AtkinsRéalis Online Immersive Assessment Guide

What the immersive assessment is now

AtkinsRéalis uses the same five steps for its UK graduates, apprentices and placement students. Its selection process page describes step three, the Online Immersive Assessment, like this: "You’ll complete a range of interactive exercises, including cognitive tasks designed to explore your approach to problem-solving and how you process information. There are no video interview questions included in this assessment."

It typically takes around 45 minutes. There is no strict time limit, but AtkinsRéalis recommends setting aside enough time to finish in one sitting, on a laptop or desktop if you can, although a tablet or phone will work.

The practice zone, and who runs it

AtkinsRéalis does not name an assessment supplier. It does send every candidate to a Candidate Preparation Zone with a practice immersive assessment, and its graduate FAQs say that practice "closely reflects the format and experience of the real assessment". The zone’s own pages say candidate data is held on systems operated by Cappfinity, the UK assessment company, and give a Cappfinity support address. That makes Cappfinity the likely supplier, but nothing we found confirms the live test is theirs. Do the official practice first: it is the closest rehearsal there is.

Graduates

The graduate development programme is for people with less than two years of relevant work experience since their most recent studies. Salaries are £32,000 to £34,500 depending on role and location, with a £2,500 settling-in allowance in your first month’s pay and another £2,500 when you achieve your chosen accreditation. You will spend at least three days a week in the office or on a client site. Graduate interviews typically run between November and April, and the civil and structural engineering programme advert gives a closing date of 3 December 2026, warning that popular roles close sooner.

Apprentices

According to the apprentice FAQs, apprenticeships go live in November and typically close at the end of February, with interviews between January and April and a start in early September. You typically need to have lived in the UK for at least three consecutive years before starting. Advanced and higher apprenticeships usually last two to three years and degree apprenticeships four to six. Pay runs from £22,500 to £24,500 at Level 3 up to £26,228 to £30,784 at Level 6, depending on location and team.

Placements

Summer and industrial placements open from mid-October, says the placement FAQs. Summer placements last at least eight weeks, usually June to August, and industrial placements typically 12 months from September or October. Placement pay is £26,228 to £30,784 a year, pro rata for summer placements. Summer students take the immersive assessment but no interview: shortlisted candidates have a call with the business instead. Top placement students can be fast-tracked onto the graduate programme without repeating the graduate process.

Practise the skills

AtkinsRéalis does not publish its tasks, so these are Cappfinity’s standard formats rather than the exercises you will see. Use them to warm up your reasoning once you have done the official practice assessment.

• Verbal / Critical Thinking (10 minutes, free) - Reading a passage and judging what follows from it: one way of testing how you process information.
• Numerical Reasoning (10 minutes) - Tables and charts set inside a job scenario, for the problem-solving side of the cognitive tasks.
• Strengths-Based Situational Judgement (20 minutes) - Cappfinity’s scenario format, in case your sitting asks how you would handle situations at work.

Our guide to cognitive ability tests explains the kinds of task employers use to measure problem-solving and information processing, and our situational judgement guide covers scenario questions. For the Teams interview, prepare examples with the STAR method.

Common questions

Does AtkinsRéalis use Cappfinity?

Its official practice zone runs on Cappfinity’s systems, which points that way, but AtkinsRéalis has not named a supplier. Until it does, treat the practice zone as the authority on format.

Is the AtkinsRéalis assessment timed?

There is no strict time limit, and it typically takes around 45 minutes. Plan for a single uninterrupted sitting.

Can I use AI to help?

AtkinsRéalis welcomes generative AI for preparation, such as researching the company or practising interview questions, but asks that every response during the assessment and the interview is your own.