Tech Elevator tests your aptitude twice: a five-question warm-up, then the full CCAT

Tech Elevator has published its own guide to preparing for the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test, which it uses in admissions. Our CCAT practice test mirrors that format with 50 original questions on a 15-minute timer, mixing verbal, number and shape items, so it is the closest free rehearsal we can offer.

The short opening aptitude quiz, the application form and the interview with a team leader are outside what we simulate. Tech Elevator judges your score against the range Criteria suggests, which it does not print, so treat our percentile as a guide rather than a verdict.

Applicants often mix up Tech Elevator's two aptitude checks. The first is a mini test of five multiple-choice questions, a quick way to see whether the bootcamp is a sensible fit before you put time into an application. The second is the CCAT, a standardized 50-question test from Criteria Corp with a hard 15-minute limit.

Do not let an easy quiz set your expectations for the second. Five untimed questions say little about how you will handle fifty on a clock, so rehearse the CCAT on its own terms.

Tech Elevator says its aptitude tests help it judge problem-solving, critical thinking and creative thinking, the abilities that let someone pick up programming quickly in a compressed course. One review calls the test logic-based, which matches the CCAT's mix of deduction, number series and pattern questions.

This is good news if you have never written code. The CCAT does not check what you already know about software. It checks how quickly you reason through unfamiliar problems, which is exactly what learning to code demands in the first weeks.

Tech Elevator's CCAT guide says that as long as your score sits anywhere inside the range Criteria suggests, you pass. Criteria builds suggested ranges for different kinds of role and does not publish the one a bootcamp uses, so you cannot look up the exact number.

Prep sites fill the gap with estimates. One puts a competitive range at 24 to 32 out of 50 and suggests aiming above the 50th percentile; Criteria's own sample report places the median at 24. Those are reasonable targets for practice, not promises. Our good CCAT score guide explains what different raw scores usually mean.

Start with one timed run of our CCAT practice test to find your weakest family. Spend the next few days on that family in short daily sessions, then take a second full run two days before your test to check your pacing. The night before, stop practising and sleep.

• Day 1: one full timed run, then review every wrong answer.
• Days 2 to 4: fifteen minutes a day on your weakest question family.
• Day 5: a second full run with the clock visible.
• Day 6: light review of mistakes only.
• Test day: quiet room, stable connection, scrap paper ready if your invitation allows it.

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

• Course Report describes the final admissions steps as an interview with a team leader and a second aptitude test.
• One prep site estimates a competitive Tech Elevator CCAT range of 24 to 32 out of 50, a figure Tech Elevator itself does not publish.
• Career Karma and other reviews describe the aptitude test as logic-based.