Philips Assessment Practice
Philips uses HireVue game-based assessments alongside the HireVue video interview in its global early-careers hiring. Here is what that means for how you prepare.
What Philips uses, and how we know
Philips is a Dutch health technology company headquartered in Amsterdam, hiring across engineering, data, clinical, commercial and corporate functions in a large number of countries. Its early-careers hiring runs globally rather than country by country, which is the context for the assessment.
HireVue publishes a resource on how Philips streamlined that hiring, and states in its own words that Philips selected HireVue's Video Interview and Games-Based Assessment solutions to do it. That is a first-party citation naming the games product specifically rather than naming HireVue in general, which matters: most employers associated with HireVue use only the video interview, and a page that blurred the two would send people to practise the wrong thing.
Two different assessments, often in one invitation
The single most useful thing to know about a HireVue invitation is that it can contain two separate products, marked in completely different ways, and most candidates prepare for only one of them.
- Game-based assessment. A handful of short games, each around three minutes on its own clock, climbing a difficulty ladder. You will see them listed on one screen with a play icon beside each. Practise these here.
- OnDemand video interview. A question appears, you get a short window to prepare, then you record an answer to camera with nobody on the other end. Practise that here.
HireVue's own white paper describes an example graduate assessment as six interview questions plus three short game challenges, in one sitting of seven to twenty minutes, and tells candidates to set aside about thirty. So treat the two as parts of one stage rather than as alternatives.
What we know, and what we do not
Philips does not publish its assessment process in detail, and we are not going to fill that gap with invention. Precisely where the evidence stops:
- What is sourced.That Philips selected HireVue's Games-Based Assessment and Video Interview for global early-careers hiring, from HireVue's own resource page.
- What is not sourced: which games.HireVue's customers choose a subset, and no source names Philips's. What can be said is that HireVue's own research describes a technical graduate package of exactly three games - Numerosity, Singularity and Shapedance - so those are the sensible three to practise first.
- What is not sourced: the cut score. HireVue publishes no pass mark for anything it sells, because the employer sets it per role. Its own research illustrates a fairness analysis with a pass rate at the 33rd percentile and calls that a common configuration in practice, which is the closest to a number anyone can honestly give you.
- What is not sourced: which roles or regions. The citation is about global early careers. Whether a specific experienced-hire vacancy carries the same stage is not published.
How the games are actually scored
This is worth understanding before you practise, because the usual advice is wrong. HireVue does not mark your answers. It records gameplay statistics and feeds those into its model: highest level completed, levels won, levels lost, the ratio between them, and total levels played.
The consequence is counter-intuitive. In HireVue's own scoring sample, total levels played correlated negatively with measured ability on Shapedance, at r = -0.19. Losing a level is quick and knocks you down a position, so churning through levels is what failing looks like from the outside. What the model weights is your ceiling and your win ratio. Slow down by a beat and win the level in front of you.
One more thing that is specific to HireVue and genuinely reassuring: it norms candidates locally. Its white paper states that local norming groups are used so candidates are only compared to others in their own country or region, so a Philips applicant in the Netherlands is ranked against comparable candidates rather than a global pool.
Practise the documented graduate package
These are the three games HireVue's own published research names as the cognitive package given to technical graduate applicants. They are the highest-value place to start.
Two more that commonly appear alongside them
Not a claim that Philips uses these specifically. They are the two non-cognitive games most commonly reported in a HireVue battery, and they behave differently enough from the ladder games to be worth seeing once.
The full suite, including the Virtual Job Tryout and CodeVue, is on the HireVue practice hub.
Practical notes for the day
Use Firefox or Safari
HireVue's own troubleshooting article recommends Firefox or Safari on desktop, or its mobile app, because Chrome and Edge on Windows can produce distorted characters, blurry game elements and poor rendering. On a task that asks you to tell two patterns apart, that is not cosmetic.
You can pause, and your progress survives a dropped connection
HireVue's candidate help centre says the games can be paused at any time, which lets you review the instructions again and toggle the sound. It also states that if your internet connection is interrupted, your progress is saved and you can continue when it is stable.
The opening levels are meant to be easy
HireVue tells candidates the game starts with some easy levels so you can get used to the format. If the first minute is going badly, it is almost always a misread instruction rather than the task, and the pause screen is there for exactly that.
Frequently asked questions
Does Philips use HireVue?
Yes, for global early-careers hiring, and for both products: HireVue's own resource page says Philips selected its Video Interview and Games-Based Assessment solutions. Confirm with your recruiter for the specific role and hiring year, because employers change vendors.
Which HireVue games will Philips send me?
Not published. Employers pick a subset of around eleven, usually three to six. The three in HireVue's documented technical graduate package are Numerosity, Singularity and Shapedance, which makes them the best-evidenced place to spend your practice time.
Does HireVue analyse my face in the video interview?
No. HireVue removed facial analysis from its video screening, announcing it in January 2021 and stating the feature had been discontinued in March 2020 after internal research found visual analysis no longer added value. The games never involved it at all.
What is a good score?
There is no published answer, because Philips sets its own bar. HireVue does not show candidates a score either, during or immediately after. Some candidates later receive a Candidate Insight Report by emailed link, and HireVue states plainly that receiving it does not mean a decision has been made.