Hogan Assessment Practice Tests
Practice all 4Hogan assessments we cover: the HPI for how you come across when things go well, the HDS for what surfaces under pressure, the MVPI for what you actually want from work, and the HBRI business reasoning test. The HDS is the one to read about before you sit it — every scale on it is a strength taken too far, not a flaw.
All Tests
Hogan HDS (Development Survey)
The derailer inventory - the one candidates get blindsided by. Eleven scales covering what happens when pressure strips the polish off, grouped into Moving Away, Moving Against and Moving Toward. Every scale is a strength taken too far, not a flaw.
Hogan MVPI (Motives & Values)
What you want from work rather than what you can do: ten values scales from Recognition and Power through to Aesthetics and Science. Used to judge culture fit, which makes it the Hogan instrument where honest answers matter most.
Hogan HBRI (Business Reasoning)
Hogan’s reasoning test, set entirely in business situations: budgets, margins, headcount and supplier data. Qualitative and quantitative reasoning are reported separately rather than as one total, so being strong on one and weak on the other is a real and visible result.
The One Thing That Makes Hogan Different
The HDS does not measure your weaknesses. It measures your strengths, taken too far.
Every scale on the Hogan Development Survey is a quality that works until it does not. Confidence becomes an inability to hear that you are wrong. Attention to detail becomes an inability to let anyone else do the work. Independence becomes quiet resistance to being directed. Scepticism becomes an assumption of bad faith. None of these begins as a defect, which is why high HDS scores so often belong to people who were promoted for precisely the quality the scale names.
That is also why candidates get blindsided. Nothing else on this site measures this. An aptitude test asks whether you can do the work; a bright-side personality questionnaire asks how you come across on a normal day. The HDS asks what you are like on a bad week, when you are tired and stopping to consider how you are landing is the first thing to go. The items can read as accusations if you have not been told what they are for, and the usual reaction — deciding halfway through to answer more carefully — is the worst available move, because a questionnaire answered half honestly and half strategically is inconsistent in a way the instrument is designed to notice.
So the preparation that works is not revision. It is arriving already knowing that a high score on a derailer scale is not a verdict on your character, that the report is written for a development conversation as much as for a hiring decision, and that Hogan moved the HDS to a four-point response scale in September 2018, so the options you see may not match a guide written earlier. Knowing all that in advance is what lets you answer the whole thing at one consistent level of honesty.
Who is Hogan?
A Tulsa publisher, reaching high up
Hogan Assessments is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is unusual in how far up the hierarchy its instruments reach: the HPI, HDS and MVPI are staples of executive selection, succession planning and leadership development rather than only graduate-level screening.
Two sides plus what you want
The design logic is that day-to-day behaviour, behaviour under pressure and underlying motives are three different questions. Hence three questionnaires — HPI, HDS, MVPI — rather than one longer one, with the HBRI covering reasoning separately.
Sold through consultants
Hogan sells largely through certified consultants and distributors. That is why employers often do not name Hogan even when a Hogan instrument is exactly what you completed, and why a Hogan questionnaire can arrive branded as something else entirely.
HPI: The 7 Bright-Side Scales
The Hogan Personality Inventory describes how you come across day to day when things are going well. It is based on the Five Factor Model, reports 7 primary scales, and breaks those down into 41subscales that Hogan calls HICs — which is why two people with the same scale score can have quite different profiles underneath it.
Adjustment
Composure, optimism and steadiness under pressure.
Ambition
Initiative, competitiveness and desire for leadership roles.
Sociability
Appearing outgoing and needing social interaction.
Interpersonal Sensitivity
Tact, perceptiveness and skill at maintaining relationships.
Prudence
Self-discipline, conscientiousness and rule-following.
Inquisitive
Imagination, curiosity and interest in novel solutions.
Learning Approach
Enjoying formal learning and staying current with knowledge.
HDS: The 11 Derailers, in Three Clusters
The Hogan Development Survey has 11 scales and 33 subscales, and they group into three clusters describing what your behaviour does to other people under pressure. Reports are read cluster by cluster, because the cluster is the part a manager recognises. Read each scale below as a strength that has gone one step past useful.
Moving Away
Managing insecurity by withdrawing from people — going quiet, doubting motives or avoiding criticism.
Excitable
Volatile enthusiasm followed by disappointment; emotional outbursts under strain.
Skeptical
Cynical, distrustful and alert to others’ hidden motives.
Cautious
Risk-averse and slow to decide for fear of being criticised.
Reserved
Detached, tough-minded and indifferent to others’ feelings.
Leisurely
Independent and quietly resistant to being hurried or directed.
Moving Against
Managing insecurity by dominating people — charming, confronting or dazzling your way through.
Bold
Unusually self-confident, entitled and reluctant to admit error.
Mischievous
Charming, risk-taking and inclined to test limits.
Colorful
Attention-seeking, dramatic and eager to be noticed.
Imaginative
Creative to the point of eccentric; unusual ways of thinking and acting.
Moving Toward
Managing insecurity by ingratiating — deferring upwards and over-controlling detail.
Diligent
Meticulous, perfectionistic and reluctant to delegate.
Dutiful
Eager to please superiors and reluctant to take an independent stand.
MVPI: The 10 Values Scales
The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory asks what you want from work rather than what you are able to do, across 10 scales. Each scale is approached through 5different item themes — lifestyles, beliefs, occupational preferences, aversions and preferred associates — so the same value is probed from several angles rather than asked about once. Employers use it for culture and team fit, which is the reason to answer it honestly: a mismatch surfaced here is an environment that would have worn you down.
Recognition
Wanting to be known, visible and publicly credited.
Power
Wanting to achieve, compete and control outcomes.
Hedonism
Wanting fun, variety and enjoyment at work.
Altruistic
Wanting to help others and improve society.
Affiliation
Wanting frequent and varied social contact.
Tradition
Valuing established practice, duty and moral standards.
Security
Wanting predictability, structure and certainty of employment.
Commerce
Interest in money, profit and business outcomes.
Aesthetics
Interest in look, feel and quality of the finished product.
Science
Interest in evidence, analysis and understanding how things work.
HBRI: Two Reasoning Scores, Reported Separately
The one Hogan test with right answers — and it does not give you a single total
The Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory is 24items taking 25 to 30 minutes, set entirely in business material: budgets, margins, headcount, supplier data. Hogan’s current description reports it on two axes rather than as one score. Qualitative reasoning covers data visualisation, logic and verbal information. Quantitative reasoning covers mathematical and spatial information. They are reported separately.
That is a practical difference, not a technicality. On a test with a single total, a strength on one kind of item can hide a weakness on another. Here it cannot: being fluent with an argument and slow with a margin calculation shows up as two different results, and the employer sees both. If you know which of the two is yours, the sensible preparation is the unglamorous one — work the axis you are worse at, because the axis you are good at is already reported on its own and does not need propping up.
One correction worth carrying into your reading. A great deal of older Hogan material, and most prep sites repeating it, describe the HBRI as measuring “strategic” and “tactical” reasoning. Hogan’s current description does not use that framing. If a guide is built around strategic versus tactical, it is describing an earlier account of the test.
What Each Test Measures
Three of the four have no right answers, so what practice buys you there is the format and the length rather than a higher score. The HBRI is the exception.
Hogan HPI (Personality Inventory)
Untimed · 12-15 minutes · freeThe bright side: how you come across day to day when things are going reasonably well. Untimed agree/disagree items, no score to beat, and the instrument most likely to arrive on its own if an employer is only buying one.
Hogan HDS (Development Survey)
Untimed · 10-12 minutesThe derailer inventory, and the one candidates are least ready for. It is not a measure of what is wrong with you — every scale is a strength taken too far, which is why high scorers are often people who have been promoted repeatedly on exactly that strength.
Hogan MVPI (Motives & Values)
Untimed · 10-12 minutesWhat you want from work rather than what you can do. Used to judge fit against a team or a culture, which makes it the Hogan instrument where answering strategically is most self-defeating: engineer a fit that is not yours and the job you win is the wrong job.
Hogan HBRI (Business Reasoning)
24 questions · 30 minutesThe only Hogan instrument here with right and wrong answers. Reasoning set entirely in business material — budgets, margins, headcount, supplier data — with qualitative and quantitative reasoning reported as two separate results rather than one total.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Hogan assessments?
Hogan Assessments, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, publishes a family of instruments. We cover four: the HPI, which measures day-to-day behaviour when things go well; the HDS, which measures what emerges under pressure; the MVPI, which measures what you want from work; and the HBRI, a reasoning test set in business contexts. The first three have no right answers. The HBRI does.
What is the difference between the HPI and the HDS?
The HPI is the bright side: 7 primary scales based on the Five Factor Model, broken into 41 subscales Hogan calls HICs, describing how you come across on a normal day. The HDS is what happens when the polish comes off: 11 scales and 33 subscales covering behaviour under pressure. Processes using Hogan commonly send both, because the two answer genuinely different questions about the same person.
Is a high HDS score bad?
It is not a defect being detected. Every HDS scale is a strength overused: confidence that has become an inability to hear you are wrong, thoroughness that has become an inability to delegate, independence that has become resistance to direction. People score high on derailer scales precisely because the underlying quality has worked for them, often repeatedly. The report is written to be discussed, not to disqualify.
What are the three HDS clusters?
Moving Away, Moving Against, Moving Toward. They describe what your pressure behaviour does to other people: withdrawing from them, dominating them, or ingratiating with them. Reports are interpreted cluster by cluster, because that is the level at which a manager recognises the pattern.
What does the MVPI measure?
Motives and values: what you want from work rather than what you can do, across 10 scales, each explored through 5 item themes (lifestyles, beliefs, occupational preferences, aversions and preferred associates). It is used for culture fit, so a poor match is information about the environment rather than a mark against you.
How long is the HBRI and how is it scored?
24 items, 25 to 30 minutes, all set in business material. Hogan’s current description reports two axes separately rather than combining them: qualitative reasoning (data visualisation, logic, verbal information) and quantitative reasoning (mathematical and spatial information). Because they are separate, a lopsided profile stays visible instead of averaging out.
Should I look up strategic and tactical reasoning for the HBRI?
No. That framing comes from older Hogan material and is repeated by many prep sites, but Hogan’s current description reports qualitative and quantitative reasoning. A guide organised around strategic versus tactical is out of date.
Can you actually prepare for Hogan?
For the HPI, HDS and MVPI there is nothing to revise, so preparation means removing surprises: knowing the length, the response format, and above all knowing in advance that the HDS is about strengths overused rather than faults. That last point is the difference between answering the whole questionnaire honestly and starting to manage your answers halfway through, which produces the inconsistency the instrument is built to detect. For the HBRI, practice does what practice normally does, because it has correct answers.
Which of these tests is free?
The Hogan HPI simulation. The HDS, MVPI and HBRI simulations are paid and unlock together.
Which employers use Hogan?
We do not name any, and that is deliberate. Hogan sells largely through certified consultants and distributors, so employers frequently do not mention Hogan even when a Hogan instrument is what you completed. We could not source a Hogan employer list to the standard we hold elsewhere on this site, and we would rather show you the gap than fill it with guesses. If your process includes a personality questionnaire covering both your strengths and your behaviour under pressure, that pairing is the strongest hint available.
Did the HDS change recently?
Hogan moved the HDS to a four-point response scale in September 2018. If your reference material predates that, the response options it describes will not match what you see.
Are these the real Hogan tests?
No. Every test on this page is an independent simulation written to reflect the published structure, scales and length of the real instruments. It contains no real Hogan items, is not supplied or reviewed by Hogan, and produces our feedback rather than a Hogan report.
Why There Is No List of Hogan Employers Here
Hogan Assessments, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the most widely used personality publishers in corporate hiring, and is unusual in how far up the hierarchy it reaches: the HPI, HDS and MVPI are staples of executive selection, succession planning and leadership development rather than only graduate screening.
Hogan sells through a large network of certified consultants and distributors, which means employers very often do not name Hogan in their process even when a Hogan instrument is what you completed. We therefore do not publish a list of specific Hogan employers, and the reason is not that we did not look: Hogan anonymises the clients in its OWN published case studies, describing them as "a global independent energy company" or "a regional convenience store company" rather than naming them. No honest list can be assembled from a publisher that does not name its customers, and inventing plausible ones would be worse than saying so. If a hiring process asks you to complete a personality questionnaire covering both your strengths and how you behave under pressure, the HPI and HDS pairing is a strong hint.
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CogniPrep is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by Hogan Assessment Systems. Hogan, HPI, HDS, MVPI and HBRI are trademarks of Hogan Assessment Systems and are used here for identification only. All tests on this page are independent simulations written to reflect the published structure, scales and length of the real assessments; they are not copies of them, contain no live test content, and produce CogniPrep feedback rather than a Hogan report.