Situational judgement tests (SJT): scenarios, scoring, and strategy

Situational judgement tests (SJTs) do not measure how smart you are. They measure how you behave — specifically, whether your instincts align with the competencies the employer values. They are used by banks (DBS, HSBC, JPMorgan), consulting firms, and the public sector. If your SJT is part of a wider application process, use the employer assessment hub to identify the surrounding numerical, verbal or video stages.

SJT scoring gets easier once you practise identifying the competency behind each scenario. Start SJT practice

What to focus on first

Common traps

• Going solo. Acting alone on serious issues often ranks below involving the right authority.
• Choosing the most forceful response. Confronting, demanding or refusing is rarely best.
• Ranking by personality. The test wants job-effective behaviour, not what feels natural.

How to practise from here

For each scenario, write the competency first, then pick the best and worst response before worrying about the middle. This captures most of the scoring signal.

How SJTs work

You read a scenario (a difficult colleague, a tight deadline, a customer complaint) and see 4–6 possible responses. Depending on the test, you either:

• Rank all responses from most to least effective.
• Rate each response on a scale (very effective → counterproductive).
• Pick the best and worst response.

The competencies behind the scenarios

Every SJT scenario is designed to test one or two competencies. The most common:

• Teamwork & collaboration — do you involve others and share credit?
• Decision making — do you act decisively with available information?
• Stakeholder management — do you balance competing interests diplomatically?
• Risk awareness — do you escalate appropriately, or do you wing it?
• Integrity — do you follow the ethical path, even when inconvenient?

Scoring nuances

SJTs use partial credit. If the model answer is A > B > C > D and you answer A > C > B > D, you get most of the points because A is first and D is last. The middle rankings are worth fewer points. This means: get the extremes right. Best and worst matter most.

That is why SJT practice should not be random. Review by competency: teamwork, communication, risk, integrity, customer focus or leadership. If you repeatedly miss integrity scenarios, you probably choose responses that are practical but not compliant. If you miss teamwork scenarios, you may be over-weighting independent action. Use the wrong-answer review method to tag these misses instead of only checking the model answer.

Common mistakes

• Overthinking. Your first instinct is usually right for SJTs. Spend 60–90 seconds max per scenario.
• Being too aggressive. Responses that “confront”, “demand”, or “refuse” almost never rank first.
• Confusing what you would do with what you should do. SJTs test the ideal response, not the realistic one.

Source notes

forge checks SJT guidance against SHL’s situational judgement example questions and SHL’s SJT product overview. Employer competency models differ, so the best response always depends on the role context.