Behavioural Interviews Module 6 – Motivation, self-assessment and hypotheticals
Work-style surveys and situational judgement tests
Recognise work-style surveys and situational judgement tests, read whether an item asks what you would do or what works, and answer honestly, on your own.
What you will learn
- Recognise work-style surveys and situational judgement tests in online assessments
- Read whether an item asks what you would do or what is most effective
- Answer honestly and consistently instead of trying to game the test
- Prepare for the format, the timing and any accommodations you need
Before you start
What you’ll learn · Before you start
What you will learn
- Recognise work-style surveys and situational judgement tests in online assessments
- Read whether an item asks what you would do or what is most effective
- Answer honestly and consistently instead of trying to game the test
- Prepare for the format, the timing and any accommodations you need
Before you start
On this page
Amazon’s assessment page says its work-style assessments typically take 10 to 20 minutes, and that it wants to get to know the authentic you. Ayesha, an invented graduate applicant, spends 40 minutes on one such survey, rereading every statement for the answer she thinks the employer must want.
Work-style surveys and situational judgement tests often come before the first interview. Below are what each asks, why an item’s instruction decides its answer, and why honest answers beat a guessed ideal.
Two formats: statements about how you work, and situations to judge
A work-style survey: Part of an online assessment that shows statements about how people work, sometimes two at a time, and asks how far each one describes you. shows statements about how people work and asks how far each describes you. Amazon says its work-style assessments are centred on its Leadership Principles and may ask which of two statements, such as “I like for things to be clearly structured”, best describes you; its SDE II online assessment includes an 8-minute Work Style Survey. Google says its Hiring Assessment is designed to measure workstyle skills.
A situational judgement test: A test that shows work situations with several possible actions and asks you to pick the one you would take, pick the most or least effective, or rate each action. presents work situations and possible actions, and asks you to choose or rate them. Amazon’s work sample simulations, of 20 minutes to an hour, may ask you to choose how to resolve an issue, and the UK Civil Service lists a situational strengths test among the ways it assesses strengths.
| Format | What an item shows | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Work-style survey | A statement, or two statements to choose between | How far it describes the way you work |
| Situational judgement test | A work situation and several possible actions | Which you would take, which works best, or a rating of each |
Not affiliated
MySmartCoPilot has no connection with Amazon, Google or the UK Civil Service. What their assessments contain is taken from their own candidate pages, listed in References.
Checkpoint
Check: Work-style surveys and situational judgement tests
The instruction decides the best answer: what you would do, or what works
The instruction changes what a judgement item measures. In a meta-analysis of situational judgement tests, McDaniel, Hartman, Whetzel and Grubb compared behavioural tendency instructions, which ask how you would likely behave, with knowledge instructions, which ask how effective each response is. Knowledge versions correlated more with cognitive ability and behavioural tendency versions more with personality, with similar validity for both.
So read the instruction before the options. A “would do” item is answered from your own habits; a “most effective” or “least effective” item from what works. Step through how Ayesha reads one practice item:
The drawing shows the whole scene; its 6 steps are listed below.
Every step as text
- The item. A teammate keeps asking you questions while you finish an urgent fix due in an hour. The actions: answer each question at once; ignore them; ask them to write the questions down and offer a time after the fix; or tell your lead.
- Read the instruction. The instruction says "Which action is the most effective?". That is a knowledge instruction: it asks what works, not what Ayesha would do.
- Pick the source. So her answer comes from what works, not from her habits. Under "What would you most likely do?" the same item would ask for her habit, which may be a different action.
- Choose. She chooses the written questions and a time after the fix: the urgent work is protected, and the teammate still gets help today. Ignoring them saves time but leaves them stuck.
- Move on. She answers and moves to the next item. Amazon's assessment page advises not overthinking work-style questions or spending too long on any one question.
- The whole item. Four steps: the instruction first, then the source it points to, one choice with its reason, and the next item. Reading the instruction is the step that is easiest to skip.
The program below sorts seven instructions by what each asks and where the answer comes from. Add an instruction you are practising with and run it again:
// An instruction reader for judgement items and work-style statements: it sorts each instruction by what it asks and
// says what your answer should come from. The instructions below are invented, in the styles that online assessments
// use. Add the instruction of an item you are practising with and run it again.
const INSTRUCTIONS = [
'What would you most likely do in this situation?',
'Which of these actions is the most effective?',
'Which action would be the least effective?',
'Choose the most and the least effective response.',
'Rate how effective each response is, from 1 (very ineffective) to 5 (very effective).',
'Which of the two statements describes you better?',
'How far do you agree that this statement describes the way you work?',
];
// What each kind of instruction asks, and what to answer from (MySmartCoPilot's reading of the common styles).
const KINDS = [
{ kind: 'most and least effective', re: /\bmost and (?:the )?least\b/i, from: 'what works: pick the best action and the worst one' },
{ kind: 'what you would do', re: /\b(?:would you|most likely|likely to do)\b/i, from: 'your own habits: what you really do at work' },
{ kind: 'least effective', re: /\b(?:least effective|worst)\b/i, from: 'what works: pick the action that would do the most harm' },
{ kind: 'most effective', re: /\b(?:most effective|best|should)\b/i, from: 'what works: the action most likely to succeed' },
{ kind: 'rate every action', re: /\brate\b|\bfrom 1\b/i, from: 'what works: judge each action on its own scale' },
{ kind: 'which statement fits you', re: /\b(?:describes you|describe you|describes the way you work|agree)\b/i, from: 'your own habits: how you work, not how you wish you did' },
];
console.log('What each instruction asks, and what to answer from');
for (const text of INSTRUCTIONS) {
const k = KINDS.find((x) => x.re.test(text));
console.log('');
console.log(text);
console.log(k ? ` asks: ${k.kind}\n answer from: ${k.from}` : ' asks: not recognised; read it again, slowly');
}
const habits = INSTRUCTIONS.filter((t) => KINDS.find((x) => x.re.test(t))?.from.startsWith('your own')).length;
console.log('');
console.log(`${habits} of ${INSTRUCTIONS.length} instructions ask about your own habits; the rest ask what works.`);Output
What each instruction asks, and what to answer from What would you most likely do in this situation? asks: what you would do answer from: your own habits: what you really do at work Which of these actions is the most effective? asks: most effective answer from: what works: the action most likely to succeed Which action would be the least effective? asks: least effective answer from: what works: pick the action that would do the most harm Choose the most and the least effective response. asks: most and least effective answer from: what works: pick the best action and the worst one Rate how effective each response is, from 1 (very ineffective) to 5 (very effective). asks: rate every action answer from: what works: judge each action on its own scale Which of the two statements describes you better? asks: which statement fits you answer from: your own habits: how you work, not how you wish you did How far do you agree that this statement describes the way you work? asks: which statement fits you answer from: your own habits: how you work, not how you wish you did 3 of 7 instructions ask about your own habits; the rest ask what works.
Recorded with Node.js 24.21.0 on macOS 26 arm64. To run it yourself: mise exec node@24.21.0 -- node instruction_reader.mjs
Runs on this device, in your browser. The first run downloads JavaScript (about 0.6 MB), which is kept for the next runs.
Your run, in this browser
Three of the seven ask about your own habits, and four ask what works, one of them for the best and the worst action at once. Misreading “least” as “most” turns a right judgement into a wrong answer.
Answering a would-do item with what you wish you did
“What would you most likely do?” asks for your habit. If it is not the most effective action, change the habit at work; answering with the ideal gives the employer a picture of someone else.
Name the kind of instruction before you look at the options, as the program does, and the misreadings stop.
Key idea
Read the instruction first: “would do” asks for your own habits, and “most” or “least effective” asks what works.
Checkpoint
Check: Reading the instruction of a judgement item
Answer as you work, not as an imagined ideal
Amazon advises not to overthink work-style questions, says there are many types of successful people there, and states that “all assessments must be completed solely by the applicant”. The UK Civil Service gives the candidate’s reason: when the role fits, “you are more likely to enjoy it and perform well”.
| What happens | Guessing the ideal | Answering as you work |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Every statement reread for the “right” answer | Close to the time the employer states |
| The same trait worded twice | Answers that contradict each other | Answers that agree |
| The result | A profile of someone you are not | A match with how you really work |
Three more things decide the day. A forced-choice item offers two statements that can both be true; pick the one more typical of you. Keep moving, as these surveys are short. Ask early for any accommodation you need.
About the practice items
The judgement items in this lesson are MySmartCoPilot’s own, written for practice. They score nothing about you as a person and are not a personality test.
Checkpoint
Check: Answering as you work, on your own
Four judgement items under every instruction, worked through Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass
One item can be asked four ways: what you would do, the most effective action, the least effective, or a rating of each. Here four original items are keyed under every instruction, with Ayesha’s honest answers beside the keys and what the gaps between them tell her.
In this part:
- Four items keyed under each instruction
- Why the key changes with the instruction
- What a gap between habit and key tells you
- Writing practice items from your own week
1 runnable example (JavaScript) · about 4 minutes
Opening this part with your pass…
This part opens with any MySmartCoPilot pass.
- Pro pass · 1 week₹79$2.99
- 30 days₹179$5.99
- 1 year₹1,699$45
One payment; a pass never renews. The price shown is the total you pay: no fees or charges are added at checkout.
Passes can’t be bought right now, so this part can’t be opened at the moment. The free part above stands on its own. If you have a pass, enter your licence key.
It also opens every other in-depth part in Learn and every Pro tool. Sales are final, except where the law gives you a right to withdraw, for example in the EU and the UK (refund policy).
Forced choices, consistency and the day of the test Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass
Three things decide how a survey goes on the day: how you choose between two true statements, whether your answers agree with each other, and how you handle time, problems and accommodations.
In this part:
- Two true statements: choosing the one more typical of you
- Consistency across reworded statements, measured
- Time, technical problems and accommodations
- Judgement items in assessments for experienced roles
- A practice plan for the week before
1 runnable example (JavaScript) · about 4 minutes
Opening this part with your pass…Pro part. It opens with the same pass as the part above.
Practise: original judgement items
Read each instruction before its options, answer as it asks, and read why each choice is right or wrong:
Stopwatch Time a set of practice items, so you know how long one honest reading of each item takes you.Practice that adapts to you
Practise this lesson
12 questions about 5 ideas of this lesson. Each answer is explained at once, and what you get right is kept in this browser.
Interview questions
One warm-up, answered, comes first. Answer the three after it aloud, then open each first step.
-
Fresher to mid · Warm-up
What is a situational judgement test, and how is it different from a work-style survey?
A situational judgement test shows a work situation and several possible actions, and asks you to choose the one you would take, choose the most or the least effective, or rate each one. A work-style survey shows statements about how people work, sometimes two at a time, and asks how far each describes you. So a judgement test asks about a situation, and a survey asks about you. Read the instruction of every item before its options: "would do" and "describes you" are answered from your own habits, while "most effective", "least effective" and ratings are answered from what works. Answer both on your own and as you really work: employers such as Amazon say they want the authentic you, and that every assessment is completed by the applicant alone.
-
Fresher to mid
Your work-style results suggest you prefer clear structure, but this role changes direction often. How do you work when the plan keeps changing?
-
Mid to senior
In our judgement test you rated "escalate to your manager" as the least effective action. Talk me through your reasoning.
-
Fresher to mid
A friend who applied here last month offers you the answers to our online assessment. What do you do?
Key takeaways
- Work-style surveys ask how far statements describe the way you work; situational judgement tests ask you to choose or rate actions in work situations.
- The instruction decides the answer: “would do” asks for your habits, “most” or “least effective” asks what works.
- Answer as you work, without overthinking, and on your own: employers say they want the authentic you.
- Answers that come from how you really work stay consistent when the same trait is worded twice.
Terms in this lesson
- situational judgement test
- A test that shows work situations with several possible actions and asks you to pick the one you would take, pick the most or least effective, or rate each action.
- work-style survey
- Part of an online assessment that shows statements about how people work, sometimes two at a time, and asks how far each one describes you.
References
- Let's prepare for assessments (Amazon Jobs)
- SDE II interview prep (Amazon Jobs)
- SDE III interview prep (Amazon Jobs)
- How we hire (Google Careers)
- Success Profiles: strengths (UK Cabinet Office (GOV.UK))
- Situational judgment tests, response instructions, and validity: a meta-analysis (McDaniel, Hartman, Whetzel and Grubb) (Personnel Psychology (Wiley))
Related tools
Report a problem with this lesson
Kept only in this browser. Your Learn progress