Bryq Assessment: Cognitive and Personality

The Bryq assessment is an online pre-employment test that mixes short, timed cognitive questions (logical, numerical and verbal reasoning, and attention to detail) with untimed personality questions, and Bryq estimates the core part at about 14 minutes. Employers can add skills tests of 10 to 15 multiple-choice questions. This guide explains the format, the rules that catch candidates out, and gives original practice questions with worked answers. It is based on Bryq's candidate pages and help centre and on prep sources, not on a first-hand sitting.

Key facts

What the Bryq assessment looks like

You receive an invitation from the employer listing your assessments. Bryq says separate assessments are not connected and most companies keep the total under an hour.

In the Profile Fit assessment, cognitive and personality questions alternate. Each cognitive question has its own time limit. The timer starts when the question page loads, so if a question includes media, click it immediately to use your full response time. If time runs out, you move straight to the next question. Bryq describes the cognitive questions as "designed to be simple but timed", and says missing a few will not harm your chances.

Personality questions are untimed and have no right answers; you choose which behaviours describe you best.

Bryq also offers scenario versions: a chatbot conversation with characters from a fictional supermarket chain for hourly and frontline roles, and from a fictional entertainment company for office roles. The questions sit inside the conversation rather than on plain test pages.

Rules Bryq states for candidates: no external resources or help, copy-paste disabled, no pause and resume, no changing answers after submission, and ending early marks unanswered questions as wrong. Bryq may capture short audio and video clips to check test integrity, and some employers require a webcam; you are told before you start.

How long does it take? Bryq's sources do not agree. The candidate page estimates about 14 minutes for Profile Fit. Bryq's company FAQ gives about 25 to 35 minutes for the core cognitive and personality assessment depending on role configuration, and a SHRM vendor listing says about 20 minutes. Older help-centre articles described an Express version (12 minutes, 20 cognitive and 48 personality questions), a Standard version (20 minutes, 30 cognitive and 64 personality questions) and an Extended version (45 minutes); Bryq now lists the Extended and stand-alone Cognitive assessments as deprecated. Block 45 minutes and read your invitation.

Question types with original examples

Each cognitive question is short. Work them at the speed you would in the real test: aim for well under a minute each.

Logical reasoning

Practice 1. What comes next? 3, 6, 11, 18, 27, ? A) 34 B) 36 C) 38 D) 40

Answer: C) 38. The differences are 3, 5, 7, 9, so the next difference is 11: 27 + 11 = 38.

Practice 2. All site managers hold a safety certificate. Some people with a safety certificate work night shifts. Which statement must be true? A) Some site managers work night shifts. B) Every site manager holds a safety certificate. C) No site manager works night shifts. D) Everyone on night shifts is a site manager.

Answer: B. It restates the first premise. A and C cannot be decided: the night-shift workers with certificates may or may not include managers. D reverses the relationship. More on this format in the deductive reasoning guide.

Numerical reasoning

Practice 3. A jacket costs €80. It is reduced by 25%, and a further 10% comes off the reduced price at checkout. What do you pay? A) €52 B) €54 C) €56 D) €60

Answer: B) €54. 80 × 0.75 = 60, then 60 × 0.90 = 54. Option A is the trap: adding the discounts to 35% overstates the saving.

Practice 4. A team handled 360 tickets in 8 hours. At the same rate, how many tickets would it handle in 5 hours? A) 200 B) 215 C) 225 D) 240

Answer: C) 225. 360 ÷ 8 = 45 per hour; 45 × 5 = 225.

Verbal reasoning

Practice 5. Choose the word closest in meaning to mitigate. A) ignore B) reduce C) provoke D) explain

Answer: B) reduce. To mitigate a risk is to make it less severe.

Practice 6. "The update was postponed because testing revealed a fault, not because the team ran short of time." Which statement follows? A) The team ran out of time. B) A fault caused the delay. C) The update was cancelled. D) Testing was skipped.

Answer: B. The sentence names the fault as the cause and rules out time pressure. "Postponed" is not "cancelled". See the verbal reasoning guide.

Attention to detail

Practice 7. Which pair is not identical? A) QX-7731-LM / QX-7731-LM B) Rd. 48 Elm / Rd. 48 Elm C) 0.00819 / 0.00891 D) Hartwell & Co / Hartwell & Co

Answer: C. The last two digits are swapped. Under a per-question timer, compare in chunks of three characters rather than reading the whole string twice. The attention to detail guide has longer drills.

Personality questions (format only)

You see behaviours or statements and choose the ones that describe you best. There is no correct answer and no time limit. Bryq maps your answers to 16 primary personality factors and to the Big Five, then compares the profile with the employer's ideal candidate profile for the role. The personality test guide explains how such profiles are used. Answer as you actually behave at work; inconsistent answers make the profile less clear.

How Bryq results are used

Employers see a Fit Score for each candidate. Bryq's FAQ describes it as a standardised 1–10 measure (a sten scale) of how well you match the role, benchmarked against local and global comparison groups, with no single pass/fail threshold. Bryq states that it does not make hire or no-hire decisions; the employer does. Bryq's candidate page says that once all required assessments are complete you can view more insights, and that your interviewer may see your results if you move forward.

Traps and how to avoid them

• Losing time on media questions. The timer starts when the page loads, not when you click play.
• Expecting to go back. You cannot change an answer once submitted. Decide, then move on.
• Overthinking "simple" items. The cognitive questions are short by design. Two-step percentage items (Practice 3) are where careful candidates lose points, not where they gain time.
• Ending early. Unanswered questions count as wrong. If a question times out, it simply moves on, so keep going.
• Phone screens. A screen under 9 inches makes tables and detail items harder to read.

How to prepare

1. Two or three sessions of 20 mixed cognitive questions, one at a time, each with a strict 45-second timer. Mix number series, percentages, word meaning and string comparison.
2. Revise mental arithmetic shortcuts: successive percentages, rates per hour, simple ratios. Keep a calculator, pen and paper nearby on the day, as Bryq suggests.
3. For personality, think of concrete examples of how you work so your choices are consistent. No other preparation is needed.
4. On the day: quiet room, sound on, stable connection, laptop or tablet, and the full time block free because you cannot pause.

Sources

• Bryq, candidate page (Profile Fit, about 14 minutes, timer behaviour, untimed personality, rules, devices, audio/video clips, retakes)
• Bryq help centre, "Which assessment type is best for me?" (20 cognitive and 48 personality questions, frameworks, scenario versions, deprecated assessments)
• Bryq, company FAQ (25–35 minute estimate, Fit Score on a 1–10 sten scale, no pass/fail threshold)
• Bryq, cognitive test product page (four cognitive areas)
• Bryq, personality assessment product page (16PF and Big Five mapping)
• SHRM vendor directory, Bryq (about 20 minutes, as indexed by search; page not accessible for direct checking)
• Bryq help centre, "The Standard assessment overview" (older Standard version: 20 minutes, 30 cognitive and 64 personality questions; page no longer online)

Escrito por

Adrian, especialista

MSc em Psicologia, 7 anos a fazer testes.

Última atualização: Oct 1, 2026