The Bundeswehr CAT-Test at the New Musterung: What the Official Sources Say

Since January 2026 the Bundeswehr has been sending its Fragebogen to 18-year-olds in Germany, and the new Musterung that follows it includes a test at the computer: the CAT. Search for it and you will find a lot of confident detail about how long it takes, what score you need and what happens if you fail. Much of that detail has no source. This is what the Bundeswehr, the law and the company that builds the platform actually say.

CAT is a platform, not a test

CAT stands for Computer-Assistiertes Testen. According to the software company that maintains it, the Bundeswehr has used the system since 1980 and developed it ever since; the current version, CAT5, runs on around 400 test stations. The tests on it are written for the Bundeswehr’s Psychologischer Dienst and draw on roughly 15,000 media files.

So there is no single “CAT-Test” with fixed sections. The Bundeswehr’s own video about it puts it in three lines: the CAT is modular, each block runs about 10 to 30 minutes, and the total length depends on the career you want. Two candidates sitting on the same day can sit different sets of modules.

What the Musterung day involves

The Karrierecenter Berlin’s head of selection describes the Musterung assessment as shortened to two main components: the medical examination and a test at the computer. The Bundeswehr’s Musterung page adds a personal conversation, and candidates signing up for two years or more also have an interview with the assessment commission. It is designed to fit into one day, and you hear the result before you leave.

The law is more precise than most summaries of it. What the Wehrpflichtgesetz makes compulsory is the medical examination. The aptitude test is something a man can be required to attend where it is needed, and anyone who has applied to be recognised as a conscientious objector is excluded from the aptitude findings altogether. In practice the standard Musterung day includes the computer test.

Timing is the other thing to get right. The duty applies to men born in 2008 or later, and the Fragebogen has gone out since January 2026. The capacity to muster everyone is still being built, with regional Musterungszentren and full coverage planned from mid-2027. Until then, the Bundeswehr says, it is mainly those who have declared an interest who are invited.

What the test covers

The Bundeswehr psychologist in the official video lists language skills, basic arithmetic and logical reasoning, a personality questionnaire that almost every applicant takes and that can come up again in the interview, and extra tests for particular careers such as flying or medicine. Other official pages add technical understanding and concentration. The Musterung page describes its own shortened version as covering logical reasoning, reaction and spatial ability alongside a self-assessment, with the examples of spotting patterns quickly and solving simple sums under time pressure.

Adaptive, and meant to feel hard

The single most useful thing the Bundeswehr says about the CAT is in that video. Our test is adaptive, the psychologist explains: if you answer wrongly it tends to get a little easier, and if you answer correctly it tends to get a little harder. That means every applicant will find the test very demanding, and he asks candidates not to let that unsettle them.

How it is sat

The Bundeswehr’s video of the assessment shows a test room of numbered desks, each with a desktop monitor, keyboard and mouse, one blank sheet of paper, and a sign asking you not to touch the screen. Supervisors from the Psychologischer Dienst sit at a desk at the front. Candidates consistently report pencil and paper but no calculator and no phone, and they describe each task type opening with an explanation and two example items; get those wrong and the program pauses until the supervisor explains again. Everything is in German.

What happens to your result

There is no published pass mark. A Karrierecenter brochure describes the overall view of your assessed qualities and the CAT as the basis for deciding which careers and assignments suit you, and the Musterung page gives the example of someone with good technical results being offered work maintaining vehicles or aircraft. The platform’s own developers describe the tests as finding out where a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses lie, rather than as pass or fail.

A weak area can be compensated. The Berlin head of selection says that if someone’s maths is poor on the day but their school reports show steady grades in maths, the computer result is not a disaster, and that nearly every result is reviewed by the assessment staff, who look for ways to compensate. A result is valid for two years, and an applicant who was not successful can apply again after six months at the earliest. For officers the picture is more competitive: an older Bundeswehr description of officer selection has the strongest applicants receiving an immediate offer and the rest going on a waiting list.

What preparation sites say that no official source does

Preparation sites are useful for one thing the Bundeswehr does not give you: descriptions of task formats from people who have sat them. Where they go further, check the claim against this list.

The official practice test

The Bundeswehr publishes its own free practice test, the Assessment Trainer: 25 questions drawn from five categories, 20 minutes, with the seconds counting down on screen and a non-binding evaluation at the end. Its first screens include figural matrices, a 3 x 3 grid with eight options, and route turns, where you count the left turns on a drawn route. Its advice is worth taking into the real test: answer as quickly as you can so there is more time for harder questions, and guess if you are unsure. The Bundeswehr is clear that the trainer’s presentation differs from the real CAT and that it places nobody anywhere.

How to prepare

Practise each task type until its rule is automatic, because the real test gives you two example items and then starts. Do arithmetic with pencil and paper rather than a calculator, and get used to counting turns from the traveller’s point of view rather than your own. Expect to find it hard, because an adaptive test is built that way. And if you are applying for a career, take your school record seriously: it is read beside the test.

Our Bundeswehr CAT-Test practice has adaptive drills for matrices, verbal analogies, arithmetic, route turns and technical understanding, the two-arrow reaction test, and a full sitting of five modules back to back. Its clocks and item counts are our own, and its items are in English with the German module names. For why there is no shortcut, see whether you can cheat the CAT.