Situational judgement

SJT · Situational judgement test · Workplace scenarios test

Timed practice set

5 questions, 8 minutes.

What it measures

How you would handle realistic situations at work: whether you act on the actual problem, involve the right person, keep the relationship and stay honest. It is scored against what the employer's own people judged most and least effective, so it measures judgement, not knowledge.

How it appears

Most and least effectiveA short scenario and four responses. You pick the most effective and the least effective, or rate each response on a scale.
RankingYou put four or five responses in order from most to least effective.
Video scenariosThe same judgement, with the situation shown as a short clip instead of text.

Timing

20 questions in 30 minutes.

Untimed does not mean unlimited. Employers can see how long you took, and a scenario read twice does not usually change the answer.

Source

SHL's practice-tests page lists the Situational Judgment Test with no time limit stated, read on 14 September 2026, and the format is usually untimed. The drill uses 90 seconds a scenario, the pace of 20 scenarios in 30 minutes, so that practice has a clock.

How to tell it apart

PersonalityPersonality asks what you are like, and has no right answer. Situational judgement asks what is effective in a situation, and does.
Verbal reasoningVerbal reasoning judges a statement against a passage. Situational judgement judges a response against a workplace, and the passage never states the answer.

The method

Pick what the best colleague you know would do, not what you would do at your most tired.

Read the scenario for the role you are given, usually a new graduate, and for what it needs, a decision, some information, an escalation, a customer kept.
For each response, ask four things. Does it deal with the actual problem? Does it involve the person who owns it? Does it keep the relationship? Is it honest?
Most effective usually acts now, on the problem, with the right person, and says so. Least effective usually delays, blames, hides, or goes over someone's head without cause.
Effective is not most effective. When two responses are both reasonable, compare them directly on the four questions and pick the one that does more.
Least effective is not slightly worse. Look for the response that makes the situation worse, breaks a rule, or misleads someone.
Do not add facts the scenario did not give, an unreasonable manager, a hostile customer. Judge the situation as written.
Answer as the employer's best judgement, not as your own habits. The test scores effectiveness, not honesty about yourself.

Traps to know

Effective, but not most effective
A response that is perfectly reasonable is offered next to one that does everything it does and one thing more. Choosing the reasonable one is the most common lost mark.
Setup A client is waiting for a report your manager owns and your manager is unreachable for two hours. One response updates the client honestly. Another updates the client honestly and tells the manager what was said.
The trap Choosing the first because it handles the client.
The escape The second handles the client and keeps the owner informed. It does more, so it is the most effective.
The heroic solo
Handling a problem alone that should involve its owner reads as initiative. Sending an unfinished report to a client, or fixing a colleague's figures silently, is not initiative; it is a decision made for someone else without telling them.
Setup A client wants a report today and it is not finished. One response sends what exists so the deadline is met.
The trap Choosing it because the deadline is met.
The escape Unfinished work under the firm's name, sent without the owner's knowledge, is the least effective response, not the boldest.
Escalating everything
Taking a problem to a manager is the right response to a problem that needs a manager. Taking every problem there, including ones you can settle with a colleague in five minutes, reads as avoiding the conversation.
Setup A colleague keeps arriving late to a meeting you run. One response reports it to your manager.
The trap Choosing escalation because it feels safe.
The escape A private word with the colleague deals with the problem at its size. Escalate if that fails.
Answering as yourself
The test asks what is effective. A response chosen because it is what you would do when nervous, or busy, or annoyed, is scored against what the employer's best people would do.
Setup You notice an error in a report your manager is about to send.
The trap Choosing to say nothing because raising it feels awkward two weeks into a job.
The escape Awkwardness is not a cost the employer scores. Telling the manager now, with the figure and its source, is the effective response.

Worked examples

Example 1

You are two weeks into a graduate role. A client emails asking for a report your team promised for today. Your manager, who owns the report, is in a meeting for the next two hours, and the report is not finished. Which response is most effective, and which is least effective?

AReply to the client that the report will follow, without giving a time, and wait for your manager.
BCheck the report's status with the colleague working on it, reply to the client with an honest update and a realistic time, and let your manager know what you have said.
CWait for your manager to come out of the meeting and forward the client's email then.
DSend the client the unfinished report so that they have something by the deadline.

Show the working

What the situation needs: the client kept informed, the owner of the report kept in the loop, and nothing sent out that the firm has not finished.
B does all three. It finds out the real status, tells the client the truth with a time, and tells the manager. Most effective.
A tells the client something, but with no time it is not really an update, and it leaves the manager uninformed. Reasonable, not best.
C leaves the client in silence for two hours on the day of a deadline. Delay is the cost.
D sends unfinished work under the firm's name without the owner knowing. It makes the situation worse. Least effective.

Why not the others

A. An update with no time does not let the client plan, and the manager comes out of the meeting not knowing what the client has been told.
C. Two hours of silence on a deadline day. The client's problem is left exactly where it was.
D. The least effective response. Unfinished work goes to a client under the firm's name, on a decision that was the manager's to make.

Example 2

You run a daily ten-minute stand-up for your team. One colleague has arrived late to it four days running, and two other team members have started to comment. Which response is most effective, and which is least effective?

ARaise it in front of the team at the next stand-up so that everyone hears the standard.
BSpeak to the colleague privately, ask whether something is making the time difficult, and agree what will change.
CReport the lateness to your manager and ask them to deal with it.
DMove the stand-up fifteen minutes later for everyone, without discussing it.