Situational judgement and strengths tests

A situational judgement test puts you in a workplace scenario and asks what you would do. Deadlines clash, a figure in a client document looks wrong, a teammate isn't pulling their weight. Strengths tests and behavioural questionnaires are close cousins: they ask how you like to work and what gives you energy.

Neither needs finance knowledge. You can't memorise answers, but you can get much better at reading scenarios clearly and answering consistently.

Where you'll meet them

Scenario and strengths questions are among the most common online stages in UK finance and professional services. Increasingly they sit inside a longer assessment that also includes data questions and short written or video answers, sometimes called a job simulation or an immersive assessment.

The answer formats

• Rank the options: put four or five responses in order from most to least effective
• Most and least effective: pick the best and the worst response from a list
• Rate each option: score every response on a scale, for example from very effective to very ineffective
• Choose one: pick the single response you would take
• Preference statements: say how much you agree with a statement, or which of two statements is more like you, as strengths questionnaires often do
• Written or video responses: explain in your own words what you would do, usually inside an immersive assessment

What they are usually looking for

Scenario questions tend to reward the behaviours that most finance employers say they value:

• dealing with a problem promptly rather than hoping it goes away
• raising errors, risks and anything ethically doubtful with the right person
• keeping clients and colleagues informed
• prioritising sensibly when deadlines collide
• owning your part without overstepping your role
• working well with others, including when there is friction
• learning from feedback

Each employer also publishes its own values or behaviours, and they are the best guide to what "effective" means there. Official: EY, for example, says its strengths framework runs through its whole selection process. Twenty minutes reading a firm's values page is time well spent before any judgement test.

A worked scenario

This scenario is original and written for practice.

You're a summer intern in a small corporate finance team. At 6pm your manager asks you to tidy up a slide for a client meeting at 9am tomorrow. While checking it, you notice that a revenue figure in the appendix doesn't match the source spreadsheet. The associate who built the slide has gone home for the day.

Rank these responses from most to least effective.

• A: Correct the figure yourself and say nothing, because it's a small fix
• B: Leave it, because the appendix isn't the part you were asked to change
• C: Tell your manager now, show both figures and where each comes from, and ask how they would like it handled
• D: Email the associate tonight and wait for their reply before doing anything

One well-reasoned ranking is C, D, A, B.

• C is most effective. It raises the issue promptly with the person responsible for the meeting, brings evidence and leaves time to fix it before 9am.
• D goes to a sensible person but depends on a reply tonight. If none comes, the error may reach the client.
• A fixes the symptom but skips any check. If your correction is wrong, or the spreadsheet is the thing that's out of date, nobody knows to look.
• B knowingly lets a possible error reach a client. That is the outcome every other option tries to avoid.

You could argue for swapping A and D. What matters more than the exact order is the reasoning behind it: act promptly, involve the right person, bring evidence and never quietly change client work.

Tips for scenario questions

• Find the real problem first, and work out who owns it
• Take the scenario at face value, without inventing extra facts to justify an option you like
• Prefer responses that solve the problem and keep the right people informed
• Raise anything involving client data, compliance or honesty rather than handling it quietly on your own
• Be wary of extremes, both doing nothing and dramatic overreactions such as going straight to a senior leader over something small
• Answer as the person in the scenario, so if you're an intern in the story, act like one, not like the head of the team

Strengths and behavioural questionnaires

These ask you to react to statements such as "I like to plan my work in detail before I start", or to choose which of two statements sounds more like you. They often say there are no right or wrong answers. Official: Man Group describes its behavioural assessment that way, and Grant Thornton tells candidates they don't need to prepare for its strengths assessment.

It's completely normal to find that confusing when the stage still decides who moves on. Reported: Students on UK forums describe exactly that frustration, including feedback reports that list strengths without explaining why they didn't progress.

What helps:

• Answer as you are at your best in study or work, rather than as the candidate you imagine they want
• Be consistent, because questionnaires can approach the same trait from several angles, and answers built on guessing what they want can contradict each other
• Don't overthink single statements, because your first honest reaction is usually the most consistent one
• Read the role and the firm's values beforehand, so you know which of your real strengths matter most, then answer honestly

Some firms use trait assessments with the application itself. Official: PJT Partners asks applicants to complete an assessment from an external recruiting platform and says it isn't weighted above other factors. Tools like this measure traits rather than reasoning, so there's little to practise. Understand what they are, then answer honestly.

If you receive a feedback report, read it. Official: Deloitte, Schroders and Grant Thornton all say they send candidates a report after their assessments. The way a report describes your strengths is useful language for later interviews.

How to practise

1. Check what's free first. Many universities give their students free access to practice platforms, so look at your careers service website. Official: Cambridge, Warwick, Bath and Loughborough all describe free practice-test access for their students.
2. Read the firm's values or behaviours page. Note three or four words that come up repeatedly.
3. Practise ranking scenarios and say your reasoning out loud. The same reasoning is what interviewers want in "tell me about a time" questions.
4. Review the options you ranked differently from the explanation. Decide whether you still disagree. Sometimes you will, and that's fine.

Practise before the assessment, never during it. Official: Deloitte asks candidates to complete its assessments independently. If a video stage comes next, the one-way video interview guide covers it.