SHL vs Aon vs Cappfinity vs Arctic Shores: UK Test Providers Compared

How sure we are: C Confirmed by the employer or the test publisher R Reported by other sources NP Not published anywhere we could find How we check

The four providers, compared

One fact per cell, each marked by how well it is sourced. Where a publisher states a figure, we mark it Confirmed. Where only preparation sites or candidate walkthroughs report it, we mark it Reported. Where nobody publishes it, we say so rather than guess.

Differences that change how you prepare

Wrong answers. Aon states on its candidate page that points are usually added for each correct answer and deducted for every incorrect one. It does not publish the size of the deduction, so a blind guess can cost marks. Preparation providers report no deduction on SHL Verify tests or on Arctic Shores tasks. Cappfinity publishes no marking scheme. Our replicas score each answer 1 or 0, Aon’s included, so they do not copy Aon’s deduction.

The clock. Aon allows 12 minutes for 37 numerical tasks, about 19 seconds a task. Its candidate page lists the test as “37 tasks, finish as many as you can”. Cappfinity’s on-screen wording, as quoted in one candidate walkthrough for Deloitte, says time is recorded and counts toward your score (Reported). Some questions can still be timed. Deloitte, reported by one source to use Cappfinity, says on its own page that there is no overall time limit but some questions are timed. In our view, the two formats call for different habits: quick triage on Aon, steady accuracy on Cappfinity.

Entering the answer. SHL’s own practice page lists both interactive and standard multiple-choice versions of its tests. Aon’s data is reported to sit across several tabs, and preparation providers report that answering with the wrong tab open is marked wrong. Cappfinity is reported to use typed numerical answers and a 1 to 5 ranking with no ties. Arctic Shores is task-based, though its Analysis task is reported to set questions.

What the employer sees. SHL’s report documents use a sten score: a mark from 1 to 10 that compares you with other people who took the test, where 5 or 6 is about average. Percentile scoring, your rank against a comparison group of other test takers, is reported for SHL, Aon and Cappfinity. An older Arctic Shores sample report, from 2017, gives a Fit Score: a percentile against a group chosen for the job. It puts cognitive results in broad bands rather than a precise rank. Arctic Shores changed its reporting in 2024, so current reports may differ. None of the four publishes a cut-off. The guide to percentiles and norm groups explains how a rank differs from a mark.

Who uses each provider

Some employers name their test provider, and many do not. Of the 312 UK employers in our 2026/27 research, 40 have a provider confirmed for one or more test steps, by the employer’s own material or the test publisher. Another 50 have a provider named only in reports. For the other 222, we found no current named provider at any test step. At 216 of the 289 employers where we found an online test, no current provider is published.

Of those 40, 12 confirm one of the four providers on this page. The rest confirm other publishers, such as HireVue (J.P. Morgan), Criteria (Lazard), Suited (Moelis, PJT Partners) and Talogy (Civil Service Fast Stream). Some use their own in-house test (G-Research, Optiver). The tables below show the confirmed employers for each provider, then a selection of reported ones. How we check employer tests explains the marks and the sources. Some employers run several programmes. For those, a small line under a cell counts the other programmes, out of all we found, whose answer differs or is not published. To look up one employer and programme, step by step, use Find your test provider.

Financial Conduct Authority and Legal & General. Both are reported to use Cappfinity, by one source each RReported. Each points candidates to a practice site run by Cappfinity, but neither names Cappfinity on its current careers pages, so we do not mark them Confirmed. Our Cappfinity guide covers its format, timing and employers in more detail.

Where to start

Check your invitation for the publisher’s name, then take the free replica for it. Each free test, and the Benchmark, is one sitting, so pick the order with care. Pro has the full replica sets for SHL, Aon and Cappfinity.

Common questions