How SHL Verify Interactive Deductive Reasoning works
Verify Interactive Deductive Reasoning asks you to evaluate arguments, analyse scenarios and draw logical conclusions, by building the answer rather than choosing one. SHL allows 18 minutes for up to 12 questions, adapts the test to your answers and designs it to be sat unsupervised in one go on any device, including a phone. It is pitched at mid-level roles. SHL names it as one of the replacements for Verify Verbal Reasoning, which it retired during 2024.
SHL’s own example screens show two tasks. In a ranking task you get pairs of people with an arrow between them showing who ranks higher, and you drag number badges from 1 (highest) to 6 (lowest) onto each person. In a scheduling task a day runs from 9 to 6 with some hours already booked, and you fit task cards of set lengths, such as a one-hour meeting or a 30-minute report, into the gaps.
SHL also sells a multiple-choice Verify Deductive Reasoning, in which you choose the one statement that must be true, so check which test your invitation names. SHL says its interactive tests give credit for partly right answers; how is not published.
How to solve an arrangement question
Every question has one arrangement that fits all the facts. Find it in this order:
- Place anything a fact fixes outright first: last, first, or a set time.
- Join the facts that share a person or task into one chain, such as A above B above C.
- Read each fact twice. Half are written the other way round, as “below” or “after”.
- In a timetable, place the longest task first, because it fits in the fewest gaps.
- Before pressing Next, check every fact against what you built. If two arrangements seem to fit, you have missed a fact.
Worked examples
Ranking: five people ran a race. Ben finished ahead of Cara. Cara finished ahead of Ama. Dev finished directly behind Ama. Eve finished last. Eve takes 5. Ben, Cara and Ama form a chain, and Dev sits straight after Ama, so the order is Ben 1, Cara 2, Ama 3, Dev 4, Eve 5. No other order keeps all four facts.
Timetable: a morning runs from 9:00 to 13:00 and 10:00 to 11:00 is booked. Fit a 90-minute report, a 30-minute call and a one-hour review, with the report finished before the call. The free gaps are 9:00 to 10:00 and 11:00 to 13:00. The report only fits the second gap, so it runs 11:00 to 12:30, the call follows at 12:30, and the review takes 9:00 to 10:00.
Tips for the real test
- Sit SHL’s free interactive deductive practice test, which gives you a report.
- At 18 minutes for up to 12 questions, aim for about 90 seconds each.
- Sketch the chain on rough paper before you drag anything. Moving badges around to think is slow.
- Use only the facts on screen. A ranking that seems likely in real life does not count.
- If time is short, place what you are sure of. SHL gives credit for partly right answers.
Practise Verify Interactive Deductive Reasoning on CogniPrep
Our Verify Interactive Deductive game always runs the full 12 questions on one 18-minute clock, mixing the two task types on SHL’s example screens: handing out number badges to rank people, and fitting tasks into a day that is partly booked. Questions are generated fresh from our own templates, not taken from SHL. Each badge and each task counts as one part, so a mostly right arrangement earns part of the mark. A fully right answer makes the next question harder and one less than half right makes it easier, and the score weighs each mark by the level it was earned at. That ladder and the marking are ours, because SHL publishes neither. You cannot go back.