PwC assessments: SHL tests, stages, and how to pass in 2026

PwC’s online assessment is administered by SHL and hosted on the SHL platform. After you apply, you face a battery of SHL tests — numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, logical (inductive) reasoning and a behavioural assessment — before any human sees your application. Because the tests are standard SHL formats, the most direct preparation is to drill the real SHL question types. Start with our SHL provider hub, or read the company-by-company employer assessment guides for other firms.

Source note: forge checks this guide against PwC careers material, SHL candidate practice pages, and public PwC graduate assessment process documents where available. The exact battery still depends on service line, country and intake.

Quick summary: PwC assessments in 2026

• PwC’s cognitive tests are provided by SHL and hosted on the SHL platform.
• The battery covers numerical, verbal, and logical (inductive) reasoning, plus a behavioural assessment.
• The numerical and verbal tests are standard SHL formats — GCSE-level maths and true/false/cannot-say verbal.
• PwC sets its own cut-score; graduate schemes commonly screen around the 50th–70th percentile.
• Later stages are a recorded video interview and a final assessment centre.

Who is PwC?

PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) is one of the “Big Four” professional services firms, formed in 1998 from the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. It employs roughly 360,000 people across audit and assurance, tax, deals, and consulting. PwC’s stated purpose is “to build trust in society and solve important problems”, and its five values — Act with integrity, Make a difference, Care, Work together, and Reimagine the possible — run through both the behavioural assessment and the later interviews. Anchoring your answers to these values is the single easiest win in the behavioural stages.

What is SHL?

SHL is the world’s most widely used psychometric test publisher — its assessments screen millions of graduate and professional candidates every year. When an employer says you have an “online assessment”, it is very often an SHL test running on the SHL platform. SHL does not set a universal pass mark; each employer licenses the tests and sets its own cut-score, which is why the same SHL numerical test can screen at the 50th percentile for one company and the 80th for another. Our SHL provider hub and which SHL test am I taking? guide decode exactly what you have been sent.

The full SHL test suite (not just numerical and verbal)

PwC’s SHL battery covers numerical, verbal and logical (inductive) reasoning plus a behavioural assessment in the same family as SHL’s OPQ personality questionnaire. SHL’s suite is larger still, and the exact mix changes by role (audit, tax, consulting, technology), region and intake year — so the table below lists the full set. Prepare the numerical, verbal and logical tests first, but know the whole suite so nothing catches you out.

If your invitation email names a test you are unsure about, match the wording to the right guide with which SHL test am I taking? — the fastest way to stop preparing for the wrong format.

The PwC numerical reasoning test

PwC’s numerical test is a standard SHL format. You read data from tables and charts and answer multiple-choice questions under a tight timer — typically around 18–25 minutes depending on the version. The maths itself is GCSE-level: percentages, ratios, and basic arithmetic. The difficulty is speed and the distractor options engineered to match common mistakes. Our full SHL Numerical Reasoning guide breaks down the five archetypes and the traps; here is the one that costs PwC candidates the most marks. forge’s SHL question database tags gross-vs-net and wrong-base percentage as the two costliest traps — together roughly 60% of all wrong answers on these numerical tests.

Knowing the traps is only half of it — the marks come from doing them under a timer. Practise SHL numerical free on forge

The PwC verbal reasoning test

PwC’s verbal test gives you a short passage and a statement, and you decide whether the statement is True, False, or Cannot say based only on the passage. The single biggest error is using outside knowledge: if the passage does not support or contradict the statement, the answer is “cannot say” — even if you know it is true in real life. Our SHL Verbal Reasoning guide drills exactly this.

Train the true / false / cannot-say discipline until it is automatic. Practise SHL verbal free on forge

The PwC logical reasoning test

PwC also includes a logical (inductive) reasoning section — abstract sequences where you identify the pattern and pick the next shape. It is the same skill family as the SHL inductive test. Build pattern-recognition speed with our logical & abstract reasoning guide.

The PwC behavioural assessment

Alongside the cognitive tests, PwC runs a behavioural assessment — a questionnaire that maps your working style against the firm’s values. There are no “right” answers in the cognitive sense, but inconsistent or extreme responses are flagged. Answer honestly and consistently, and let PwC’s five values frame the version of yourself you present.

The video interview and assessment centre

Pass the online assessment and you progress to a recorded video interview with competency and motivation questions, then a final assessment centre with a group exercise, a case study, and an interview. Prepare the video stage like any one-way interview — see our video interviews guide and HireVue prep for the recording technique and the STAR-R answer structure.

How to prepare for the PwC assessment

• Confirm the format. Your invitation email names the SHL tests. Baseline your speed with one timed numerical and one timed verbal test.
• Drill numerical archetypes. Percentage change, ratio, and table reading — label every miss by trap type.
• Train true/false/cannot-say. Answer only from the passage; resist outside knowledge.
• Build logical-reasoning speed. Work inductive sequences against a clock.
• Anchor the behavioural stage to PwC’s five values with real examples.
• Sit a full timed mock and review the trap on every wrong answer.

Related guides

• All employer assessment guides
• Goldman Sachs assessments
• Morgan Stanley assessments
• SHL Tests: the complete provider hub
• SHL Numerical Reasoning Test
• SHL Verbal Reasoning Test

Frequently asked questions

Note on accuracy: the test providers named in this guide reflect candidate reports and publicly available information as of 2026, and are provided for preparation guidance only. Employers do not usually publish which assessment provider they use, and these relationships change over time — PwC may switch providers, run different tests for different roles, regions or intakes, or use a provider not listed here. Nothing on this page is confirmed or endorsed by PwC or any test publisher, and it should not be relied on as a definitive statement of PwC’s current process. Always confirm the exact test and provider from your official invitation email before you prepare.