- Arctic Shores Assessment is task-based, not question-based - up to nine interactive tasks, no multiple choice.
- It measures three areas: Personality, Workplace Intelligence, and Learning Agility.
- Delivered directly online by Arctic Shores with no candidate fee and no test centre.
- Typical completion time is 30-45 minutes, with a free practice task available beforehand.
What Is the Arctic Shores Test?
The Arctic Shores Test - more accurately called the Arctic Shores Assessment - is a psychometric screening tool built by Arctic Shores, a UK behavioural assessment company founded in 2014 by Robert Newry and Dr Safe Hammad. Instead of asking candidates to answer multiple-choice questions like a conventional aptitude test, it asks them to complete short interactive tasks while the platform quietly records how they behave: how quickly they adapt, how they handle risk, how they respond under changing constraints, and more.
Employers including Deloitte, KPMG, Capita, HSBC, NatWest, Citi and Teach First use it as part of their early-stage recruitment process, typically for graduate schemes, apprenticeships, and entry-level hiring where large applicant volumes need a consistent, bias-reduced screening layer. If you're preparing for one of these applications, our Arctic Shores Test Study Guide 2026 walks through a full first-attempt preparation plan.
How the Assessment Actually Works
Arctic Shores delivers the assessment directly online - there is no third-party testing centre and no fee charged to candidates. Employers licence the platform and invite applicants by email, usually sent from noreply@arcticshores.com, so it's worth checking spam folders if you're expecting an invite after applying to a company that uses this screening step.
Once you open the invite, you'll move through a preliminary onboarding section that includes a free practice task. This practice task can be repeated as many times as you like before you begin the scored assessment, giving you a genuine opportunity to get comfortable with the interface, timing, and interaction style with zero consequence.
- Runs on desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers
- Requires a stable internet connection throughout the session
- Tasks unlock one at a time - you cannot skip ahead or go back
- Typical full session takes 30-45 minutes
- Reasonable adjustments must be requested before you start, not mid-session
Across the session, Arctic Shores curates more than 12,000 data points on natural behaviour - far more granular than a simple right/wrong score sheet. For a breakdown of exactly what's being tracked and why, see our Arctic Shores Test Exam Domains 2026 guide.
Key Takeaway
Treat the free practice task seriously - repeat it until the mechanics feel automatic, since you get no second attempt once the scored tasks begin.
The Three Measurement Areas
Arctic Shores frames its entire assessment around three measurement areas. Understanding what each one is actually trying to capture is far more useful preparation than hunting for "correct" answers.
Domain 1: Personality
Captures natural behavioural tendencies - how you approach risk, structure, collaboration, and pressure - expressed through how you interact with each task rather than through self-report statements.
- Reflected in tasks like Balloon Burst, where risk appetite is tracked alongside multiple other traits simultaneously
Domain 2: Workplace Intelligence
Arctic Shores' alternative to a traditional cognitive ability test. It looks at how you process information, adapt to new rules mid-task, and manage competing demands in real time.
- Seen in flanker-style tasks (Direction/arrows) and logic-driven tasks like Sequence and Order
Domain 3: Learning Agility
Measures how quickly you pick up new task rules and adjust your approach once feedback or changing conditions appear within a task.
- Reflected in tasks like Predict and Power Generator, where the "rules" shift as you progress
Employers choose which behaviours across these three areas carry the most weight for a given role - so the same nine tasks are scored differently for a trading role than for an audit or graduate consulting role. A deeper look at how each domain maps to specific roles is available in our complete domains guide.
Common Tasks You'll Encounter
While the exact task set varies by employer and role, candidates commonly report the following:
| Task | What It Tends to Probe |
|---|---|
| Balloon Burst | Risk appetite - reportedly tracks 20 traits simultaneously |
| Direction / Arrows (flanker) | Attention control under distraction |
| Tickets | Prioritisation and rule-following under pressure |
| Sequence | Pattern recognition and logical processing |
| Emotions | Emotional recognition and response |
| Team Selling | Collaboration and persuasion style |
| Power Generator | Resource management and adaptability |
| Security Door | Rule adherence and problem-solving |
| Order / Balance / Predict | Learning agility and adjustment to shifting rules |
Because up to nine of these tasks may appear in a single session, pacing matters. Our difficulty guide breaks down which tasks candidates find most demanding and why.
Who Uses the Arctic Shores Test
The assessment shows up most often at the graduate and early-careers stage of recruitment at large employers - professional services firms, banks, and structured graduate programmes among them. Because there's no fee to candidates and no expiry date on the assessment itself, you may be asked to complete it more than once if you apply to multiple employers, since results generally aren't shared between companies and there's no formal renewal process to reuse a prior score.
If you're wondering whether specific academic backgrounds or prior test experience are required before you're invited, our requirements guide covers eligibility in detail. There's also no exam calendar to track - invitations are sent individually by employers rather than on fixed testing windows, though our exam dates guide explains how scheduling actually works in practice.
How Scoring and Feedback Work
Scoring on the Arctic Shores Test works differently from almost any other assessment you'll encounter in a job application. Candidates receive a feedback report showing each measured behaviour on a 1-10 spectrum, benchmarked against a norm group of other candidates. This is meant to be developmental - a way to understand your own tendencies, not a scorecard of failure.
Employers, on the other hand, receive a single 1-100 role-fit number, and they set their own thresholds for what counts as a pass for that specific role. This means there is genuinely no universal "passing score" you can study toward - a number that would clear the bar for one employer's graduate scheme might not clear it for another's. Our passing score guide unpacks this mechanic in more detail, and our pass rate guide looks at what candidates can reasonably infer from public data.
Key Takeaway
Because thresholds are set per employer and per role, your goal isn't to "beat" a fixed score - it's to complete every task in a stable, focused state so your natural behaviour is measured accurately.
Preparing Without Gaming the System
Arctic Shores is explicit that candidates who follow third-party answer-key guides produce invalid measures and rarely progress. That's an important distinction from a conventional aptitude test: there's no bank of correct answers to memorise, because most tasks don't have one. The real preparation gain comes from format familiarity and controls confidence - knowing how the mouse, keyboard, or touch controls behave in each task type before you're under time pressure.
A light, realistic prep schedule spread across a couple of weeks tends to work better than a single cram session, mainly because it lets you build comfort with the interaction style rather than trying to memorise anything.
Format Familiarity
- Repeat the free onboarding practice task several times
- Get comfortable with drag, click, and timed-response controls
- Review the task list so nothing feels unfamiliar on test day
Controlled Runs
- Simulate full-length sessions of 30-45 minutes without interruption
- Practise staying composed through unfamiliar or shifting task rules
- Confirm your device and connection are stable ahead of the real invite
For a condensed reference you can review the night before, our one-page cheat sheet summarises the must-know mechanics without turning into an answer key. And if you're still deciding whether the effort is worth it relative to other screening steps in your job search, our ROI analysis is a useful next read.
You can also build general timing and composure using the practice environment on our main practice test site, which mirrors the pacing and task-switching feel candidates report from the real assessment. Starting from the homepage is the quickest way to see what's available before your invite arrives.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Employers licence the assessment directly from Arctic Shores, and candidates are invited by email at no cost to them.
Most candidates complete the full session, including up to nine tasks, in 30-45 minutes, with a free practice task available beforehand in the onboarding section.
It measures three areas: Personality, Workplace Intelligence (its alternative to a cognitive ability test), and Learning Agility, based on how you interact with interactive tasks rather than multiple-choice answers.
Generally no. There's no expiry date on the assessment, but candidates applying to a different employer normally complete it again since results aren't shared between companies.
No. Arctic Shores states that following third-party answer keys produces invalid measures, and candidates who rely on them rarely progress. Familiarity with the task format is what actually helps.