eligo Test 2026: PERLS Assessment Explained

The eligo test is an online assessment from ELIGO Psychologische Personalsoftware GmbH, a German test publisher, delivered on its PERLS® DUO platform. Employers use it, in English or German, to screen applicants. It covers verbal logical reasoning, chart analysis, 4×4 figural matrices and a symbol-based processing-speed task. In an autumn 2026 application round it had four modules of 14 scored items each, every item with its own countdown, and it took about an hour including instructions.

The eligo test: quick facts

Who is eligo?

ELIGO was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of Ruhr University Bochum and now has offices in Berlin and Bochum. Its platform, PERLS® DUO, lets employers combine modules into their own test battery, so the eligo test is not identical everywhere. eligo says it gives participants information on technical requirements, preparation tips, practice tasks, a technical check and a support contact.

If you searched for "eligo" and found golf clubs, energy suppliers and recruitment agencies: those are unrelated companies with the same name. This guide is about the German assessment publisher.

What the eligo test looks like

Every module opens with a four-tab wizard: "Introduction | Instruction | Sample tasks | Guidelines & start". The three sample tasks have no timer, and you can page through them with arrows. Scored items show an item counter top left ("1 / 14" … "14 / 14") and a countdown top right. You submit each scored item with a forward arrow. No back navigation was seen on scored items. In the English-language run the test ran at `login.eligo.de` in employer branding, with "PERLS® DUO – DISCOVER" in the footer.

The order in that run (autumn 2026) was logic → charts → matrices → speed, with two to four minutes of instructions and samples between modules.

Module 1: Applied reasoning (verbal deduction)

• Layout: a paragraph of rules, then the line "Evaluate the conclusion in relation to the information provided." and a bold conclusion of the form "X. Hence/Therefore Y."
• Answers: correct | indeterminate | false.
• Timing: 1:30 per item (21 minutes maximum). A fluent test-taker finishes the 14 items in about a quarter of an hour.
• Content: if-then rules, "only if", "unless", "otherwise", thresholds ("at least", "less than"), nested cases, and distractor sentences that don't matter for the conclusion.

Module 2: Diagram analysis (charts and tables)

• Layout: a one-sentence introduction, a chart or table, and a statement ("Evaluate the statement in relation to the information provided.").
• Answers: true | indeterminate | false. Note that the labels differ from the logic module.
• Timing: 1:00 per item, with a new chart every item.
• Interface: a magnifier (+) opens a zoomed lightbox. The zoom hides the introduction sentence, which often holds the catch ("sold" rather than "produced", "compared with 2004").
• Chart types: stacked bars, 100 % bars, ternary (triangle) plots, pies, bubble charts, indexed line charts, dot plots, tables, and working-hours bars across time zones.

Module 3: Problem-solving capacity (4×4 figural matrices)

• Layout: a 4×4 grid with one empty cell anywhere, not always bottom right, and six unlabelled answer tiles in a 2×3 grid to the right.
• Instruction: "Please select your answer."
• Timing: 1:00 per item, which is very tight.
• Rules: usually two or three at once, often in different directions (one rule by row, another by column). Common rules are union, intersection, XOR (duplicates cancel), "one symbol dominates", Latin squares for colour and position, size cycles, rotation, and splitting a full block into pieces.
• Interface: at a normal window size the bottom row of tiles can sit below the fold.

Module 4: Processing speed ("Please select the larger/smaller value")

Two arrow-shaped buttons sit side by side with "or" between them. Each holds one symbol or a two-symbol expression with "+", "" (multiply) or "-". Below is a legend mapping nine symbols to the digits 1–9, and it is reshuffled on every single trial*. You decode, calculate, compare and click left or right.

In the 2026 run each condition came in two blocks, after four untimed sample screens, with a large "5" countdown ring before each block. The bold word larger or smaller changed between conditions. You answer as many trials as you can in a block; there is no per-trial timer. For drills, see the guide to speed and working-memory tasks.

Question types with original practice items

Every item below is newly written. Each has the real format and a similar difficulty, but none comes from the test.

Practice: logic (one rule box, three conclusions)

A city library has these rules. Anyone with an annual card may borrow up to ten items at a time. Everyone else may borrow at most three items at a time. Students get the annual card free of charge; everyone else pays 25 euros for it.

1. "A person currently has five items on loan. Hence she has an annual card." 2. "A person paid nothing for his annual card. Hence he has more than three items on loan." 3. "A person without an annual card has two items on loan. Therefore she may borrow two more today."

Answers: 1 correct · 2 indeterminate · 3 false

• 1: Without a card the limit is three, so anyone with five must have a card (contraposition).
• 2: Paying nothing means he is a student with a card. The rule allows up to ten items, but nothing says how many he actually has.
• 3: Two more would make four, and the limit is three. The text contradicts the conclusion. "False" needs a contradiction, not just a counter-example.

Practice: chart 1 (shares are not amounts)

A city surveyed how employees commute (share of commuters, %).

Statement: "More people commuted by bicycle in 2025 than in 2020."

Answer: indeterminate. The share rose from 20 % to 30 %, but the total number of commuters isn't given. If it fell sharply, the number of cyclists could be the same or lower.

Practice: chart 2 (derive a hidden quantity)

Water use in four regions in one year.

Statement: "Region Q has the largest population."

Answer: true. Population = total ÷ per person: P 2.0 m, Q 3.0 m, R 2.0 m, S 1.6 m. The trap is that R has the largest total but not the most people.

Practice: matrix (two Latin squares)

Each cell holds a circle in one colour and a small triangle in one corner (TL = top left, TR, BL, BR). Find row 3, column 2.

        c1           c2           c3           c4
r1   red / TL     blue / TR    yellow / BR  green / BL
r2   blue / BL    yellow / TL  green / TR   red / BR
r3   yellow / BR     ?         red / TL     blue / TR
r4   green / TR   red / BR     blue / BL    yellow / TL

Options: A green / BL · B green / TL · C red / BL · D green / BR · E yellow / BL · F blue / TR

Answer: A. Every column holds each circle colour once, so column 2 lacks green. Every row puts the triangle in each corner once, so row 3 lacks BL. B and D have the right colour and the wrong corner, the typical one-feature distractors.

Practice: speed (three trials, three legends)

Answers: 1 left (4 + 3 = 7 vs 8) · 2 left (4 × 6 = 24 vs 7 × 3 = 21) · 3 right (8 − 3 = 5 vs 4 − 2 = 2)

Aim for under three seconds per trial with no errors. Read the bold word first, then the operator.

Traps in the eligo test and how to avoid them

• Necessary vs sufficient: "X only if Y" does not give "Y, so X". Reverse the direction and you'll pick "correct" where "indeterminate" is right.
• Contraposition vs converse: "All A are B" allows "not B → not A", never "B → A".
• "Can" vs "must": "false" is right only when the text rules the conclusion out. A single counter-example makes it "indeterminate".
• Boundary values: "below 22 °C" does not apply at exactly 22 °C. For nested rules, sketch a small case table.
• What the chart cannot tell you: sold vs produced, index vs absolute level, share vs amount, missing time or size data. If the statement uses a quantity the chart doesn't show, think "indeterminate" first.
• Distractor panels: a second chart in a different unit or a third pie is often just decoration.
• Matrices with a secondary rule: options usually share the obvious feature and differ by one small corner mark, so the secondary rule decides. Check each feature separately, by row and by column.
• Tiles below the fold: scroll until you can see all six options.
• Speed task: the larger/smaller word flips, "*" means multiply, the "-" sign is small, and many pairs differ by just one (36 vs 35), so estimating doesn't work. The drawn size of a symbol is irrelevant.

How to prepare for the eligo test: a 7-day plan

Time targets: logic 45–80 s, charts 40–50 s, matrices 45–55 s, speed 1.5–3 s per trial.

Set-up: use a laptop or desktop with a large screen and a mouse rather than a phone. Get a stable connection, close other windows, mute notifications, and keep paper and a pen for case tables. Use the technical check and the official sample tasks in the participant area.

Sources

• ELIGO Psychologische Personalsoftware GmbH, website (offices, PERLS® Duo, participant information)
• d.vinci partner profile of ELIGO (founded 1999 as a spin-off of Ruhr University Bochum)

Rédigé par

Adrian, spécialiste

MSc Psychologie, 7 ans de tests passés.

Dernière mise à jour : Oct 1, 2026