that clears one employer's bar may not clear another's for a different role.
It depends on the test and the provider, and the instructions before you start will say so directly. Numerical reasoning tests often allow a basic calculator; other families rarely need one at all, so check rather than assume either way.
An aptitude test has objectively correct answers and measures reasoning ability under time pressure. A personality test has no right or wrong answers and measures traits like how you tend to work with others, so the two are scored and interpreted in completely different ways.
That depends entirely on the employer's own policy, and some explicitly block a retake within a set period to stop candidates from simply memorising the answer key. Check the instructions you were sent, or ask the recruiter directly, rather than assuming either way.
Good free practice questions mirror the real format, item types and time pressure closely enough to build the underlying skill, even though no free resource reproduces an actual employer's live question bank. The goal of practice is the skill and the pacing, not memorising specific answers.
Other practice tests
Numerical Reasoning Test Practice: Sample Questions and Worked Answers
Practice numerical reasoning test questions on data tables, ratios and percentage change, with worked answers and tips for beating the time pressure.
Verbal Reasoning Test Practice
Practice verbal reasoning test questions: true, false or cannot say, inference and vocabulary, with explanations so you stop losing marks on cannot say.
Logical Reasoning Test Practice: Deductive and Inductive Questions
Practice logical reasoning test questions covering deductive syllogisms, conditional statements and inductive sequences, with worked answers.
Cognitive Ability Test Practice
Free cognitive ability test practice: verbal, numerical, logical and spatial sample questions with an answer key, plus what a score does and does not show.