Deductive Reasoning Tests (2024 Guide)

What Is a Deductive Reasoning Test?

Deductive reasoning tests aim to measure your ability to take information from a set of given premises and draw conclusions from them.

The important thing about these questions is that there is always a logically correct answer.

You won’t need to make any guesses or assumptions when working it out. If you do, you’ve gone wrong.

What Does a Deductive Reasoning Test Measure?

Deductive reasoning tests are intended to be abstract. That means they aren’t testing specific practical skills necessary to do the job – such as knowledge of a programming language – but are more concerned with how you think.

At its core, a deductive reasoning test examines how well you can:

• Quickly read and understand given information.
• Assess which aspects of that information are relevant to the problem or question at hand.
• Interpret and logically process the relevant information.

What Are the Most Common Deductive Reasoning Tests Used by Employers?

Deductive reasoning tests are commonly used by employers to assess an individual's logical thinking and ability to draw conclusions based on given information.

Here are some of the most common types of deductive reasoning tests used by employers:

• Logical Reasoning Tests: These tests assess an individual's ability to analyze patterns, identify relationships and draw logical conclusions.
• Verbal Reasoning Tests: Verbal reasoning tests evaluate an individual's ability to understand and analyze written information.
• Numerical Reasoning Tests: Numerical reasoning tests assess an individual's ability to work with numerical data and draw conclusions based on mathematical information.
• Abstract Reasoning Tests: Abstract reasoning tests measure an individual's ability to recognize patterns, solve visual puzzles and make logical deductions without relying on prior knowledge or verbal or numerical skills.
• Inductive Reasoning Tests: While deductive reasoning involves drawing conclusions from general premises, inductive reasoning tests assess an individual's ability to identify patterns or trends based on specific observations or examples.
• Diagrammatic Reasoning Tests: Diagrammatic reasoning tests evaluate an individual's ability to understand and interpret visual information, such as diagrams, flowcharts or logical structures.

Why Do Employers Use Deductive Reasoning Tests?

Deductive reasoning skills are vital for almost any workplace environment, especially in more highly-skilled roles.

Business, finance, law, software engineering or anything that requires problem-solving involves workers seeing things through to their logical conclusion.

If you have good deductive reasoning skills, employers know that you are able to analyse, interpret and, most importantly, use given information.

Many employers use deductive reasoning tests as a key part of assessing a candidate’s general critical thinking skills. They are easy to scale, so allow businesses to test many applicants at once and compare the results.

These tests might be used prior to interview to filter down potential candidates.

Because the tests are abstract, they don’t rely on any specific industry or cultural knowledge. This means that employers from a wide variety of industries can use the same kind of test.

Additionally, they don’t need to worry about unfairly disadvantaging applicants from different backgrounds.

Deductive Reasoning Test Formats

Here are some common formats of deductive reasoning tests:

• Multiple-Choice Questions: This format presents a series of questions or statements, followed by a set of answer options.
• True/False Questions: In this format, the individual is presented with statements, and they need to determine whether each statement is true or false based on the given information.
• Completion Questions: Completion questions provide a partial pattern, sequence, or relationship and the individual is tasked with filling in the missing element based on logical deduction.
• Diagram-based Questions: In this format, the individual is presented with diagrams, flowcharts or logical structures that represent relationships or processes.
• Analogies: Analogies involve establishing a logical relationship between pairs of words, figures or concepts.
• Data Interpretation Questions: This format requires the individual to analyze and draw conclusions from provided data sets, graphs, charts or tables.
• Logical Puzzles: Some deductive reasoning tests include logical puzzles or brainteasers that require the individual to use deductive reasoning to solve a problem or determine a solution.

Structure of a Deductive Reasoning Test

The first step in preparing for a deductive reasoning test is to know how it works.

Bear in mind that every test provider is different; while the vast majority won’t stray from these general principles, find out which is providing your test and check the structure.

Typically, deductive reasoning tests are timed, and a significant part of their difficulty comes from this.

The questions might not be too hard in themselves, but they are a lot harder when on average you have 30 seconds per question.

Typically, you will be given a short paragraph of text and a statement or series of assumptions based on the premise. You must then decide whether that statement is:

• ‘True’ (it logically follows from the given premise)
• ‘False’ (it logically does not follow from the given premise)
• ‘Cannot say/insufficient information’ (it could follow logically, but we don’t have enough information to say for sure)

For these, be careful to only use the information given and not any information taken from your own prior knowledge.

Deductive Reasoning Test – Sample Questions (2024)

Sample Question 1

This type of question is called a syllogism.

Sample Question 2

Sample Question 3

Sample Question 4

How Are the Deductive Reasoning Tests Scored?

Deductive reasoning tests are often scored as a percentile in relation to other candidates’ scores. That means that your numerical score might not be important, but rather how well you do compared with other candidates.

If you’re finding a test particularly tough, then rest assured many others are probably feeling the same, so you might still be in a good enough percentile.

What Makes Deductive Reasoning Tests Challenging?

Like all aptitude tests, deductive reasoning tests are tough. They’re designed to be challenging – if they were easy, they wouldn’t be very good at measuring the difference in aptitude between candidates.

But it is useful to know exactly what it is that makes them challenging, as that can give you an idea of what to focus your practice on.

Time Limit

First and foremost, deductive reasoning tests are difficult because you need to answer a lot of questions in a short amount of time.

The questions themselves might not be that difficult in isolation, but you need to be quick and consistent enough to answer them accurately within the strict time limit of the test.

This is the reason that practice is crucial. Not only do you need to be good at answering the questions, but you also need to quickly, confidently and accurately answer them under test pressure and a strict time limit.

Insufficient Information

The potential for the correct answer to be ‘insufficient information’ is also a cause of difficulty.

It means that determining whether an answer logically follows or doesn’t logically follow is not enough.

If you can’t be sure about an answer using only the information provided, then consider the ‘cannot say’ or ‘insufficient information’ option.

For this reason, you need to be precise with your logical working, as using a process of elimination doesn’t work as well as it can do in other aptitude tests.

Different Suppliers of Deductive Reasoning Tests

While there are many providers of deductive reasoning tests, the two main ones you’re likely to come across are from CEB SHL and Kenexa.

CEB SHL

This deductive reasoning test will provide candidates with a chunk of information in a passage of text, followed by a statement. You need to decide whether this statement is ‘true’, ‘false’, or ‘cannot say’.

The test is taken online and has 20 questions to complete in 18 minutes, giving you an average of just over a minute per question.

Kenexa

Kenexa’s test has 20 questions that are focused on the positioning of people, such as in the table seating arrangement example above.

Crucially, this test is timed but has no time limit. That is, you can take as long as you want to answer the 20 questions, but the time you take is factored into the employer’s assessment of your score.

As always, your two main tools for tackling aptitude tests are research and practice.

If you’re reading this, then you’re already doing the former, so that’s a good start.

Effective Strategies for Taking the Deductive Reasoning Test

If you’ve done the practice, then you should be good to go. Still, here are some useful strategies and tips that are always worth bearing in mind.

• Read the statement first. A lot of the deductive reasoning test is about determining what information is relevant. If you start by reading the question or statement to assess first, you have a frame of reference for what information is likely to be relevant.

• Don’t lose track of time. When your mind is focused on a logical problem, it’s easy to lose track of time. Calculate your average time per question at the start (if the test has a time limit) and stick to it. You can always come back to a question at the end if you have time.

• ‘Cannot say’ is as valid an answer as ‘true’ or ‘false’. ‘Cannot’ say or ‘insufficient information’ is an answer that often gets overlooked because people assume that the answer must be there. Sometimes it’s not. If there isn’t enough information to logically conclude a particular outcome, then use this option.

• Make sure you’re well-fed, rested and have water. Don’t underestimate the impact that these can have. Get a good night’s sleep before the test, have a filling breakfast and drink plenty of water. Your brain will thank you for it.

• Don’t use outside knowledge. The questions are designed so that everything needed to answer them is contained within the text provided. If a question happens to touch on something you know a bit about, then push that knowledge aside. Use only the information you are given.

Frequently Asked Questions