Aldi's Area Manager process has five rungs. The tests are two of them

Aldi says its online application includes tests of judgement and analytical skills, and that a later psychometric test measures core skills and personal qualities. Candidates describe numerical, reading and pattern questions. Our reasoning test covers numerical tables and reading passages.

Aldi names no provider, question count or time limit, and candidates mention diagrammatic and pattern questions that our reasoning test does not include. Aldi's process is mostly not a test: a video, a presentation, a group assessment and interviews decide it. A reasoning test will only help with part of one stage.

Aldi's own careers site lists the Graduate Area Manager process as an online application with judgement and personal-quality tests, a video interview, an online psychometric test, an individual assessment with a presentation and a competency interview, a virtual group assessment and a final interview with a regional managing director. Third-party sources put some of these in a different order, and one places the psychometric test after the video. Follow your own emails.

The point is how much of this is not a reasoning test. Only the first and third rungs involve ability tests. If you are choosing how to spend a week, give the reasoning practice a day or two and spend the rest on the presentation and the competency interview.

Aldi says the tests in the application assess your judgement and analytical skills. Judgement is likely a situational test: a scenario in a store or a depot, and a choice of what you would do. Analytical skills is the language of numerical and reading questions. That matches what candidates report, but Aldi does not break it down, so we are reading the label rather than quoting a spec.

Candidates on Glassdoor describe the reasoning tests as covering numerical, reading and pattern questions, with verbal and diagrammatic reasoning manageable and numerical harder. One advises that the practice assessments were much easier than the real thing, so it is sensible to prepare with harder material.

That last point is worth acting on. Employer-provided samples are often written to be reassuring. A full 45-minute test with numerical tables followed by long passages is deliberately more demanding, and doing it once will make a shorter, easier test feel manageable.

Work the numerical half with a pen and paper, and for the reading half train yourself to find the deciding sentence before you decide. The how to pass reasoning tests guide has a one-week plan. Pattern and diagrammatic questions are not in our reasoning test; the CCAT practice test has shape sequences if you want some.

The "Who am I?" video is recorded against an on-screen countdown, and the individual assessment includes a short presentation. These are the stages where Aldi sees you rather than a score. Prepare them as seriously as the tests.

For the video, pick one clear story about what you have run, fixed or led, and say it in plain words. For the presentation, keep to the time and cut anything you cannot explain in a sentence.

Aldi's careers site says you are welcome to use AI tools and technology as a helpful resource to prepare for your interview. That is about preparation. It does not say AI is allowed during the online tests, so do not assume it is. Use a chatbot to rehearse answers or explain a missed practice question, and sit the tests themselves unaided.

Aldi lists a 2:1 in any discipline, a minimum of 96 UCAS points (240 on the old tariff), a driving licence and the right to work in the UK. These are screening criteria rather than a test, but they decide whether you reach the tests at all. Check them against your own situation before you spend a week practising.

These come from anonymous reviews, university careers pages and prep guides. They often disagree, and Aldi has not confirmed them. Read them as leads, not rules.

• A Glassdoor reviewer says the online tests covered numerical, reading and pattern questions and found them easier than most jobs' tests; another found verbal and diagrammatic reasoning manageable and the numerical section harder.
• One candidate advised that the practice assessments were much easier than the real thing.
• Reports mention a situational judgement test before the reasoning tests, a video interview with timed answers, and an assessment centre including a store-walk discussion and reviewing a set of CVs. The reports mostly date from 2016 to 2024.
• TargetJobs describes candidates being given a limited amount of time to record their video answers. That article is several years old.