The CCAT, explained — and where to practice it free
The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test is 50 questions in 15 minutes. This page gives you the confirmed format and scoring facts from Criteria’s own materials, the rules the biggest CCAT employers apply, and the honest answer on practice: the good free simulators already exist, so we point you to them instead of building another.
Format — confirmed from Criteria’s own materials
- Three reported skill categories — Verbal Ability, Math & Logic, and Spatial Reasoning — each with its own percentile, plus an overall raw score out of 50 and a percentile against a global norming group.
- Question types are mixed throughout rather than sectioned. The exact split of the 50 is not published — preparation sites disagree with each other on it, so treat any precise breakdown as a guess.
- No calculators. Pen and paper are fine.
- Not adaptive: Criteria uses multiple fixed versions drawn from a bank of thousands of items. Its system flags an “Invalid Result” when speed and accuracy indicate you have seen that exact version before, and it advises employers to use an alternate version for retests.
- Delivered online through Criteria’s On Demand Assessment platform; some employers (Vertafore and PowerSchool per first-hand reports; Crossover as policy) follow up with a proctored, on-camera retake to verify the score.
Scoring and what employers see
Criteria’s score-report guide anchors the percentile scale and shows employers suggested raw-score ranges per job family, computed from more than 700,000 CCAT administrations. Each employer still sets its own cutoff.
Percentile anchors (official sample reports)
- Raw 24 / 50
- 50th percentile
- Raw 35 / 50
- 85th percentile
Candidates usually do not receive their score — results go to the employer, and Criteria support cannot share them.
Suggested raw-score ranges by job family
- Customer Service Representative
- 17–50
- Management
- 20–50
- Engineering · Analyst
- 22–50
- Data Analytics & Statistics · Legal
- 24–50
Source: Criteria CCAT Score Report Guide. Indicative, not a pass mark.
Applying to Crossover? Read this before you practice anywhere
Crossover requires the CCAT for virtually every role and follows it with a proctored retake (the PCCAT). Its rules, from its own guide and support FAQ: one attempt per email address in any six-month period; using multiple email addresses leads to rejection; scores are not disclosed; and — critically — Crossover warns that candidates who use third-party practice sites are more likely to be blacklisted. Crossover publishes its own official CCAT guide and points applicants to Criteria’s official practice. Use those, and only those.
Where to practice the CCAT free
We checked what is genuinely free as of August 2026. If your employer is not Crossover, these are the full-length options that cost nothing and need no account.
Shortened simulated versions from the test publisher itself — the one resource every employer, including Crossover, is happy for you to use.
No account needed; scored against the 24 average with a domain breakdown and full solution review. A paid course sits behind it — the free sim stands on its own.
Ungated, timed or self-paced, with all 50 worked solutions visible without signing up.
A free 50-question timed simulation once you create a free account; results by category without detailed explanations.
External sites are listed for convenience; we are not affiliated with them and their free offerings can change. A 22-minute extended CCAT for non-native speakers or documented disabilities is reported by one preparation source only.
If your invitation names a different Criteria test
40 questions in 20 minutes, language-independent — no verbal section; logic, numerical, spatial and attention to detail. Raw score out of 40 plus percentile. Offered in 21+ languages.
40 questions in 20 minutes on basic math, grammar, spelling and language.
13 minutes: three short task simulations plus ten multiple-choice questions, scored out of 25 with proficiency bands.
One minute typing a passage; scored on words per minute, errors and adjusted WPM.
Criteria’s game-based cognitive assessment — three or six mini-games. Unlike the CCAT, there is no official practice for it, which is why we built free simulations of every game.
Practice Cognify freeCriteria’s roughly 20-minute, three-part ability test of emotional intelligence — Matching Faces, Emotional Ties, Emotions in Action. Timed, and like Cognify it has no official practice, so we built free simulations of all three parts.
Practice Emotify freeCCAT FAQ
How many questions are on the CCAT and how long is it?
50 multiple-choice questions in 15 minutes — about 18 seconds per question. Criteria itself says fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50, and the average test taker gets 24 right. Calculators are not allowed.
Is the CCAT adaptive?
No. Criteria’s score-report guide describes multiple fixed versions drawn from a bank of thousands of items; the system flags an “Invalid Result” when a candidate’s speed and accuracy indicate they have seen that same version before, and employers are advised to use an alternate version for retests.
What is a good CCAT score?
Criteria’s sample score reports anchor a raw 24 at the 50th percentile and a raw 35 at the 85th. Employers see suggested raw-score ranges per job family computed from more than 700,000 administrations — for example Management 20–50, Engineering and Analyst 22–50, Data Analytics and Legal 24–50, Customer Service 17–50 — but each employer sets its own cutoff.
Do candidates get their CCAT score?
Usually not. Results go to the employer; Criteria support cannot share them, and Crossover’s own FAQ says it is unable to provide CCAT scores to candidates.
Why don’t you offer a CCAT simulator?
Because good free ones already exist and the biggest CCAT employer, Crossover, explicitly warns that using third-party practice sites risks being blacklisted. Our job is to send you to the official practice and the genuinely free full-length simulations, and to cover the Criteria assessments nobody else lets you practice — the Cognify games.