Arctic Shores 2026: Every Game Explained

The Arctic Shores assessment is a task-based (game-based) psychometric test from a UK vendor. Instead of answering questions, you play a short series of interactive tasks while the platform records how you work: speed, accuracy, hesitation, risk-taking, how you learn from feedback. Employers pick up to nine tasks, so one invitation might be three games in 30 minutes and another eight games in about an hour. This guide covers every Arctic Shores game we could document, what each one measures, how scoring works, and how to prepare.

Key facts

What the Arctic Shores assessment looks like

The facts in this section come from a German-language Arctic Shores assessment in an autumn 2026 application round (three games). Games we did not observe are covered in the next section, from published sources.

Shared layout. Every game uses the same frame: a coloured header bar with the item label and a progress bar on the left, a stopwatch icon in the centre and a "Weiter" (Next) button on the right. The stopwatch is a pie that fills as time passes; it never shows a number. "Weiter" stays greyed out until the current item has an answer. None of the observed items timed out, but the filling icon is a clear signal that speed is being recorded.

Game 1: Order (German label "Rätsel"). One practice puzzle (with a top-right button "Übung beenden", end practice) then 17 scored puzzles. Each shows three frames left to right; the fourth is empty and you construct it:

• 4 shape buttons, which change from puzzle to puzzle (arches, drops, crescents, crosses, L and U shapes and so on),
• 5 fixed pattern swatches (each colour always comes with the same pattern, for example yellow is always striped),
• a rotate button that turns the selected shape in 45° steps and a resize button that cycles through sizes,
• a 3×3 grid of 9 anchor points inside the frame for position, and a delete button under a selected shape.

Up to four shapes per frame were needed. No feedback follows any puzzle. Time per puzzle ranged from about 11 seconds (early one-rule puzzles) to about 75 seconds (late puzzles with three or four interacting rules). The game took roughly 15 minutes.

Game 2: Predict (German "Nacht oder Tag"). The instruction reads: "Das Ziel dieser Aufgabe ist es, vorherzusagen, welches Ergebnis in der jeweiligen Runde wahrscheinlicher ist: Nacht oder Tag." Each round shows a white card with two black symbol patterns. Below it the screen is split into a dark-blue "Nacht" (moon) half and a light-blue "Tag" (sun) half; you click one. After the choice the display changes (one half goes dark). Symbol cards repeat across rounds. The progress bar implied about 88–90 rounds at roughly 6–7 seconds each, so about 10–11 minutes.

Game 3: Expressions (German "Gesichtsausdruck"). A block of 7 practice faces, then 60 scored faces (the numbering restarts). Each item shows a computer-generated, photorealistic head-and-shoulders face on the left and seven buttons on the right in a fixed layout: Traurigkeit (sadness), Wut (anger), Ekel (disgust), Neutral, Angst (fear), Freude (happiness), Überraschung (surprise). Single choice. Most faces were low to medium intensity. About ten avatar identities recurred. The pace was fast, about 4 seconds per face; the scored block took about 4 minutes.

Every known Arctic Shores game

Arctic Shores does not publish a list of its tasks. The table combines the three games observed first-hand with descriptions from a prep site that catalogues the battery (game names and durations from that source; we have not verified the ones marked "source").

Older press coverage also mentions a "Leaflets" memory-for-location game and a power-generation game (likely today's Energy). "Skyrise City" is still searched for, but no current description of it is published, so this guide treats it as a legacy title. "Arctic Shores shrimp" searches refer to an unrelated seafood brand.

How Arctic Shores scoring works

Arctic Shores calls its product "task-based" and makes four claims that matter for preparation:

1. Behaviour, not self-report. Thousands of data points per task feed trait estimates. There are no questions to answer about yourself, so there is nothing to "present" well.
2. No better or worse profile. Feedback shows each behaviour on a 1–10 spectrum compared with a norm group, with the line "there's no better or worse. It's just you." The employer decides which traits matter for the role.
3. Reasoning tasks credit working. In the aptitude-style tasks, Arctic Shores says you build your answer step by step and the scoring does not rely on a binary right or wrong, so a mostly correct build can still earn credit.
4. Machine-learned scoring and BPS-aligned reliability, with claims of low adverse impact.

In practice that splits the games in two. Order, Balance, Patterns, Analysis, Tiles and Expressions have answers that are objectively better or worse; accuracy and speed help. Balloon, Team Sales, Predict and Energy describe style (how much risk, how fast you adapt, how you respond to setbacks). For those, there is no target number to hit, and trying to play "the way the employer wants" usually produces an inconsistent pattern.

Question types with original examples

All items below are original and built to match the observed formats.

Order: build the fourth frame

Grid positions are named TL, TC, TR (top row), ML, C, MR (middle), BL, BC, BR (bottom).

Practice 1. A heart sits in C, same size in every frame. F1: blue, tip pointing down. F2: yellow, tip pointing left. F3: purple, tip pointing up. Build F4.

Answer: blue heart in C, tip pointing right. - Colour cycles through three: blue → yellow → purple → blue. - Rotation: down → left → up is a 90° clockwise turn each step, so the next is right (two 45° clicks from up).

Practice 2. Two elements. A crescent in C: F1 small green, opening left; F2 medium blue, opening right; F3 large green, opening left. Stars (all orange): F1 one star in TL; F2 stars in TL and TC; F3 stars in TL, TC and TR.

Answer: a crescent in C, blue, opening right, one size above large (next resize step); four orange stars in TL, TC, TR and MR. - The crescent alternates colour and opening (green/left, blue/right) and grows every frame. - One star is added per frame, walking clockwise around the border from TL. After TR the next border point is MR.

Practice 3 (three interacting rules). A small yellow-striped triangle moves: F1 TC, F2 TR, F3 MR. Its tip always points at the centre of the frame. In C there is a green shape: F1 small cross, F2 small ring, F3 medium cross.

Answer: yellow triangle in BR, tip pointing up-left; medium green ring in C. - Triangle: one clockwise border step per frame (TC → TR → MR → BR). Orientation follows from position: from BR the centre lies up-left, a 45° diagonal. - Centre: cross and ring alternate, and each shape is one size larger when it reappears. The ring was small in F2, so in F4 it is medium.

Predict: day or night

You cannot rehearse the real symbols, but you can rehearse the learning. Here is an original 12-round log with two symbols (star, wave). Each card shows two symbols; the outcome follows the click.

Question: what should you choose for star + star, wave + wave and star + wave in round 13?

Answer: Day, Night, Day. - star + star: Day 3 of 4. wave + wave: Night 3 of 4. star + wave: Day 3 of 4 (star seems to outweigh wave). - Each symbol predicts its outcome about 75 % of the time, so a "wrong" outcome a quarter of the time is expected noise, not a rule change. Keep choosing the more likely side until the evidence really shifts.

Balance: hidden weights

Practice. Scale A balances 2 circles against 1 square. Scale B balances 1 square + 1 circle against 3 triangles. How many triangles balance 1 square + 2 circles?

Answer: 4 triangles. - From A: square = 2 circles. B: 2 circles + 1 circle = 3 circles = 3 triangles, so circle = triangle. - Target: 1 square + 2 circles = 4 circles = 4 triangles.

Expressions

See the emotion recognition guide for ten original practice descriptions and the cues that separate the confusable pairs.

Traps and how to avoid them

• Palette orientation (Order). Shape buttons show silhouettes in a standard orientation, while the frames show them already rotated. Most answers need rotate clicks. Check every element for rotation before you press "Weiter".
• Look-alike shapes (Order). An arch and an upside-down bowl, or an L and a zigzag, are easy to swap. Compare the outline, not the colour.
• Fixed colour-pattern pairs (Order). Colour and pattern come as a package. If a rule says "yellow", it is the striped swatch.
• Rules that interact (Order). Late puzzles combine colour cycles of two or three, growth that may cycle back, 45° or 90° rotation, one- or two-step movement around the border, alternating frame types and shapes that are added or replace each other. Write the rule per element, then build element by element. When frames 1 and 3 match, frame 4 is usually "frame 2 with the progression applied".
• Inventing rules (Predict). Shape counts, symbol size or "more on the left" are not the rule. Only the symbol–outcome history counts.
• Over-reacting to one miss (Predict). Feedback is probabilistic. Switching after every miss is the classic way to lose ground.
• Neutral vs faint emotion (Expressions). Low-intensity faces are the hard ones; the button layout stays fixed, so learn it in the practice block.

How to prepare for the Arctic Shores assessment

The vendor says no preparation is needed and that you should play naturally. That is true for the style games. For the reasoning and recognition games, familiarity with the format still removes avoidable errors.

Setup (from Arctic Shores candidate guidance). Use a device no more than four years old, a stable connection and a charged battery; switch off notifications; find a quiet room; complete the practice task; read every instruction screen; finish in one sitting if possible. A laptop with a mouse is easier for the Order game's many small clicks than a phone.

Three-day plan.

On the day. Sleep matters more than cramming: the games reward attention and reaction time. Eat beforehand, have water, and do not start a 30-minute battery when you have 20 minutes left before something else.

Consistency. Play the risk and strategy games the way you would actually work. A cautious player who suddenly goes all-in for two rounds produces a noisier profile, not a better one.

Sources

• Arctic Shores, candidate guidance (up to nine tasks, device and setup advice, 1–10 feedback scale, norm group)
• Arctic Shores, science page (trait selection, machine-learned scoring, BPS reliability, faking and adverse-impact claims): https://arcticshores.com/science
• Arctic Shores, "ChatGPT vs task-based assessments" (answers built step by step, credit for working)
• Arctic Shores help centre, "Before you begin" and "Completing the assessment" sections
• Game Assessment Prep, Arctic Shores game catalogue (names, mechanics and durations of games not observed first-hand)
• eFinancialCareers (2022), interview with Arctic Shores on games and "no right or wrong answers" (Leaflets, power generation): https://www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/news/2022/02/how-to-pass-arctic-shores-personality-and-aptitude-test
• Career Test Prep, game-based assessment guide (sectors using game-based tests)
• The Interview Guys, Arctic Shores test guide (retakes set by employer, generally not within one round)
• Knowlton, B. J., Squire, L. R., & Gluck, M. A. (1994). Probabilistic classification learning in amnesia. Learning & Memory, 1, 106–120 (the "weather prediction" task family behind Predict-type games).

執筆：

Adrian、専門家

心理学修士、7年の受験歴。

最終更新：Oct 1, 2026