CCAT logic · 6 worked questions · 5 question types
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This page is about the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT), the hiring test, not the Canadian school test with the same initials. Logic questions give you a few facts and ask what must follow. They feel like puzzles, which is the danger: a puzzle invites you to keep thinking, and at 18 seconds a question you cannot. For all four domains on one page, see CCAT practice questions.
In our simulator's mix, logic is 6 of the 50 questions. That is our mix, not a number published by Criteria. Our bank has five logic types: Deductive statements (syllogisms), If–then reasoning, Ordering & ranking, Letter sequences, and Overlapping groups.
Two of them use a three-choice format: True, False or Uncertain. You are told to assume some statements are true, then judge a conclusion. True means it must follow. False means it cannot be true. Uncertain means the facts allow it either way.
Number series are not on this list. Each step in a number series is arithmetic, so we teach them on the CCAT math questions page. Letter sequences stay here: you turn letters into positions, but the work is spotting a pattern across several letters at once.
At 18 seconds a question, 6 logic questions is 1 minute and 48 seconds on average. That is not much, and a single ordering question with five people can eat 40 seconds if you build the chain in your head. Use scratch paper for ordering. For True, False or Uncertain, you should decide in one pass. If you are rereading the premises a third time, pick your best answer and move on.
Each one is from our practice bank. Answer first, then open the solution.
Assume the first two statements are true. All musicians are runners. All runners are volunteers. Conclusion: All volunteers are musicians. Is the conclusion True, False, or Uncertain?
Answer: C, Uncertain
The chain runs in only one direction. The third group might contain members outside the first group. No extra facts about these groups may be assumed.
Do not reverse all-statements or invent an overlap that was never given.
Fast route. Draw the chain as arrows: musicians → runners → volunteers. A conclusion that follows the arrows is True. One that runs against them is Uncertain unless something rules it out.
Trap. Reversing an "all" statement. All musicians are volunteers does not mean all volunteers are musicians. That reversal is the trap this type is built around.
In Leon’s system, the following rule always holds: If a file is approved, then it is archived. For the item in question, it is NOT the case that it is archived. Conclusion: it is NOT the case that a file is approved. Is the conclusion True, False, or Uncertain?
Answer: A, True
If the required consequence is absent, the original condition cannot hold. This is the contrapositive.
If A implies B, not B implies not A. B alone does not prove A.
Fast route. Remember one rule. If A means B, then not B means not A. The file is not archived, so it was not approved: True.
Trap. Running the rule backwards. If the file were archived, you could not conclude it was approved. B alone does not prove A, and the answer there is Uncertain.
Syllogisms and if-then questions get their own page with harder examples: CCAT syllogisms.
Five runners finished with no ties. Priya finished before Dara. Dara finished before Theo. Leon finished before Jules. Theo finished before Leon. Who finished last?
Answer: C, Jules
The order from first to last is Priya → Dara → Theo → Leon → Jules. Jules finished last.
Build a short chain. For rank from both ends, add the ranks and subtract one.
Fast route. Write the names in a line as you read, left is earlier. Start from the person with nobody before them. Priya, Dara, Theo, Leon, Jules.
Trap. Holding all five in your head. Writing takes a few seconds and stops you from flipping two names.
In a line, Rina is 14th from the front and 14th from the back. How many people are in the line?
Answer: B, 27
Add the ranks and subtract the person counted twice: 14 + 14 − 1 = 27.
Build a short chain. For rank from both ends, add the ranks and subtract one.
Fast route. Add the two ranks and subtract one. 14 + 14 − 1 = 27.
Trap. Forgetting to subtract one. Rina is counted in both ranks, so 28 counts her twice.
What comes next in the series? pa, ne, li, jm, ?
Answer: B, hq
First letters step back by 2 (p=16, n=14, l=12, j=10, h=8). Second letters step by 4 (a=1, e=5, i=9, m=13, q=17). The next group is hq.
Read each letter position as its own series.
Fast route. Split each group into its letters and treat each position as its own series. First letters go back two (p, n, l, j, h). Second letters go forward four (a, e, i, m, q). Answer: hq.
Trap. Looking at the whole group as one thing. And after z comes a: some sequences wrap.
Of 80 students, 57 passed the math exam and 49 passed the reading exam. What is the smallest possible number of students who passed both exams?
Answer: E, 26
The two groups total 57 + 49 = 106, but there are only 80 students, so at least 106 - 80 = 26 must be in both. This minimum occurs when nobody passed neither.
Minimum overlap = sum of groups minus total (if positive).
Fast route. Smallest overlap = the two groups added, minus the total. 57 + 49 − 80 = 26.
Trap. Answering with the smaller group (49). That is the largest possible overlap, not the smallest. Read "smallest" and "greatest" twice.
This format has rules of its own, and two of our five logic types use it.
Logic is the smallest domain in our mix, so do not spend most of your prep here. Get the True, False or Uncertain rules right, learn the two counting rules (rank from both ends, smallest overlap), and drill until your scratch-paper chain for ordering is automatic.
Then take a full CCAT practice test to practice logic in between math and verbal questions, where switching costs you time. Your one free session can be a full test: see the free CCAT practice test. After it, the AI coach points at the logic types that took you longest and explains the rule you broke on each miss.
See CCAT math questions, CCAT verbal questions and CCAT spatial reasoning questions.
It means the premises allow the conclusion to be true or false. Pick it when nothing written forces either answer, for example when a conclusion reverses an "all" statement.
Criteria does not publish a count per domain. Our simulator uses 6 logic questions out of 50, which is our own mix.
We teach them as math, because each step is a difference or a ratio. Letter sequences are logic.
Our simulator assumes you have paper, and ordering questions are where it helps most. Check your test invitation for the rules your employer set.
Draw each "all" statement as an arrow and check whether the conclusion follows the arrows. Then practice until you decide in one read.
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