Arctic Shores assessment: practise the tasks

Arctic Shores' assessment is a set of short tasks instead of questions. Employers such as PwC, KPMG and HSBC choose which tasks you get. Play each one here once free, so the real one holds no surprises.

DirectionArrows flash up; press Q if the middle one points left and P if it points right. A cross means press nothing.About 2 minutes · 1 free game TicketsA numbered shape flashes in the top or bottom ticket. Top: answer odd or even. Bottom: answer rounded or angular.About 2 minutes · 1 free game TilesTiles light up in order; tap them back in the same order. Each right answer adds one more. Leave out tiles marked with a cross.About 3 to 5 minutes · 1 free game ExpressionsFifty faces, one at a time. Pick the emotion each shows from eight labels. There is no time limit.About 3 to 5 minutes, untimed · 1 free game Team SalesYou and another sales team in the same company each pick a high or low price every round. Both high pays the company most.About 3 to 5 minutes · always free BalloonBlow up balloons for an office party: each pump adds 5p, bank it any time, but a burst balloon pays nothing.About 5 minutes, untimed · 1 free game EnergyPull four power switches to raise the grid to 6,000. Each adds power, but some drain a lot now and then. Find the steady ones.About 3 to 5 minutes · 1 free game SecurityTest whether a safe is secure: press Space when the sweeping shade covers the digit shown. Twenty digits, one miss starts you over.No time limit · 1 free game

How the real assessment runs

You get an email invite; the assessment runs in a browser on a computer or phone. The Direction task needs the Q and P keys, so a computer with a keyboard is easiest.
A short practice task comes first. Then you unlock the tasks one by one, and can re-read each task's instructions as often as you like.
Some tasks are fast key presses (Direction uses Q and P), some are memory, some are choices with no right answer, and some have no clock at all.
Arctic Shores says it measures behaviour such as how you focus, learn, handle risk and read emotions, and compares that with what the employer wants for the role. It does not publish how tasks are scored.

Questions

Which Arctic Shores tasks will I get?

Your employer picks them. The candidates' accounts we used describe Direction, Tickets, Tiles, Expressions, Team Sales, Balloon, Energy and Security, with Security last. Some employers add reasoning tasks we do not cover yet.

Can you fail Arctic Shores?

Arctic Shores says there is no right or wrong way and it measures how you naturally behave against what the employer wants for the role. So there is no pass mark per task, but an employer can still decide your profile does not fit.

Does Arctic Shores have a practice task?

Yes. Its help pages say a short practice task is available before you start, and you can re-read each task's instructions as often as you like.

How long does Arctic Shores take?

Reports put the whole set at about 30 to 45 minutes, with breaks allowed between tasks. Most tasks take a few minutes; Expressions, Balloon and Security have no clock.

Where our versions come from

Arctic Shores publishes no task list and no recording of the real test is public. We built each task from Arctic Shores' own candidate help pages, the detailed account of a candidate who took the real assessment three times for PwC, KPMG and HSBC apprenticeships, and only then what other practice sites report. Each task page says what is not confirmed.

Sources: Arctic Shores candidate help centre (help.arcticshores.com, read November 2026); The Apprenticeship Insider's Arctic Shores series on YouTube (2023); other practice sites' task descriptions where they agree.