CCAT Test 2026: Format, Scores, Practice

The CCAT (Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test) is a general ability test from Criteria Corp: 50 multiple-choice questions in 15 minutes, mixing verbal, maths and logic, and spatial reasoning items. Employers use it to screen applicants for analyst, sales, software, management and graduate roles, and they receive two numbers: your raw score (questions right out of 50) and your percentile. Almost nobody finishes, and the average raw score is 24. This guide covers the CCAT and its sister tests (CBST, UCAT and the EPP personality profile), explains what scores mean, and gives original practice questions with worked answers.

Key facts

What Criteria Corp sells, and which test you will get

Criteria is an assessment platform: the employer picks tests from Criteria's catalogue and sends you a link with an Event ID. The four tests candidates most often search for are:

Sources disagree on the UCAT's content: Criteria's one-pager lists "verbal ability" among what it measures but also says it "does not test verbal ability"; the sub-scores suggest the second is accurate. The CBST2 lets the employer pick from five 10-question modules (about four minutes each) and adjusts difficulty to your answers. Your invitation or start screen names the tests in your battery.

What the CCAT looks like

Criteria publishes no screenshots of the live interface; the details below come from Criteria's own pages, plus prep sites where noted.

• One clock, 50 items. A 15-minute countdown runs for the whole test. Criteria says that "less than 1% of candidates answer all 50 questions" and advises moving on if you have spent more than a minute on one item.
• Mixed order. Verbal, numerical and spatial items are interleaved rather than grouped, so you switch task type from one screen to the next.
• Five options. Criteria's sample items all use options A to E.
• No going back. Several prep providers state that you cannot return to earlier questions; Criteria does not address this publicly, so treat every answer as final.
• No calculator. Criteria states it on its candidate page. Whether scratch paper is allowed is not stated by Criteria; prep sites disagree, and some say it depends on the employer. Have pen and paper ready unless the instructions forbid it.
• Unsupervised, logged. The test usually runs remotely without a proctor. Criteria says it logs time spent, connectivity and "individual issues and actions" during the session. Read the start screen for proctoring rules.
• If you get disconnected, Criteria's candidate FAQ says to return to the assessment centre, enter your Event ID and resume or submit.

Question types inside the CCAT

Criteria's own examples are an antonym, a three-number average and a "which does not belong" set of nested shapes; prep providers' lists of further formats differ slightly.

CCAT practice questions with worked answers

All questions are original. Allow about 18 seconds each, then read the solutions.

Verbal ability

Practice 1 (antonym). Choose the word most nearly OPPOSITE to CANDID. A. frank B. evasive C. cheerful D. careful E. brief

Answer: B. Candid means open and honest; evasive means avoiding a straight answer. "Frank" is the synonym trap that the opposite-word format is built to catch.

Practice 2 (analogy). THERMOMETER is to TEMPERATURE as ODOMETER is to: A. speed B. distance C. fuel D. time E. pressure

Answer: B. A thermometer measures temperature; an odometer measures distance travelled. "Speed" is the near-miss: that is the speedometer.

Practice 3 (sentence completion). Although the new policy was meant to ______ the approval process, it added two extra sign-offs. A. streamline B. formalise C. document D. delay E. review

Answer: A. "Although" signals a contrast with "added two extra sign-offs", so the intended effect must be the opposite of adding steps. Only "streamline" (simplify) creates that contrast.

Practice 4 (syllogism). All auditors on the team are certified. Some certified staff work remotely. Priya is an auditor on the team. If the first two statements are true, the statement "Priya works remotely" is: A. true B. false C. uncertain

Answer: C. Priya is certified, but only some certified staff work remotely, and nothing says which ones. The premises neither confirm nor rule it out.

Practice 5 (attention to detail). How many of the five pairs are exactly the same?

48213-KL          48213-KL
Marsh Lane 17     Marsh Lane 71
QX-9087-B         QX-9087-B
0.4729            0.4792
Hollis & Grant    Hollis & Grant

A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 D. 4 E. 5

Answer: C. Pairs 1, 3 and 5 match. Pair 2 swaps 17 and 71; pair 4 swaps the last two digits. Read digit strings in chunks of two or three rather than as a whole.

Math and logic

Practice 6 (average). Five invoices average $340. Four of them are $310, $295, $410 and $360. What is the fifth? A. $305 B. $325 C. $340 D. $345 E. $375

Answer: B. Total = 5 × 340 = 1,700. The four known invoices sum to 1,375. 1,700 − 1,375 = $325.

Practice 7 (number series). What comes next? 3, 5, 9, 17, 33, ? A. 49 B. 57 C. 63 D. 65 E. 66

Answer: D. Each term is the previous term doubled minus 1 (equivalently, the gaps double: 2, 4, 8, 16, so the next gap is 32). 33 × 2 − 1 = 65.

Practice 8 (table). Units sold:

Which product had the largest percentage increase from Q1 to Q4? A. Alder B. Birch C. Cedar D. Alder and Birch equally E. Cannot be determined

Answer: B. Alder +30/120 = 25%; Birch +24/80 = 30%; Cedar +40/200 = 20%. Cedar has the largest absolute rise, which is the trap.

Practice 9 (reverse percentage). A laptop costs $552 including 15% sales tax. What is the price before tax? A. $469.20 B. $480 C. $487 D. $500 E. $537

Answer: B. $552 is 115% of the pre-tax price, so 552 ÷ 1.15 = $480 (check: 480 × 1.15 = 552). Taking 15% off $552 gives the trap $469.20.

Practice 10 (ratio). A team of 24 has analysts and engineers in the ratio 3 : 5. How many more engineers than analysts are there? A. 2 B. 3 C. 6 D. 8 E. 9

Answer: C. 3 + 5 = 8 parts, so one part is 3 people: 9 analysts and 15 engineers. 15 − 9 = 6.

Spatial reasoning

The real items are drawings. These are described in words with the same logic.

Practice 11 (odd one out). Five boxes of circles: A. 3 black, 1 white B. 2 black, 2 white C. 4 black, 0 white D. 1 black, 3 white E. 2 black, 3 white Which does not belong?

Answer: E. Every other box holds four circles in total; E holds five. The black/white split varies freely, which is the distractor. Check counts before you look for rotation or shading rules; the simplest rule usually wins.

Practice 12 (matrix). A 3 × 3 grid, read row by row:

Row 1:  black circle   | white square   | striped triangle
Row 2:  white triangle | striped circle | black square
Row 3:  striped square | black triangle | ?

A. black circle B. white circle C. striped circle D. white square E. white triangle

Answer: B. Every row and every column contains each shape (circle, square, triangle) once and each fill (black, white, striped) once. Row 3 lacks a circle and lacks white, so the answer is a white circle. Column 3 confirms it: striped triangle, black square, white circle.

Practice 13 (sequence). A strip has five cells numbered 1 to 5. A square sits in cell 1 (black) at step 1, cell 3 (white) at step 2 and cell 5 (black) at step 3. What is step 4? A. cell 2, white B. cell 2, black C. cell 1, white D. cell 4, white E. cell 1, black

Answer: A. The square moves two cells to the right each step and wraps round to the start (5 → 1 → 2), and its colour alternates black, white, black, white. Track the two rules separately; distractors get one rule right and the other wrong.

Bonus: CBST- and UCAT-style items

Practice 14 (CBST, grammar). Choose the correctly written sentence. A. Each of the managers have submitted their forecast. B. Each of the managers has submitted a forecast. C. Each of the manager has submitted forecasts. D. Each of the managers are submitting there forecast.

Answer: B. "Each" is singular and takes "has". D also misuses "there" for "their".

Practice 15 (UCAT-style numerical). A town's population grows by 15% in each of two consecutive years. By what percentage has it grown over the two years? A. 30% B. 31.5% C. 32.25% D. 33% E. 34.5%

Answer: C. Growth compounds: 1.15 × 1.15 = 1.3225, a 32.25% rise. Adding the rates (30%) ignores the growth on the first year's growth.

CCAT scores: raw score, percentile and score ranges

Criteria reports a raw score (questions answered correctly, out of 50), an overall percentile and percentiles for spatial reasoning, verbal ability, and math and logic. A percentile of 45 means you scored better than 45% of the norm group. Criteria's information brief shows a sample candidate with a raw score of 24 at the 50th percentile, matching its stated norm-sample median of 24.

Sources disagree on the spread of scores. Criteria's 2026 information brief gives a norm-sample standard deviation of 7.00; JobTestPrep, citing Criteria, gives 8.58, and neither explains the difference. JobTestPrep's conversion table puts 31 correct at about the 80th percentile and 36 at about the 92nd; with the smaller spread, scores above 24 would rank somewhat higher. Treat any conversion as a rough guide.

Score ranges by role. Employers can use Criteria's "suggested score ranges", built from prior scores in similar roles, or define their own. Criteria's 2026 sample score report lists ranges such as 17–50 (customer service representative, retail sales), 20–50 (accounting, management, software development), 22–50 (analyst, engineering, senior and executive leadership) and 24–50 (data analytics and statistics, legal). Prep sites circulate ranges with upper bounds (for example 26–42 for analysts) that do not match the current report. The employer decides the cut-off, and Criteria calls the score "just one of many factors".

Traps and how to avoid them

• Spending 60 seconds on one item. At 18 seconds per item, that costs you three easy ones. Set a limit of about 30 seconds, guess and move on. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so never leave a question blank.
• Synonym traps in antonym items. The option that means the same as the capitalised word is almost always present. Re-read "OPPOSITE" before you click.
• Absolute versus relative change. Tables invite you to pick the biggest number rather than the biggest percentage. Check which one the question asks for.
• "Uncertain" in syllogisms. "Some" never lets you conclude anything about a particular person.
• Two rules in one sequence. Spatial items often combine movement with counting, rotation or shading. Find each rule separately.
• Character swaps. In comparison items, differences hide in transposed digits (17/71), similar letters (O/0, l/1) and punctuation.

How to prepare for the CCAT

Week before (5–6 hours in total). 1. Day 1: baseline (45 min). Take a full 50-question, 15-minute practice test from a reputable provider. Note your raw score and which area cost you most time. 2. Days 2–3: maths without a calculator (60 min a day). Times tables to 12 × 12, fraction–decimal–percentage equivalents (1/8 = 12.5%), averages via totals, ratios via "parts", reverse percentages, and work rates. See the numerical reasoning guide. 3. Day 4: verbal (45 min). Antonym and analogy drills, sentence completion with contrast words (although, despite), and quick syllogisms. See the verbal reasoning guide and the deductive reasoning guide. 4. Day 5: spatial and series (45 min). Odd one out, matrices and sequences; check counts, then position, then rotation. See the abstract reasoning guide. 5. Day 6: second full timed test (45 min), then review every miss. 6. Day 7: light review only. Rest.

Pacing target. Accuracy on the items you reach matters more than reaching item 50. Bank time on quick vocabulary and arithmetic items.

Setup. Any device works, but a large screen makes figures easier to read. Use Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari with cookies and JavaScript enabled, a stable connection and a quiet room.

Official practice. Criteria's shortened practice tests "do not reflect the exact experience or full difficulty level" of the real test (Criteria). Use them for familiarity, and full-length tests for timing.

For the EPP. There is nothing to "pass". The EPP asks you to rate how accurately 140 statements describe you and reports percentiles on 12 traits (achievement, assertiveness, competitiveness, conscientiousness, cooperativeness, extroversion, managerial, motivation, openness, patience, self-confidence, stress tolerance), compared with job-family profiles. Answer honestly and consistently, thinking of how you behave at work. See the personality test guide.

Sources

• Criteria, "What to Expect on the CCAT" (candidate page: 50 questions, 15 minutes, no calculators, average 24, under 1% finish, no penalty for wrong answers): https://www.criteriacorp.com/candidates/ccat-prep
• Criteria, CCAT Information Brief (2026; abilities, five-option examples, any device, dynamic item bank, session logging, score report, suggested ranges, norm sample 106,740, median 24, SD 7.00, Wonderlic correlation .78): https://www.criteriacorp.com/files/Criteria-InfoBrief-CCAT.pdf
• Criteria, CCAT test description (languages English US/UK, percentile definition)
• Criteria help centre, CCAT article (50 multiple-choice questions, 15-minute limit)
• Criteria, UCAT test description (40 items, 20 minutes, 21 languages, r = .80 with CCAT)
• Criteria, UCAT overview (sub-scores, "does not test verbal ability")
• Criteria help centre, CBST (40 questions, 20 minutes, increasing difficulty)
• Criteria help centre, "Meet CBST2" (five modules, 10 questions each, adaptive)
• Criteria help centre, EPP (140 questions, untimed, about 10 minutes, 12 traits, percentiles)
• Criteria, candidate FAQs (results go to employer, extensions, devices and browsers, disconnection)
• Criteria, candidate practice tests
• Criteria, About (founded 2006, Los Angeles)
• Crossover support, CCAT FAQs (one attempt per email address per six months)
• JobTestPrep, CCAT score guide (SD 8.58 attributed to Criteria, raw-to-percentile table, older role ranges)
• iPrep, CCAT guide (question subtypes, no going back, no calculator)

Geschrieben von

Adrian, Spezialist

MSc Psychologie, 7 Jahre Testablegen.

Zuletzt aktualisiert: 01.10.2026