TfL ranks everyone's second-stage test score, then invites from the top down

Some TfL candidates, mostly on engineering schemes, report numerical and verbal tests after the scenario stage, and our reasoning test is a fair warm-up for those: timed questions on business tables and on whether a statement follows from a passage.

TfL's own pages describe a strengths-based online test: ranking responses to workplace scenarios, then recorded video answers. Neither is a reasoning test, and our questions will not rehearse them. If your invitation only mentions scenarios and video, spend your time on your examples and TfL's values instead.

In answers to freedom of information requests, TfL explains how it moves people from the online test to the assessment centre. Second-stage scores are ranked from highest to lowest, and TfL invites the number of candidates it needs for the roles on offer. That means there is no fixed pass mark to clear. You are being compared with everyone else who applied to the same scheme that year.

A freedom of information table for a 2024 London Underground track apprenticeship shows how steep that is. Of 86 candidates who took the second online assessment, 38 passed, 31 were invited to the assessment centre, 11 passed it and 10 were offered roles. The table also records a separate ranking step between the online tests and the centre.

Two consequences follow. First, a strong stage two can matter more than a perfect application, so give the video stage proper preparation time. Second, applying early does not by itself help your ranking, but finishing every stage well before the deadline protects you from technical problems that cannot be fixed afterwards.

Stage one shows you hypothetical situations and asks you to put possible responses in order of preference. One candidate describes ranking five actions per scenario. Ranking is harder than choosing a single best answer, because you also have to decide which options are merely weak and which would cause harm.

A workable method: find the response that solves the problem and keeps people informed, place it first; find the one that ignores safety, a colleague or the customer, place it last; then order the middle by how much each one helps. TfL runs a transport network, so safety and passengers deserve weight. Our situational judgement guide covers ranking formats in more depth.

TfL's current guidance gives 2 minutes of preparation before each video answer, and recording starts automatically when the time is up. TfL says the recordings are marked by trained assessors and that AI is not used to screen them. Candidates report five or six questions, on themes such as why TfL, why this scheme, a time you learned something new, and teamwork.

Use the preparation time to jot a three-line skeleton: the situation in a sentence, what you personally did, and what changed as a result. TfL suggests drawing examples from hobbies, work experience or school, so a student with no job history is not at a disadvantage. Gradcracker notes that the video platform lets you practise as many times as you like before the scored questions.

TfL's scheme listings on Bright Network give one week to complete the online assessments and say the tests cannot be reissued once the deadline passes. Candidates report a similar window of about seven days for the video stage. Once invited to an assessment centre, TfL's graduate scheme page gives 48 hours to confirm.

Put each deadline in your calendar the moment the email arrives, and check your junk folder daily during a live application. If you need reasonable adjustments, TfL says you can ask at any stage; Disability Confident applicants and those with adjustments can be offered a telephone or virtual interview instead of the video stage.

TfL says the assessment centre varies by role but may include an interview, a technical question, a test, a group task or a presentation, and that you receive the list of competencies being assessed beforehand. That list is your preparation plan: write one example for each competency and rehearse it aloud.

A candidate in January 2025 describes an in-person centre of about four hours. Older reports mention a group exercise and a presentation. Read TfL's vision and values before the day, as TfL itself advises, and compare formats across employers in our public sector assessment guide.

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

• A 2025 Glassdoor review for a graduate mechanical engineer role lists an application, a situational judgement test, numerical, verbal and non-verbal tests, a video interview and an assessment centre.
• Gradcracker says candidates have five days to complete the online tests, and that the video platform offers unlimited practice questions.
• A candidate in January 2025 describes an in-person assessment centre lasting about four hours, at the end of a process of two months.
• Prep sites say TfL's tests come from SHL, but TfL does not name a provider on the pages we read.