Psychometric tests in Swedish hiring

A psychometric test is a standardized test that measures an ability or a personality trait and compares your answers with a norm group. In hiring, the word covers both the logic tests with right and wrong answers and the personality questionnaires with none. Swedish employers use them a lot. In a 2021 survey by the Swedish magazine Publikt, over 80 percent of the just over 60 government agencies that answered said they use some form of test in some or all of their recruitments.

Ability tests and personality tests

Most psychometric tests in hiring belong to one of two families.

Ability tests, also called aptitude tests or cognitive ability tests, measure how you solve problems. The answers are right or wrong, and there is usually a time limit. Common formats are matrices (a grid of shapes with one cell missing), number series, tables and charts, and short texts with statements to judge. The guide to the cognitive ability test explains what these tests measure and why employers use them.

Personality questionnaires describe how you tend to work, cooperate and react. There are no right answers, so the best strategy is to answer honestly. Assessio’s MAP and the Alva Labs personality test both build on the five-factor model, often called the Big Five. Read more in the personality test guide.

Many employers send both in the same invitation. Nacka Municipality, for example, recommends using Matrigma together with MAP because the pair gives a fuller picture of a candidate. Some publishers also offer situational judgment tests, where you choose the best response to a work scenario; SHL and Aon both include one in their practice material.

The publishers you will meet in Sweden

A few publishers make most of the tests, and the name in your invitation tells you what to expect:

• Assessio: the Matrigma logic test and the MAP personality test. The standard Matrigma is adaptive and takes 12 minutes, one minute per task, and a 40-minute version also exists. More on Matrigma.
• Alva Labs: an adaptive logic test with 20 tasks and two minutes per task, plus a personality test. More on the Alva Labs logic test.
• SHL: Verify Interactive G+, an adaptive test of 36 minutes and at most 24 questions that covers deductive, inductive and numerical reasoning. More on the SHL test.
• Aon, formerly cut-e: short subtests of 5 to 12 minutes each for skills such as inductive, deductive, numerical and verbal reasoning, plus the ADEPT-15 personality questionnaire. More on the Aon test.

Who uses which test

Nacka Municipality has used Matrigma and MAP through Assessio since February 2026, and the Administrative Court of Appeal in Gothenburg uses the same two tests. Academic Work, the staffing and recruitment company, uses the Alva Labs logic and personality tests, and so does the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority. The Swedish Public Employment Service tests personality and problem-solving with tools from the supplier Fairsight.

These are the employers we have sources for. If yours isn’t named, look for the publisher’s name in the invitation email.

Where the test comes in the hiring process

The order varies, but from your side the steps often look like this:

• Application: you send a CV and cover letter, sometimes with a few screening questions.
• Tests: candidates who pass the screening get a link to a logic test, often with a personality test. At Academic Work this is usually the second step, after your application has been checked against the minimum requirements.
• Interview: some employers use the test result to decide who is invited. Our guide to the job interview in Sweden covers what happens next.
• References: the employer contacts references for the final candidates. The Swedish Public Employment Service describes this as the last step of its process. More in the guide to job references.
• Decision: one candidate gets an offer, and the others hear back.

Nacka’s guidelines say tests should be used early because that raises the quality of the recruitment, and they warn that testing late can leave you with final candidates who don’t match the profile. Work samples, tasks that resemble the job itself, tend to come later. In practice the test can be the first real cut, so it pays to be ready when you apply.

What happens to your result

Your result is compared with a norm group, not with the other applicants. Matrigma gives a score from 0 to 10 against the working-age population, and about 68 percent land in the middle range. Alva Labs scores from 1 to 10 against working adults.

How much you see depends on the publisher and the employer. At Alva Labs you get the same report the recruiter sees, right after the test. Academic Work gives you an overview report but doesn’t share specific results or the answers to individual logic tasks. At the Administrative Court of Appeal in Gothenburg, anyone who took a test has the right to see the result, and feedback can come on screen after the test or by phone.

Results don’t follow you automatically. Assessio says test data can’t be shared between companies, and the Gothenburg court can use a result in its own recruitments for two years. Retakes are limited too: at Alva Labs you take one logic test per organization, and a new attempt with the same organization opens after 24 months.

Psychometric test practice

Practice is allowed. No publisher forbids it, and the big ones publish their own material: Aon has practice tasks and a short video for each test, and SHL has practice tests for general ability, verbal, numerical, deductive and inductive reasoning, and personality. Employers watch for cheating, such as someone else taking the test for you. Aon warns candidates that retests are common and that cheating usually comes to light.

You don’t need weeks of preparation. The Swedish job security council TRR found that people who practiced for three hours improved their test results by up to 20 percent, and that the effect leveled off after that. What you gain is familiarity with the task types and the clock.

To start, take our free logic test: 12 matrix tasks, one minute each, with an explanation for every task. The free personality test shows what the questionnaire part feels like. Once you know which publisher your employer uses, try a full practice test with the same structure and time limit. Everything is free and needs no account. Our tasks are our own and imitate the task types, and we can’t promise any result.