P&G's PEAK assessment takes about 20 minutes and will not let you skip a single question

P&G's second online step, the Interactive Assessment, is described by prep sites as short cognitive games covering numerical, logical and spatial reasoning, and older P&G processes used a numerical and logical Reasoning Test. Our reasoning test drills the numerical and logical thinking those games and the older test rely on.

The PEAK Performance Assessment itself is a questionnaire about your background, interests and work attitudes, not a reasoning test, and no drill reproduces it. The Interactive Assessment uses game formats (switch, digit, grid) that differ from our multiple-choice items, and P&G requests it only for some roles.

The PEAK Performance Assessment asks about your background, experience, interests and attitudes to work, and P&G compares the answers with the competencies it has found predict success in its roles. P&G says most applicants need about 20 minutes. Items include multiple choice and ratings on a sliding scale, and you cannot submit until every question is answered.

That means there is no skipping and no coming back later. Read each item once, answer it as honestly as you can, and move on. Prep sites list P&G's PEAK factors as leading with courage, innovating for growth, championing productivity, executing with excellence and bringing out your best. Reading them beforehand helps you recognise what a scenario is about, but answering as the candidate you think they want rather than as yourself tends to produce an inconsistent profile.

P&G lists the Interactive Assessment as a separate online step and says it is requested based on the requirements of the role. Prep sites describe three short game-like challenges, delivered on an Aon (formerly cut-e) platform, lasting about 30 minutes in total. They are reported to test deductive, numerical and spatial reasoning.

• Switch challenge (reported): work out which rule transforms one row of symbols into another. Logical, rule-finding.
• Digit challenge (reported): fill in missing digits so a simple equation works. Mental arithmetic under time pressure.
• Grid challenge (reported): remember positions on a grid while solving a separate task in between. Spatial memory.

Game assessments tend to reward calm accuracy more than raw speed. The skills underneath are familiar: spotting rules, quick sums and holding information in mind. Our free reasoning test builds the numerical and logical habits, our abstract reasoning test is close to rule-finding, and our game-based assessments guide explains how these formats score.

Practise quick arithmetic without a calculator for ten minutes a day in the week before. Times tables, simple division and checking whether an equation balances are what the digit challenge is reported to need.

Many guides still describe a P&G Reasoning Test with numerical and logical questions, and a Success Drivers questionnaire about motivation and values. These appear to be earlier names and formats for what P&G now calls the PEAK Performance Assessment and the Interactive Assessment. If a guide describes long numerical sections, check its date.

Follow the names in your own invitation. If it says Interactive Assessment, prepare for games; if it says PEAK, prepare to describe yourself honestly and quickly.

A P&G regional hiring page and several prep sites say that if you do not pass an assessment you can try again after 12 months; we could not confirm the rule on every regional page. Either way, treat your first sitting as the one that counts. Sit it when you are rested, on a reliable connection, in a quiet room, and not squeezed between lectures.

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

• Prep sites describe the Interactive Assessment as Switch, Digit and Grid challenges on an Aon platform, taking about 30 minutes.
• Prep sites describe the PEAK assessment variously as situational judgement and personality items, or as untimed.
• Prep sites list P&G's PEAK factors as lead with courage, innovate for growth, champion productivity, execute with excellence and bring out your best.
• A UK guide describes the route as application and online assessments, then an initial interview, then a half-day final assessment centre.
• Older guides describe a P&G Reasoning Test of numerical and logical questions and a Success Drivers questionnaire.