Job Placement Tests: What Are They?

Job Placement Tests: What Are They?
Job Placement Tests: What Are They?

Introduction 

With a boom in the IT sector, there is a race between the companies to expand their companies and to put a strong foot in the IT Sector. And what better way to expand than Diversifying your company.

If we look at Amazon, it started as a book delivery company, but now is one of the biggest names in tech giants and cloud services providers. For a company to expand its network, they need a workforce that is skilled, capable, and experienced. This will not only help in the recognition of the company at an employee level but will also help in the growth of the company. 

But a company cannot take up any person as an employee and give them loads of money, they need a person that is fundamentally strong and is capable to excel in the company policy-bound work rules and business logic. So to ensure that the person is right to work for the company, Job Placement Tests are formed. 

What Are Job Placement Tests?

Job Placement Test is a screening test that each probable employee has to take up to ensure the company that he/she is capable enough to work for the applied position and has a basic understanding of the concepts and technologies that are to be used in the applied Job Profile. 

Job Placement Tests help employers ensure that the candidate is fit for the job. It also helps the employer find the right person for a job. Even if a candidate has not performed well in a skill set that is required for a Job ‘X’ but has performed well in a skill set that is required for a Job ‘Y’, so with this analysis the company can put the candidate in the profile in which the candidate has performed well. This proves to be very beneficial for both the employer and the employee.

Different Sections of a Job Placement Tests

As each company is different, has a different work base and different business rules, similarly, each company has a different Job Placement Test. 

There are different areas in which a company tests an employee’s capability. These are :

  1. Aptitude: In this section, the candidate is asked different questions on general aptitude. These questions can be multiple choice as well as subjective, this entirely depends on the company for which you are appearing. Most of the companies ask pretty generic aptitude questions but some companies can ask very specific and tricky aptitude questions.
  2. Cognitive Abilities: This round in a Job Placement test is kept to know how fast the candidate’s thinking and attention to detail is. This round usually contains questions regarding small games or pattern matching or some kind of error finding. 
  3. Coding: This is one of the most feared and anticipated sections of a Job Placement test. This round is a very variable round as the complexity of the questions asked in these rounds varies from company to company. As most of the companies only want coding so sometimes there is only one section that is asked in the test and that is the coding section. Usually, only 2-3 questions are asked in this section. 
  4. Verbal Reasoning: This section usually contains questions on the English language, like fill in the blanks, error omission, and jumbled sentences. This section is usually asked in a test of a service-based company in which you have to face a foreign client.
  5. Case Study: This section is very rare to find, only a few companies ask this section in their test. This section usually contains a large article and then there are questions that are asked on that article. This section is usually very intuitive and extensive.

Curriculum 

Different sections of a Job Placement Test have a specific Curriculum assigned to them. So, a section-wise overview of the curriculum is:

  1. Aptitude Section:
    1. Quantitative Aptitude:

This usually contains aptitude questions on the concepts like :

  1. Time, Speed, and Distances
  2. Lengths and Measures 
  3. Area and Volume
  4. Ratio and Proportion 
  5. Percentages 
  6. Mixtures 
  7. Profit and Loss 
  8. Shares and Dividend 
  9. Logarithms and Exponents 
  10. Partnership 
  11. Qualitative Aptitude:

This usually contains questions on the following topics:

  1. Complete the series.
  2. Find the odd one out.
  3. Find the missing pattern.
  4. Coding Section:

There are a number of topics that are asked in this section. These basically are questions on certain concepts and these concepts are:

  1. Arrays 
  2. String Manipulation
  3. Stacks 
  4. Queues 
  5. Linked Lists 
  6. Trees 
  7. Graphs 
  8. Dynamic Programming 
  9. Bit Manipulation
  10. Verbal Reasoning: 

In this section questions on the English language are asked. Some of the commonly asked concepts are:

  1. Error Omission: You are given a sentence and you have to find the error in the sentence.
  2. Jumbled Sentence: You are given a series of sentences and you have to find the right series that will make a meaningful sentence. 
  3. Synonyms: You are given a sentence and you will have to find the word from the given option with the same meaning.
  4. Passage Type: A passage is given and you have to answer the questions based on that passage.

What to look forward to in a Job Placement Test?

  1. Job Placement Tests are time-bound tests and you are divided into sections. So you can either find tests with a total time that is you have to complete the entire test in a given time frame or you can find a test in which each section has a time limit on it, that is you have to complete a given section in a given time range.
  2. There can be different proctoring that can be applied on Job Placement Tests like screen sharing, video and audio proctored.
  3. Several restrictions are applied on a test like:
    1. You cannot change a section without completing a given section.
    2. You cannot go back to a previous question.
    3. Once submitted you cannot change the answer to a question. 
    4. There can be negative markings as well.
  4. There can be some external agents that take the Job Placement Test for a company like SHL, Cocubes, or Mettel. So, you should be compliant with their rules as well. 

How to prepare for a Job Placement Test?

It’s not that difficult to prepare for the Job Placement Test. There are different online websites that help with Mock Job Placement Tests like Coding Ninjas, Geeks For Geeks, and Leetcode. 

One must always keep certain things in mind while preparing for Job Placement Tests:

  1. Always Time your questions.
  2. Try to solve maximum questions in a given frame of time. 
  3. If you get stuck on a question then move on and solve the next question, don’t try to stick to a question and waste your time.
  4. Try to learn shortcut formulas for different concepts to save time in solving Aptitude questions.
  5. Practice More and More coding so that you improve your speed in coding.
  6. Read more articles and novels to increase your command of the English language.

Now keeping aside the personal level preparation, you also need to be ready for the competition that you have to face in Job Placement Tests. Usually, for a beginner job, these Job Placement Tests are conducted in large numbers in some kind of Off-Campus or On-Campus Drives.

One can easily expect to be competing with more than six hundred to a thousand students in a single Job Placement Test. So one has to be prepared for such a competition. So, for this you can take up the placement assessment test on coding ninjas to know:

  1. How well is your preparation with respect to certain domains like multiple choice questions, aptitude questions, and coding questions regarding Data Structures and Algorithms?
  2. How well is your preparation with respect to other students who are giving this test? As the result of this test, you get marks out of a hundred and a percentile that helps you to know where you stand with respect to other candidates. The higher the percentile, the better is your performance with respect to other candidates. 
  3. How much time you took to complete the test. 
  4. How many questions you were able to perform in the given time frame.
  5. Which company’s job placement test you can crack with this set of skills and preparation. This will not only help you to shortlist the companies that you have to apply for but also help you to prepare for the companies that you want to work for but are out of the scope of your current preparation.
  6. Your weak points and your strengths. The weak points will be the area where you have to work more on and the strengths will be the topics that will help you to drive the tests and the interviews. 

The Placement Assessment Test on Coding Ninjas is entirely free of charge and you can take this test as many times as you want. But it is a suggestion that does not take this test again and again in a small time frame as this may not provide you with the best results. If you give a test today and after getting the results you should prepare on your weak points and hidden areas for some time and give the test again after a few months to know how well you have prepared.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an assessment test for a job?

A Job Assessment Test is a kind of screening test that a person has to take up before interviewing for the company. This test is a basic skill level test that one has to take up to show the employer that he is good in the basic understanding of concepts and can think and work properly under time constraints.

How do I pass a job assessment test?

To pass a job assessment test one has to be very precise in the answers that he gives to the questions or the codes that he submits as there can be a penalty on the times you submit a wrong answer. You have to be very fast in answering the questions as you will be answering the questions under a time constraint.

What is the best career assessment test?

The Placement Assessment Test at Coding Ninjas is one of the best career assessment tests. You have to attempt the test in a time frame of 3 hours where you are tested on 3 different concepts: Multiple Choice Questions, Aptitude Questions, and Coding Questions. The result of this test helps you to decide what is your weak spot and what is your strength. You also get company recommendations based on your assessment performance.

Can you still get hired if you fail an assessment test?

No, the chances of something like this happening are slim. A job assessment test is a screening test and the first step towards your placement interviews. If you fail it, the chances are slim that you will get accepted for the next rounds.

Why do employers give assessment tests?

The employers give assessment tests to know the level of the assessment test. Sometimes while setting the Assessment test the level could have been set much higher or much below the desired level which can cause a problem to the employer while setting a cutoff for the assessment test, so the employers also take up the assessment test to check if the test if of the right level in accordance with the company policies or not.

Key Takeaways

Job Placement Tests are the first step for any employer to know the candidate. So, one should always try to give their best in this test so that the interviewers are already aware of what you are capable of. Practice more and more and try to give a placement assessment test on Coding Ninjas to know your preparation beforehand and work on your weak points. 

Job Placement Tests should be taken very seriously and should be attempted with utmost attention and concentration to excel in them. As you only get a few chances to prove your caliber.