I’ve applied for nearly 40 GS positions and have never had to do an online assessment before. I get that in almost every job they say something like “your experience but be apparent on your resume” or something, but I’ve never had to do as assessment until today.

The assessment had one section of “occupational reasoning” and boy was that a challenge. I never imagined being asked such riddles. One example was something like

Three teams - Yonni and Zoey, Xavier and Wanda, and Uri and Veronica - work together on a project. Zoey, Wanda and Veronica are women; Yonni, Xavier, and Uri are men. Each person has one of the following items: calculator, laptop, pen, pencil, eraser. - The two people on each team have different items. - Each of the men has a different item. - Wanda has a pen. - Neither Yonni nor Uri has a pen or pencil. - Veronica has a laptop.

Based on the information above, which of the following statements MUST be true? Blah blah blah.

This one was my most challenging and I had to completely guess. Has anyone else encountered these?