Pluralsight's reported CCAT for account executives

Pluralsight and the CCAT at a glance

Where the CCAT sits in Pluralsight's hiring process

1. 1

   Recruiter screen

   Typical first step; not described in the source.

2. 2

   CCAT

   Per the interview guide, must be passed before hiring-team rounds. Unconfirmed.

3. 3

   Hiring-team interviews

   Per the interview guide, after the CCAT.

4. 4

   Sales exercise or role play

   Typical for account executive roles; not reported.

Steps are as candidates describe them. Processes change by role and over time.

Can your pace reach Pluralsight's target?

The numbers below use our estimate for Pluralsight: a range of 22 to 25 out of 50 with a target of 24. Nothing is saved. If you ask Clever below, it sees your numbers.

How sure is this?

Pluralsight runs an online technology skills platform with courses and assessments for developers and IT teams. The claim that its account executives take the CCAT comes from an interview-guide site, not from Pluralsight and not from a candidate review we could find.

That makes this the weakest evidence on our company list. Before you spend days preparing, ask your recruiter whether there is an aptitude test and which one. If the answer is Criteria, or a 50-question test in 15 minutes, the rest of this page applies.

Sales roles and verbal speed

Account executives spend their day reading, writing and talking, and the CCAT's verbal items lean on the same skill: knowing what a word means without stopping to think. Synonyms, antonyms and odd-one-out questions are the fastest items on the test when you know the word, and a time sink when you do not.

The fix is not memorizing a dictionary. Answer instantly when you know the word, and when you do not, eliminate any option that is clearly off in tone or category, guess from what is left, and move on within 15 seconds.

• Known word: answer in under 8 seconds.
• Half-known word: eliminate two options, pick, move on.
• Unknown word: guess at once and bank the time.

A pace plan for a sales candidate

A 24 out of 50 means answering about half the questions correctly. Many sales candidates get there by being fast on verbal items and selective on math and spatial ones. Use the pacing check on this page to see whether your practice pace reaches the target, then decide which question types to skip first.

If your practice pace says you will reach only 35 questions, you need about 7 in 10 of those right to land near 24. If you can reach 45, a little over 5 in 10 is enough. Speed and accuracy trade off, and for most sales candidates a little more speed is the cheaper gain.

The math a sales candidate should not skip

Skipping is a tool, not a plan for a whole section. Percentages of round numbers, simple averages and unit prices are short, and they look like the quota and discount math account executives already do. Answer those, and save your skips for long spatial items and tables.

Question types to drill first

• SynonymsThe fastest verbal points on the test when vocabulary is strong.Verbal questions with worked examples
• Verbal odd one outQuick category spotting that suits candidates who read fast.Verbal questions with worked examples
• PercentagesQuota and discount math that sales candidates should answer without hesitation.Math questions with worked examples

Roles at Pluralsight reported to include the CCAT

Tips for the Pluralsight CCAT

• Ask the recruiter whether the CCAT is part of the process before you start preparing.
• Give known vocabulary words under 8 seconds and unknown ones a single guess.
• On odd-one-out items, name the category of four words first, then find the word that breaks it.
• Skip long spatial items first if you are behind pace; verbal items return more points per second for most sales candidates.
• Practise one timed test in the same time of day you plan to take the link.

Practice questions in the same formats

These are our own practice questions, written in the CCAT's formats. Pluralsight does not publish its test questions, and neither does Criteria. For a full timed run, take the free CCAT practice test.

How we estimate

Pluralsight does not publish a CCAT score, so the numbers on this page are our estimate. We start from Criteria's published job-family floors for the roles candidates report, then place them against Criteria's two norm groups, where the median raw score is 24. We adjust for how competitive the applicant pool is, and we use an employer's own published baseline whenever one exists.

Percentiles come from a normal model on Criteria's published median and standard deviations, shown as a range across both groups. See the CCAT percentile chart for the method and what a good CCAT score is for the published job-family floors.

Clever Cat Prep is not affiliated with Pluralsight or Criteria Corp. Pluralsight is a trademark of its owner.