SHL deductive reasoning test practice

What the real test usually looks like

SHL publishes more than one deductive reasoning test, so the details depend on the version your employer chose. The invitation often names it. SHL's fact sheets describe two:

• Verify Deductive Reasoning: up to 18 questions in 20 minutes, multiple choice and adaptive, for entry and mid-level roles. SHL says it measures the ability to draw logical conclusions from information provided, identify strengths and weaknesses of arguments, and complete scenarios using incomplete information. Its sample question gives four short facts and asks which of five statements must be true (SHL fact sheet).
• Verify Interactive Deductive Reasoning: up to 12 questions in 18 minutes, interactive and activity based, adaptive, built for mid-level roles and for any device including phones (SHL fact sheet).

SHL's practice page offers both styles: an interactive version that uses drag and drop, and a standard version that is text based with multiple choice answers (SHL Direct).

Adaptive means the questions adjust to your answers, so two people may not see the same set. Some preparation sites report other lengths, such as 20 questions in 18 minutes (Practice4Me); we follow SHL's own fact sheet. SHL's fact sheets do not say whether you can go back to an earlier question, so plan to answer each one before you move on.

What our mocks cover. Our full mocks are in the style of SHL's multiple choice deductive test: 18 questions in 20 minutes, one deductive reasoning section with five options a question, and no going back once you move on. They mix "which must be true" fact sets, "which could be true" questions, and schedules and orderings. They leave out the interactive drag-and-drop puzzles, which we practice here as multiple choice, and our mocks are fixed sets rather than adaptive. If your invitation names the interactive version, try SHL's own interactive practice test too so the screens feel familiar.

Question types with worked examples

One worked example for each common question type, with the trap that catches people.

1. Which must be true. Facts: "Every team leader attends the Monday briefing. Omar does not attend the Monday briefing." What must be true? Omar is not a team leader. Trap: reversing the rule. "Every team leader attends" does not mean everyone who attends is a team leader.

2. Which could be true. Facts: "Each of three reports goes to one of two managers. Each manager gets at least one report." Could one manager get all three? No, because the other would get none. Could one get two? Yes. Trap: treating "could be true" like "must be true". One working arrangement is enough.

3. Ordering. Rules: "Four people sit in a row. A is at one end. B is next to C. D is not next to A." Start with the most fixed rule (A at an end), place the pair next, then test the rest. If A is in seat 1, D cannot take seat 2, and B and C need two seats side by side, so D takes seat 4. That leaves A, B, C, D or A, C, B, D. Trap: placing people one by one from the left. Fixed places and fixed pairs first.

4. Schedules. Rules: "Three trainings run Monday to Wednesday, one a day. Safety is before First Aid. Fire is not on Monday." Safety must come before First Aid, and Fire cannot be Monday, so Monday is Safety. Then First Aid and Fire share Tuesday and Wednesday, and the rules allow either order. Trap: stopping at one answer. If the rules allow two schedules, a question can only ask about what both share.

5. Contrapositive. Facts: "If an invoice is late, a reminder is sent. No reminder was sent to Lark Ltd." Then Lark's invoice was not late. Trap: thinking "a reminder was sent, so the invoice was late". A reminder could be sent for another reason.

6. Some and all. Facts: "Some engineers work remotely. All remote workers get a laptop." Then some engineers get a laptop. Trap: stretching "some" to "all". Nothing follows about the engineers who are not remote.

How to prepare

1. Find out which version it is. Your invitation or the employer's careers page may name it. The multiple choice and interactive versions differ in length and in how you answer.
2. Know your pace. Verify Deductive Reasoning allows 20 minutes for up to 18 questions, a little over a minute each (SHL fact sheet). If one puzzle passes two minutes, choose your best answer and move on.
3. Use only what is written. Treat every fact as true, even if it sounds odd, and add nothing from real life.
4. Learn the rule shapes. "All A are B", "No B are C", "Some A are C" and "If X then Y" cover most fact sets. Know what follows from each and what does not.
5. Draw a quick grid for orderings. Write the places as numbers, fill the fixed ones first, then the pairs. A few seconds of sketching saves a lot of rereading.
6. Test each option against every rule. For "which order fits", cross out an option the moment it breaks one rule, then check the survivors fully.
7. Try SHL's own practice tests. SHL Direct offers deductive practice in both the interactive and the standard style (SHL Direct).
8. Take full timed mocks. Twenty minutes of careful logic is tiring in a way that 10 questions are not.

For numerical and verbal practice in the same style, try our general SHL-style practice test.

How scoring usually works

SHL reports your result to the employer, not to you. The employer who invited you decides how to use it, and SHL's fact sheets do not publish a pass mark.

• Adaptive scoring: SHL's fact sheets say the Verify Deductive Reasoning and Verify Interactive Deductive Reasoning tests use computer adaptive technology, which SHL says gives a more precise score in a shorter test (SHL fact sheet). Your result reflects how hard the questions you answered were, not only how many you got right.
• Raw counts: an adaptive result is not a simple count, so a raw number of correct answers on its own says little about how an employer will read it.
• Cut-off scores: employers set their own for each role and rarely share them.

Our practice score is the number of our own questions you answered correctly, so you can see your pace and where the logic slips. It is a practice score: it is not an SHL score, percentile or cut-off, and it does not predict whether you will pass.

Common mistakes on deductive reasoning tests

• Bringing in real-world knowledge. If the facts do not say it, it does not follow, however likely it sounds.
• Reversing a rule. "All managers attend" does not mean "everyone who attends is a manager".
• Mixing up must and could. "Must be true" needs every possible arrangement to agree. "Could be true" needs just one arrangement that works.
• Stretching "some" to "all". "Some" means at least one, and nothing more.
• Missing the hidden rule. In orderings and schedules, a rule like "not last" often decides the whole puzzle. Check it every time.
• Choosing the first option that fits one rule. An order that fits three rules but breaks the fourth is wrong. Check all of them.
• Spending too long on one puzzle. At about a minute a question, a stuck puzzle costs you the next one too.