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Which Test Will They Send You? The 2026/27 Provider Map for UK Finance Applicants
6 min read · by Nicholas Saunders · Published · Last reviewed
Short answer. Four publishers cover most UK finance and consulting online assessments: SHL, Aon (formerly cut-e), Cappfinity and Arctic Shores. You find out which one you are facing by reading your test invitation email — the link and the sender domain name the provider. That takes thirty seconds and it is the only source that is certainly true for you.
Most candidates prepare for “aptitude tests” in general. That is like revising for “an exam” without asking which subject. The test HSBC sends you and the test an Aon-using bank sends you differ in length, question style, and even whether guessing is punished — and you usually have less than two weeks between the invitation email and the deadline to sit it.
This guide explains how to identify the provider behind your assessment, what each provider’s format actually looks like, and how to prepare for the right one.
How do you find out which test provider an employer uses?
The fastest reliable method takes thirty seconds: read your test invitation email. The link and the sender domain name the provider. An SHL assessment runs on an SHL domain, a Cappfinity assessment on Cappfinity’s, an Aon (cut-e) assessment on the Aon or cut-e domain, and Arctic Shores sends you to its own game-based platform. The employer’s careers site and current candidate reports are the backup sources.
Be careful with lists on prep websites, including this one. Employers change providers — often between application cycles, and often by division within the same firm — and much published mapping is out of date or was never verified in the first place. Every claim below carries a label saying how well sourced it is.
Which four providers are behind most UK finance and consulting tests?
The chain worth memorising is: employer → test publisher → specific product → format. Four publishers cover the overwhelming majority of UK finance and consulting online assessments.
SHL — the incumbent
The most widely used publisher in UK graduate recruitment. The current flagship is Verify Interactive — the numerical version is reported by preparation providers at 10 questions in 18 minutes, answered by manipulating charts (dragging column heights, setting ranges) rather than picking A to E. The one length SHL publishes itself is Verify G+: its fact sheet gives a maximum of 30 questions — 10 numerical, 10 deductive, 10 inductive — in an allowed 36 minutes. For the standalone tests SHL publishes nothing at all, and the 10-to-30-questions-across-18-to-24-minutes range you will see quoted comes from preparation providers, not from SHL. Scoring is norm-referenced: you are ranked against a comparison group, not marked against a pass mark. Full guide: SHL Tests in 2026.
Aon (cut-e) — the sprint with penalties
Confirmed Aon publishes this one itself. Its scales tests are short and dense: the long-form numerical is 37 tasks in 12 minutes (the verbal is 49 tasks in 12), worked against multi-tab data, with negative marking — Aon states that “points are usually added for each correct answer and deducted for every incorrect answer”. It is the one major UK test where “answer everything, guess if unsure” is actively bad advice. Full guide: The Aon (cut-e) Scales Numerical Test.
Cappfinity — the strengths-based assessor
Cappfinity builds blended behavioural-plus-cognitive assessments rather than pure question sets. Numerical content arrives inside scenarios — charts and tables embedded in a business narrative — so the reading load is higher and the arithmetic lighter than in a conventional test. Full guide: Cappfinity Assessments Explained.
Arctic Shores — the game-based outlier
Game-based: a sequence of short mini-tasks measuring behaviour patterns as well as accuracy, with no published pass mark. Not published There is no overall time limit and Arctic Shores publishes no duration — the tasks are timed, the sitting is not. Reported One preparation guide suggests allowing 75 to 85 minutes for the full suite; employers licence different subsets, so yours may be much shorter. It is the format least like a traditional test, and the one where conventional practice transfers least. Full guide: Arctic Shores — What You Can (and Can’t) Prepare For.
Which employers use which provider in 2026/27?
Here is what we can and cannot stand behind. Nothing in this table is a guess.
| Employer | Provider and product | How well sourced |
|---|---|---|
| PwC | Arctic Shores — Career Unlocked | Confirmed Named in the employer’s own candidate materials. Frequently misattributed to Cappfinity, who supplied PwC’s older situational judgement test. |
| HSBC | Cappfinity — Online Immersive Assessment | Confirmed Named in the employer’s own candidate materials. |
| KPMG | Cappfinity — a multi-section immersive assessment | Confirmed Named in the employer’s own candidate materials. Section count and duration vary by intake — check your own invitation. |
| Barclays | Cappfinity, historically | Reported Consistent candidate reports across recent cycles, but we have not confirmed the 2026/27 mapping from Barclays directly. Verify from your own invitation. |
| Most investment banks | SHL or Aon (cut-e), rotating | Not published Banks do not publish which product they buy, and they change it by division and by year. Any specific claim you read elsewhere is unverified until your invitation settles it. |
Last verified 10 September 2026. We keep this honesty rule because a wrong mapping costs you a fortnight of preparing for the wrong format. When in doubt, the invitation email is the truth.
How should you prepare when the format changes but the skills do not?
Whichever publisher you draw, the underlying skills are the same four: numerical reasoning under time pressure, verbal inference (including the True / False / Cannot Say discipline), abstract and logical pattern work, and situational judgement. The format changes how those skills are examined — pacing, penalties, interactivity — which is exactly why practising in the right format matters more than raw question volume.
Being straight about what we build. Acumen Logic makes replica assessments for three of the four providers above: SHL, Aon (cut-e) and Cappfinity. We do not sell Arctic Shores practice. We withdrew from game-based preparation in July 2026 because the behavioural half of that format cannot honestly be coached — the reasoning is set out in full in the Arctic Shores guide. What does carry across to a game-based sitting is the cognitive layer: quick, confident numerical and pattern work under a clock, which trains like any other timed reasoning skill.
Where to start
Find out where you stand before you choose what to practise. The free Acumen Logic Benchmark is 20 timed questions across numerical, verbal and logical reasoning in 17 minutes, with an instant estimated percentile and the correct answer for every question. One attempt, ever, the same as the real thing. What else is free, here and elsewhere, is mapped on the free aptitude test practice page.
Common questions
How do you find out which aptitude test an employer uses?
Read your test invitation email. The link and the sender domain name the provider: an SHL assessment runs on an SHL domain, a Cappfinity assessment on Cappfinity’s, an Aon assessment on the Aon or cut-e domain, and Arctic Shores sends you to its own platform. That takes about thirty seconds and it is the only source that is definitely true for you. The employer’s careers site is the backup.
Do employers change aptitude test providers between years?
Yes, and they also differ by division and by role within the same employer. This is why published employer-to-provider lists go stale and why a mapping you read on a prep site last year may be wrong for your application this year. Treat every list, including this one, as a starting point and let your invitation email settle it.
Which test provider does PwC use?
PwC’s Career Unlocked assessment is built by Arctic Shores. This is frequently misattributed to Cappfinity, who supplied PwC’s older situational judgement test. Arctic Shores is game-based rather than a conventional question set, so preparing for it with multiple-choice numerical practice prepares you for the wrong thing.
Acumen Logic is independent and is not affiliated with any test publisher or employer. Provider and product names belong to their owners. The mappings above are drawn from provider materials, employer careers pages and current candidate reports, and are labelled with how well sourced each one is.