The CCAT is the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test, published by Criteria Corp. It is 50 questions in 15 minutes, and the three question types - verbal, math and logic, and spatial reasoning - are interleaved rather than sat as separate sections. No calculators are allowed. Employers receive your raw score, meaning the number of questions you answered correctly, along with your percentile.

Is there a penalty for wrong answers on the CCAT?

No. The CCAT has no penalty for a wrong answer, and Criteria's own advice to candidates is to guess and move on. That makes a blank a guaranteed zero while a guess on a five-option item is worth 0.2 marks in expectation, so you should never leave an item unanswered.

Should I try to finish all 50 CCAT questions?

No. Fewer than 1% of candidates do, and chasing completion is how strong candidates lose marks. Fifteen minutes across 50 questions leaves about 18 seconds each, so the skill being tested is triage: recognise quickly that an item will not resolve, guess it immediately because guessing is free, and spend the seconds you saved on items you can actually get right.

Can I practise the full 50-question CCAT in one sitting?

Sit the three CCAT section drills back to back and you have: 18 verbal, 18 math and logic and 14 spatial items is 50 (a split of our own, since Criteria does not publish one), and each drill is clocked at the real test's 18 seconds per item, so the three together run the full 15 minutes. CogniPrep publishes them as sections rather than as one paper because a five-minute section is short enough to repeat, and repeating the section you are weakest at is what actually moves a CCAT score. The one thing sections cannot rehearse is the interleaving, since the real test mixes the three types rather than grouping them.

Which Criteria practice test is free on CogniPrep?

CCAT Verbal is free to play. The other five Criteria tests - CCAT Math & Logic, CCAT Spatial Reasoning, the UCAT, the CBST and the EPP - are paid and unlock together.

How is the CCAT different from an Aon cut-e test?

They are strategic opposites. Aon cut-e tests apply negative marking, so a wrong answer deducts a mark and skipping an item you cannot resolve genuinely scores better than guessing at it. The CCAT applies no penalty, so skipping is strictly worse than guessing. If you are preparing for both, keep the two habits apart, because carrying the Aon habit into a CCAT costs you marks directly.

Can I use a calculator on the CCAT?

No. Calculators are not allowed, and the math and logic items are built so none is needed: basic algebra, proportions, word problems and number series. The arithmetic is deliberately light, because what is being measured is how quickly you set the problem up rather than how well you compute.

What is the difference between the CCAT and the UCAT?

The UCAT, or Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test, is Criteria's language-independent cognitive test. It drops the verbal items entirely and measures logic and analysis, numerical reasoning, attention to detail and spatial reasoning, which makes it suitable when candidates are being compared across languages. Criteria also publishes the CBST, a basic skills test covering literacy and numeracy for the workplace, and the EPP, a personality questionnaire.

I was sent Cognify, not the CCAT. Is that Criteria too?

Yes. Criteria Corp owns Revelian, whose game-based Cognify assessment and Emotify emotional-intelligence test are a different product line from the CCAT. CogniPrep covers those separately under Revelian Cognify, so if your invitation names Cognify or Emotify, practise there rather than here.

Free CCAT Practice Test: Criteria Assessment

Q: What is a good CCAT score?

The median score is 24 out of 50, and fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50. Employers see both your raw score and your percentile, and most set their own threshold by role, so there is no single universal pass mark. What the numbers do tell you is that the test is not built to be finished.

CCAT practice test and the rest of the Criteria suite: the CCAT as its three sections, plus the UCAT, CBST and EPP. Sitting the three sections back to back covers a full paper (our split of 18 + 18 + 14 = 50 items) at the real pace of 18 seconds per item, with the same no-penalty scoring. CCAT Verbal is free to try with a free account.

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CCAT Verbal

Antonyms, synonyms, analogies, sentence completion and word-in-context items from the verbal third of the CCAT. Five options each, one clock for the whole set, and nothing deducted for a wrong answer.

5-6 minutes

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CCAT test: how it works

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$Criteria (CCAT) CCAT Math & Logic practice game$

CCAT Math & Logic

Basic algebra, proportions, word problems, number series and logic items from the math and logic third of the CCAT. No calculator, exactly as in the real test - the arithmetic is deliberately doable in your head if you spot the shortcut.

5-6 minutes

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CCAT test: how it works

CCAT Spatial Reasoning

Rotate and flip figures mentally, identify the odd one out and complete figure series. The spatial third of the CCAT, and the item type candidates most often skip when they should be guessing.

4-5 minutes

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CCAT test: how it works

Criteria UCAT (Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test)

Criteria’s language-independent cognitive test: 40 questions in 20 minutes with no verbal items at all. This practice covers its math, logic and spatial reasoning questions; the real test also has attention-to-detail items. Used where candidates are assessed across languages, so a weak-English score cannot be mistaken for weak aptitude.

20 minutes

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Criteria UCAT test: how it works

CBST (Criteria Basic Skills Test)

Workplace literacy and numeracy: spelling, grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, everyday arithmetic and measurement. 40 questions in 20 minutes. Screens for administrative, clerical and customer-facing roles rather than for reasoning ceiling.

20 minutes

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Criteria Basic Skills Test: how it works

EPP (Employee Personality Profile)

Criteria’s untimed personality inventory. Rate how strongly you agree with each statement to produce a profile across twelve workplace traits. There is no score to beat; answering consistently matters more than any single answer.

10 minutes

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Criteria EPP personality test: how it works

SalesAP (Sales Achievement Predictor)

Criteria’s sales aptitude inventory, measuring the traits interviews hide: comfort cold-calling, willingness to ask for the order, and resilience to rejection. Untimed. It also runs validity checks that catch a profile built to look perfect and quietly adjust it down - so honest answers score better than polished ones.

15-20 minutes

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SalesAP test: how it works

At a glance

Criteria Corp’s Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) measures problem solving, using new information and critical thinking, in a test most candidates do not finish. Criteria also publishes the language-independent Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test (UCAT) and the Employee Personality Profile (EPP). For the CCAT, employers see how many you got right and how you compare with everyone who has taken it.

Length: CCAT: 50 questions in 15 minutes, with no calculator allowed. Fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50.
Question types: Verbal, math and logic, and spatial reasoning, drawn from an item bank so no two candidates get the same set. Criteria does not publish a split by type.
Wrong answers: No penalty. Criteria advises guessing and moving on if a question is giving you trouble.
Results: Employers receive your raw score and percentile, plus a percentile for each question type. The median score is 24 out of 50.
Devices: The CCAT, UCAT and EPP run on any device, including a phone or tablet.
Other tests: UCAT: 40 questions in 20 minutes, with no verbal questions. EPP personality: 140 statements, untimed, about 10 minutes.

Checked against Criteria, CCAT prep for candidates, Criteria, CCAT Information Brief (PDF), Criteria, UCAT Information Brief (PDF) and Criteria, EPP Information Brief (PDF). Updated 8 November 2026.

Why We Practise the CCAT as Its Three Sections

Three sections back to back is a full paper’s worth of items - and a single section is short enough to actually repeat.

Our three drills are 18 verbal, 18 math and logic and 14 spatial items, 50 in total. Criteria does not publish how many of each type the real CCAT holds, so that split is ours. Sit the three one after another and you have covered a 50-item paper at the same pace. What you gain by splitting them is the ability to repeat the one that is costing you marks: a 5-minute verbal drill you can sit three times in an evening does more for a CCAT score than one 15-minute run you are too drained to repeat, and repetition on your weakest section is what actually moves the number.

The clocks are the real ones. Criteria allows 900 seconds for 50 questions, which is 18 seconds per item, so each drill runs at its item count times 18 seconds: 324 seconds for verbal, 324 for math and logic, 252 for spatial. Nothing is slowed down to make practice comfortable.

One honest caveat: the real test interleaves the three types rather than grouping them, so a section drill cannot rehearse the constant switching between words, numbers and shapes. Sitting the three back to back in one block restores the volume and the pace, and the switching is the part that costs you least once each section itself is fast.

The One Thing That Makes the CCAT Different

There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a blank is the only answer that cannot score.

Criteria scores the CCAT on the number of questions you got right and nothing else. Wrong answers cost you nothing beyond the time they took, which is why Criteria’s own advice to candidates is to guess and move on. On a five-option item a blind guess is worth 0.2 marks in expectation; a blank is worth exactly zero, every time.

Now put that next to the clock. Fifty questions in fifteen minutes is roughly 18 seconds each, including reading the question. The median score is 24 out of 50 and fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50 - so “finish the paper” is not the goal, and treating it as one is how candidates who could have scored well end up stranded on question 31 with four minutes gone.

The real skill is triage. Recognise within a few seconds that an item will not resolve quickly, guess it, and put the seconds you saved into items you can actually get right. That is a habit you can practise directly: our section drills run at the real 18 seconds per item and report how long you spent on the items you got wrong, so you can see where the time went.

If you are also preparing for an Aon cut-e test, the correct strategy is reversed

The CCAT and the Aon cut-e tests are mirror images of each other. Aon deducts a mark for a wrong answer and nothing for a blank, so a blind guess has a negative expected value and skipping is correct. Criteria deducts nothing, so skipping is strictly worse than guessing and leaving an item blank is the one move with no upside.

Both tests are short, both contain more items than nearly anyone finishes, and both reward fast judgement about your own certainty. They just cash that judgement out in opposite directions: on Aon it tells you when to stay silent, on the CCAT it tells you when to commit to a guess and move on.

Who is Criteria?

A US publisher with one flagship test

Criteria Corp is a US pre-employment assessment publisher, and the CCAT is its best-known product. Alongside it Criteria publishes the UCAT, a language-independent cognitive test, the CBST basic skills test and the EPP personality questionnaire.

Three question types, interleaved

Verbal, math and logic, and spatial items are mixed together rather than grouped into sections, so you switch modes constantly and cannot pace yourself section by section. No calculators are allowed.

Common in US tech and private equity hiring

Crossover documents the CCAT publicly on its own selection-process page, and it is well established at Vista Equity Partners and its portfolio companies, including TIBCO and PowerSchool. Private equity firms use it heavily for portfolio-company hiring, and it is common for tech, sales and mid-to-senior roles.

Sent Cognify or Emotify? That is Criteria too, but it is a different product

Criteria Corp also owns Revelian, whose game-based Cognify assessment and Emotify emotional-intelligence test are a separate line from the CCAT: mini-games rather than multiple-choice items, and scored differently. So an invitation can carry the Criteria name and still not be a CCAT. If yours names Cognify or Emotify, practise on our Revelian Cognify tests instead - you are not in the wrong place, just one page over.

What Each Test Measures

The three CCAT sections add up to a full 50-item paper (our split of 18 + 18 + 14) and each runs at 18 seconds per item, the real test’s pace. CCAT Verbal is free; the rest are unlocked together.