Amazon's assessment is not a test you can cram. Here is the part you can practise

Amazon says some of its work simulations ask you to read data from a chart, and reports describe numerical data in tables and graphs for some operations and management roles. The first half of our reasoning test is 25 questions of exactly that kind.

Most Amazon assessments are work style questionnaires and role simulations, not aptitude tests, and Amazon says most roles need no advance preparation. A reasoning practice test only helps where a data-reading task appears. It will not help with the work style assessment, and it does not cover coding.

Amazon's jobs site describes two common kinds of assessment. The first is a work style assessment, which Amazon says is centred on its Leadership Principles and takes typically 10 to 20 minutes. You choose how well a statement describes you. There are no right sums and nothing to revise.

The second is a work sample simulation: virtual tasks related to a specific position, typically taking 20 minutes to an hour. Depending on the role, the tasks may involve reading data from a chart, answering a customer question, choosing how to resolve an issue, multitasking, or finding information across several sources.

Amazon is also direct about preparation: for most roles other than software engineering, no advance preparation is required. We would rather tell you that than sell you a plan you do not need.

One of the simulation tasks Amazon names is reading data from a chart. If your role includes it, a table-reading practice test is useful, because it builds the habit that matters most: say what you need, find it, check the units, answer. The first 25 questions of the free test above are exactly that kind of work.

Prep sites and candidate reviews go further. They say some operations and management assessments include numerical reasoning from graphs, tables and charts, and one prep provider lists a numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning component for Area Manager. Amazon's pages we read do not confirm a separate reasoning test, so read that as a possibility, not a promise.

Amazon says to answer without overthinking and not to spend long on any one item. Read the Leadership Principles once so you know the vocabulary, think of a real example for two or three of them, and then answer as you would actually behave. Trying to guess the most Amazonian answer every time tends to produce contradictions, and you cannot revise your way out of that.

Because the assessment is part of a process that includes interviews built on the same principles, it also helps to prepare short stories you can use later.

Amazon's pages show how much it varies. The software engineering assessment includes coding plus a short work style survey; the SDE II assessment gives 90 minutes for technical questions, then 20 minutes of systems design scenarios and an 8-minute multiple-choice work style survey. The Field Manager assessment is a 60-minute evaluation with five sections, one of them Work Styles. Customer service associates get a longer 10 to 25 minute work style range.

So the first thing to do is open the job page and the invitation, and see which assessment you have been given. A warehouse applicant, a customer service applicant and a field manager applicant will not sit the same thing.

Most assessments are conducted virtually, and many are timed, so set aside enough time. You need internet access, a computer with a reliable connection and email access. Deadlines are strict, and Amazon says that if one is missed it cannot grant extensions. Put the deadline in your calendar the day the invitation arrives.

Search results for Amazon assessments are full of pages that promise answers or a preview of the test. Amazon does not publish its questions, and any site that claims to give you the actual answers is guessing or selling something. Our practice test says plainly what it is: original questions in a similar style, useful for the skills and not a preview of Amazon's content.

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

• Prep sites say the majority of Amazon jobs involve ability tests such as numerical and logical reasoning, with numerical data in graphs, tables or charts. Amazon's pages we read do not state this.
• One prep provider lists an Amazon Area Manager test alongside a work style assessment, a personality test and numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning components.
• A candidate review describes a numerical reasoning test followed by interviews at a distribution centre, with questions based on Amazon's values.
• Prep sites describe a "Virtual Job Tryout" with five sections including ranking responses to scenarios, prioritising daily tasks and interpreting data in a report; durations quoted range from 10 to 50 minutes. Amazon's pages we read use the terms work style assessment and work sample simulation.