What is the CCAT? The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test explained
The CCAT, or Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test, is a pre-employment test from Criteria Corp. It has 50 multiple-choice questions in 15 minutes across verbal, math and logic, and spatial reasoning. Employers receive your raw score out of 50 and a percentile, then decide for themselves what score they need. There is no pass mark.
The hiring test by Criteria Corp — not the Canadian school test or India's C-DAC exam.
CCAT format at a glance
| CCAT | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 50 multiple-choice questions | Criteria |
| Time limit | 15 minutes | Criteria |
| Average time per question | 18 seconds (15 minutes ÷ 50, our arithmetic) | Criteria |
| Answer options | Five (A–E) on Criteria's sample question | Criteria |
| Question families | Verbal, Math & Logic, Spatial Reasoning | Criteria |
| Verbal | Sentence completion, vocabulary, word comparison | Criteria |
| Math & Logic | Basic algebra, proportions, word problems | Criteria |
| Spatial | Rotating or flipping images, patterns, outliers | Criteria |
| Instructions | Untimed: take as long as you need to read them | Criteria |
| Calculator | Not allowed, and no question needs one | Criteria |
| Wrong answers | No penalty | Criteria |
| Question set | Drawn from a bank of thousands; no two candidates get the same set | Criteria |
| Device | Any: phone, tablet, laptop or desktop | Criteria |
| Language | English (US) by default, or English (UK) | Criteria |
| Accommodations | "Some accessibility options are available"; contact Criteria | Criteria |
What the CCAT measures
Criteria sorts CCAT questions into three families (What to Expect):
- Verbal: sentence completion, vocabulary and word comparison. Criteria says these test how well you can work out a word's precise meaning (What to Expect).
- Math & Logic: basic algebra, proportions and word problems (What to Expect).
- Spatial reasoning: rotating or flipping images in your head, recognizing patterns and spotting outliers (What to Expect).
Criteria recommends it for mid- to senior-level roles such as managers, sales executives, software developers, executive assistants and analysts, and for roles with a lot of training, such as apprentice, intern or graduate jobs (CCAT page), and says it has been given more than 10 million times.
Prep sites often list extra types such as number series or syllogisms. Criteria doesn't name those for the CCAT, so treat them as practice inside the three families, not as official question types. See the sample questions for one example of each kind Criteria does name.
How the CCAT is scored
- Raw score: the number of correct answers out of 50 (help center).
- Percentile: your rank against Criteria's global norm group. A 45th percentile means you scored higher than 45% of that group (CCAT page).
- Norm group: 106,740 people, median score 24, standard deviation 7 (InfoBrief).
- Sub-scores: Spatial Reasoning, Verbal Ability and Math & Logic, each with its own percentile (Score Report Guide).
- No pass mark: each employer sets its own bar. Criteria gives suggested raw-score ranges by job family, for example "Management Range: 20-50" (Score Report Guide).
Your results are emailed straight to the employer, and Criteria's support team can't see them (candidate FAQs). Candidates usually don't get their score; Crossover, for one, says it can't share CCAT scores (Crossover). To see what a raw score means in percentile terms, use our CCAT score calculator.
CCAT vs the Canadian CCAT vs the C-DAC CCAT
Three different tests share the letters. This site is only about the first one.
| Criteria CCAT | Canadian CCAT | C-DAC CCAT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test | Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test (CCAT-7) | C-DAC's CCAT entrance exam |
| Who takes it | Job and bootcamp applicants | Schoolchildren, for gifted-program screening | Entrance candidates in India |
| Covered here? | Yes | No | No |
Criteria also publishes other tests that get confused with the CCAT, such as its UCAT (Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test), a language-independent version with 40 questions in 20 minutes and no verbal section (Criteria UCAT). Criteria's UCAT is not the UK medical-school test of the same name.
Where and how you take it
The CCAT runs in a web browser on any device: phone, tablet, laptop or desktop (help center). You need a stable connection and a browser with cookies and JavaScript turned on (candidate FAQs). It can be taken remotely without a supervisor (InfoBrief). Your employer sends the link, and it has a deadline: Criteria support can't extend it on the employer's behalf (candidate FAQs).
Proctoring
Proctoring is the employer's choice, not a fixed CCAT rule.
- When an employer turns it on, it can use your camera, microphone and screen sharing. You're shown what is recorded, and only the hiring team reviews it (About proctoring).
- Since July 2026 Criteria's proctoring can listen for voices and link an optional second camera, usually a phone, by QR code (Proctoring update 2026).
- Criteria's AI Proctoring takes photos during the test and samples the screen for open AI tools (AI Proctoring).
- Gauntlet AI, for example, says its admissions CCAT is unproctored but a proctored version follows later and the results are compared (Gauntlet AI).
If you need a different arrangement for disability, cultural or religious reasons, Criteria says to contact the employer (About proctoring).
Retakes
Criteria publishes no general retake rule; each employer decides. If you've already taken it for an employer, the link may be restricted, and Criteria says to contact the recruiting team (Criteria help). Employers can re-invite you, and the new result is stored next to the old one (Criteria help). Results don't carry over from one company to another, so you test again for each employer (candidate FAQs). Some employers publish their rules, such as Crossover's once-per-six-months limit; see companies that use the CCAT.
How to get ready
Because the clock is the hard part, practice under the real time limit. Take a full CCAT practice test, then follow the 7-day prep plan. More answers are in the CCAT FAQ.
Last updated November 10, 2026.