How the Sequence game works
A board of tiles is shown. Some of them light up one at a time, and when the display ends you click the tiles in the order they lit. Get it right and the next sequence is longer, so the task keeps adapting to how much you can hold.
In later rounds, extra tiles or icons appear that are not part of the sequence and must be left alone. The game is reported to end after two errors in a row.
How to remember a longer sequence
Use the same routine on every round:
- Rest your eyes on the middle of the board so every flash is in view without moving your head.
- Group the sequence into chunks of three or four as it plays, the way you remember a phone number.
- Give each chunk a shape: a row, a diagonal, an L. A shape is easier to hold than separate positions.
- Name the chunks silently as they appear, for example “top row, then the corner”.
- Click back chunk by chunk at a steady pace, and never touch a tile marked as a distraction.
Worked example
Seven tiles light up: top-left, top-middle, top-right, centre, bottom-left, bottom-middle, bottom-right. Held as seven separate positions, that is a lot to carry.
Held as three chunks, it is easy: “top row, centre, bottom row”. You click the top row left to right, tap the centre, then do the same along the bottom.
Tips for the real Sequence task
- Use the practice task in onboarding to see how the board looks before anything counts.
- Sit somewhere quiet and silence notifications. One interruption can cost you a whole sequence.
- Expect distraction tiles to arrive once sequences are already long. Decide now that you will never click them.
- After a miss, clear your head and treat the next sequence as new. Two misses in a row are reported to end the task.
- If working memory is hard for you, ask for an adjustment before you begin. Arctic Shores points those candidates to its Dyslexia or ADHD options.
What your score means
Sequence is reported to test short-term and working memory, but Arctic Shores keeps quiet about which report dimensions any task feeds, and you will not see a longest sequence or a Sequence score. You get one report by email covering all your tasks, with each “dimension” marked on a four-point scale against a large group of candidates like you. Either end means your behaviour stands out from most of them.
Its candidate guidance page describes a 1 to 10 spectrum per behaviour rather than four points, and says feedback arrives only if the employer opts in. Your employer gets something different: one number from 1 to 100 showing how closely you match the profile it set for the role. Arctic Shores says there is no single way to pass.
Practise Sequence on CogniPrep
Our Sequence game uses a board of 12 tiles, 3 across and 4 down. The first sequence is 4 tiles long and each correct answer adds one, up to 12. From 6 tiles on, one to three tiles are crossed out and are never in the sequence. There is no clock: the run ends after 3 wrong answers in a row, and you get a score out of 100 based mostly on your longest correct sequence and your accuracy. The board and the stopping rule are ours, because Arctic Shores does not publish its own.