FBI Phase I is five assessments in about three hours, and two failures end your candidacy

The FBI's Phase I test includes Logic-Based Reasoning, where you read a set of facts and decide what must be true, and Figural Reasoning, where you complete shape and pattern sequences. Our CCAT-style test mixes deduction and shape-sequence items under time pressure, the closest general practice we offer for those two parts.

Phase I also has a personality assessment, a preferences and interests inventory and situational judgement, none of which our tests imitate. The FBI publishes a testing overview with sample items, which is the better guide. It does not publish the passing score in what we read.

Phase I has five assessments. Two have right answers: Logic-Based Reasoning and Figural Reasoning. Three describe you: a Personality Assessment and a Preferences and Interests inventory, both self-report on a five-point agree-to-disagree scale, and Situational Judgment.

The FBI says the personality and preferences sections identify people with the dispositional qualities to succeed as special agents. Answer them honestly and consistently. The reasoning parts are where practice helps, so put your preparation time there.

The FBI's testing overview says this section assesses your ability to read a set of facts and use problem-solving and reasoning skills. Its sample items ask which statement must be true given a short scenario.

Must be true is a high bar. Eliminate any option that adds a fact, assumes a motive or depends on what usually happens. Our CCAT practice test and verbal reasoning questions both train strict deduction from given facts.

The FBI says Figural Reasoning contains nine questions, each a set of shapes or patterns with one piece missing. Patterns can run across rows or down columns and can change shape, color, number of sides or other features.

Work systematically: check rows first, then columns, and list each feature that changes before choosing. Our abstract reasoning test gives free practice with exactly this kind of matrix.

Once invited, you have 14 days to schedule and complete Phase I, and you learn whether you passed within an hour of finishing. Fail it twice and the FBI deactivates you and makes you ineligible for future consideration for the special agent position.

With only two chances, sit the first attempt prepared. Take the FBI's sample items, practise reasoning daily for two weeks, and book a test slot at a time of day when you are sharp.

After Phase I come a fitness self-evaluation, a Meet and Greet within 30 days of eligibility, and the Physical Fitness Test: pull-ups, a 300-meter sprint, push-ups and a 1.5-mile run, needing at least 1 point in each event and 10 in total. Phase II has a computerized writing assessment and a one-hour panel interview with three special agents, each allowing two attempts.

A pass leads to a Conditional Appointment Offer, then a polygraph, medical and background investigation, and an 18-week Basic Field Training Course in which you must pass a fitness test again.