IQ Test for the Military

The military does not use IQ tests by that name, but its aptitude tests measure closely related reasoning skills, and this test lets you try timed reasoning in about 12 minutes.

What's your IQ?

Take the IQ test

25 questions · about 12 minutes

What would you score? Try question 1.

Which option completes the grid? One tap, no sign-up.

The test at a glance

Questions: 25 visual puzzles
Question types: 5 sets, each easy to hard
Time: 12-minute timer
Scoring: Same for every age, not age-adjusted
Cost: No sign-up to start. When you finish, you choose a report to see your result.

Scores are not age-normed, and this is not a clinical or diagnostic test.

Armies have tested recruits' reasoning for over a century. If you are thinking about enlisting, it is natural to wonder how you would do.

A short history of military testing

In 1917 the US Army gave the Army Alpha, a written test, and the Army Beta, a picture-based test for recruits who could not read English, to about 1.75 million men. It was the first mass intelligence testing in history.

In the 1960s, Project 100,000 under Defense Secretary Robert McNamara admitted hundreds of thousands of men who scored below the usual standards. Later studies of how those recruits fared are one reason minimum test scores are still enforced today.

The tests you would actually take

US: the ASVAB. Four of its sections form the AFQT, reported as a percentile from 1 to 99. By law, applicants scoring below the 10th percentile cannot enlist, and each service sets its own higher minimum.
UK Army: recruits have long taken the British Army Recruit Battery (BARB), a short computer-based reasoning test, alongside other assessments.
UK officer and aircrew roles: further aptitude testing, such as the RAF's at the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre at Cranwell.

How this test works for military applicants

Our puzzles are visual pattern and logic problems under a 12-minute clock. They do not cover the maths, word knowledge or mechanical sections of the ASVAB, so this is not a practice ASVAB, and we do not claim it will raise your score. It shows how you handle abstract reasoning under time pressure.

What scores mean for military roles

AFQT percentiles and IQ scores are different scales, but both rank you against a reference group. For comparison, on a standard IQ scale the 10th percentile is about 81 and the 50th is 100.

Specialist roles such as pilots and intelligence analysts use additional tests, so the entry floor tells you little about the most selective jobs.