Pymetrics is a pre-employment screening platform used by companies including Goldman Sachs, Unilever, LinkedIn, and Accenture. It replaces traditional resume screening with 12 short neuroscience-based games that measure cognitive and emotional traits. This free PDF covers every game type, the traits each measures, and representative practice scenarios you can review offline.
Understanding what each game assesses — and how your responses are interpreted — gives you a significant advantage. While some traits cannot be directly practiced, knowing the structure reduces test anxiety and helps you perform more naturally under timed conditions.
Each of the 12 Pymetrics games takes 2–3 minutes. You cannot retake them, and results are compared against a proprietary benchmark of high-performing employees at each hiring company. Employers receive a fit score; you are not shown raw scores.
Balloon Game — You pump a balloon to accumulate points, but it can pop at any time. Aggressive pumpers signal high risk tolerance; conservative pumpers signal caution. Neither is universally better — it depends on the role.
Money Exchange Games — The Ultimatum Game tests fairness (do you reject unfair splits even at personal cost?) and the Trust Game tests whether you reciprocate generosity. These assess prosocial traits valued in team-oriented roles.
Arrow Speed / Stop Signal — You respond to directional arrows as fast as possible, but must suppress responses on stop-signal trials. This measures response inhibition — a key executive function.
Digits Span — Sequences of numbers are shown briefly; you recall them forward and backward. Longer accurate recall signals stronger working memory.
Face Emotion Recognition — Faces flash on screen for milliseconds. You identify the emotion. Speed and accuracy together measure emotional intelligence and social awareness.
Tower of London — Move discs to match a target arrangement in the fewest moves. This tests planning depth and problem-solving strategy. Cards Game — Draw from four decks with different win/loss distributions and learn which are advantageous through feedback. This measures adaptive learning and cognitive flexibility.
Traits that cannot be directly gamed include your natural attentional capacity and emotional perception speed. However, familiarity with the task formats eliminates confusion and helps you respond naturally rather than hesitantly.
Pymetrics is used predominantly by large financial services, consulting, and consumer goods firms for entry-level and early-career roles. Goldman Sachs uses it for analyst recruitment; Unilever uses it as the first stage of its Future Leaders programme; Accenture uses it for technology and consulting graduate hiring.
Each employer configures Pymetrics differently. They supply performance data from existing top employees, and the algorithm generates a custom benchmark profile. This means a high risk-tolerance score may be ideal for a trading role but neutral or negative for a compliance role at the same bank. You cannot tailor your responses to a generic "best" answer — the system is role-specific.
If you do not match one employer, your Pymetrics profile can be shared with other companies in the network. A strong profile can lead to unsolicited outreach from participating employers, which is a secondary benefit of the assessment.