Overview
Since the 2027 recruiting cycle, IMC Trading's first online test is an SHL assessment in two parts: a personality questionnaire with no time limit, where you keep choosing which statements describe you best, and SHL's inductive reasoning test. The questionnaire needs no practice. The reasoning test does: failing it ends your application.
The inductive reasoning test is all shapes and patterns, with no mental maths, number sequences or probability. SHL's interactive version gives you 15 items in 18 minutes in one sitting. It is adaptive, so the difficulty follows your answers, and you cannot go back to an earlier item. Nothing is multiple choice: you answer every item by editing what is on the screen.
This game trains it with three item types, all answered by interacting. Every item hides one to three rules at the same time, and an answer that gets all but one of them right still scores nothing.
The Full test is 15 items on one 18-minute clock, the three types mixed. It starts at two rules per item; a correct item adds a rule to the next one, up to three, and a wrong item takes one away. The three other exercises give you ten items of one type with no clock, on Easy (one rule), Medium (two rules) or Hard (three rules).
Learn every rule type in the one-type exercises, then run the Full test until you finish all 15 items with time to spare. Once that feels routine, take SHL's free interactive sample test once, so its screens look familiar on the day.
Shape segments
Four frames show a shape cut into segments, each segment empty, solid or striped. Frame 5 starts empty: pick a paint (solid, striped or the eraser) and tap segments until it continues the sequence. A marker alternates between two moves or moves one place further each frame; a run grows at its two ends in turn; a segment cycles through solid, striped and empty, or is there for two frames and gone for two; and a marker or run can swap paint every second frame. Repeating the change from frame 3 to frame 4 never gives the answer.
Label chains
Eight to ten labels of three or four characters sit on a canvas, and three of them are joined by arrows. Tap the label that comes next. Letters move along the alphabet, digits count up or down, a character alternates, an X moves through a row of Os, or the label rotates by one character.
Arrow paths
Four 5 by 5 dot grids, columns A to E and rows 1 to 5, each show one arrow. Draw the arrow for frame 5 on the big grid by tapping its start dot, then its end dot. The arrow turns a quarter or an eighth of a turn about one end; each end moves in a straight line, alternates between two moves or walks round a square; each new arrow can start where the last one ended, turning or spiralling outwards; and the arrowhead can swap ends every frame or every second frame. Repeating the change from frame 3 to frame 4 never gives the answer.
Example: a two-rule shape segments item
Item 6 of the Full test. Frames 1 to 4 show a circle cut into eight segments, and frame 5 is yours to paint. The solid segment is already in place and the striped paint is picked for the second one.
Example animation
Paint frame 5 so the sequence continues
1
2
3
4
5
Solid 1
Striped 2
Eraser 3
Clear
Enter Next
The solid segment moves one place clockwise each frame, from the top round to the lower right, and the striped segment on the left is there in frames 1 and 3 and gone in frames 2 and 4. Frame 5 therefore has the solid segment at the bottom and the striped segment back on the left.
This is a looping animation of the game screen, not the live game.
Play Now
Game Phases
1
Find the rules
Compare frame 1 with frame 2, then check what you saw from frame 2 to 3 and from 3 to 4. Name each change on its own: what moves, what alternates, what grows. An item can hide three rules at once, and a wrong answer usually gets one of them wrong.
2
Answer by interacting
Paint the segments of frame 5 (keys 1, 2 and 3 pick solid, striped and the eraser), tap the label that continues the chain, or tap the start dot and then the end dot of the next arrow. Change your answer as often as you like before you submit it.
3
Submit and move on
Press Enter or Next to submit. You cannot go back to an earlier item. In the Full test a correct item makes the next one a rule harder and a wrong item makes it a rule easier, and an item you submit empty counts as wrong.
4
Watch the clock
The Full test runs on one 18-minute clock for all 15 items, with no clock per item: 72 seconds an item on average. Items you have not reached when the clock runs out count as wrong, so keep moving.
We are not affiliated with SHL or IMC Trading; all information provided is for educational purposes to help students prepare for interviews.
Scoring
+1
Correct item
Every segment of frame 5 in the right state, the one label that keeps every rule, or the arrow with exactly the right start and end.
0
Wrong, empty or not reached
An answer that gets one rule wrong scores nothing, and so does an item you submit empty or never reach before the 18-minute clock runs out. Nothing is deducted.
±1
Adaptive difficulty
The Full test starts at two rules per item. A correct item adds a rule to the next one, up to three, and a wrong item takes one away, down to one.
%
Results
Your score, accuracy per item type (per rule in the one-type exercises), average time per item, the empty and not-reached count, and every item with your answer next to the correct one and its rules in words.
Your score is the number of correct items: out of 15 in the Full test and out of 10 in the one-type exercises. An item is right or wrong as a whole, so a frame with one segment off, the label next to the right one, or an arrow pointing the wrong way all score nothing. Because the Full test adapts, compare runs on the score together with the level you finished on. Best scores are kept per exercise, and per difficulty in the one-type exercises.
Your progress
📊 Track your progress
See your scores over time and watch yourself improve.
Start Your Preparation
Already have an account? Log in
More Practice
Company Assessments
Math Tests
Mental Math Practice
Sequences Practice
Derivatives Exercises
Cognitive Tests
Multitasking Test
Memory Grid Test
NeurOlympics 1
Cannon Interception Test
NeurOlympics 2
Connect Test
NeurOlympics 3
Attention Test
NeurOlympics 4
NeurOlympics Full Run
NeurOlympics
Reaction Test
Balloon Game
Arctic Shores Example
Arrow Game
Arctic Shores Example
Security Door
Arctic Shores Example