The recruiting game is changing fast.
Today, companies are using increasingly advanced tools to assess applicants beyond the usual résumés and interviews.
One of the most talked about, Pymetrics Games, neurosciences-based solutions designed to measure over 90 cognitive, behavioral, and social traits. They provide a clear, data-driven view of candidates’ skills and personality traits through an interactive experience.
What are Pymetrics games? And why are they attracting interest from leading consulting firms worldwide? In this blog, we’ll explain what they are, their scientific foundations, how they function, and why they’ve become an essential evaluation tool for recruiters.
Finally, we’ll share a few practical tips to help you confidently tackle them and aim for a top performance.
What are Pymetrics games?
Designed to assess candidates’ cognitive, emotional, and social abilities—as well as their soft skills—Pymetrics Games were created to offer recruiters a valid alternative to traditional selection methods. These games collect in-depth data on how a person makes decisions, solves problems, manages risks, and interacts with others.
The company behind them is Pymetrics, a U.S.-based firm founded in 2013 by Frida Polli, an award-winning neuroscientist who graduated from Harvard and MIT and later became a startup founder. In 2021, Harver — an international platform specializing in recruitment solutions — acquired Pymetrics to integrate cognitive and emotional assessments into its processes.
Their goal is to make the recruiting process fair, scientific, and free from bias — unconscious cognitive judgments that can unintentionally influence decisions and evaluations.
The data collected through the games is then compared with profiles of employees who already work at the company and have performed exceptionally well. Why? Because this approach helps identify candidates whose traits align with those of top performers.
Let’s take a closer look at why this matters: based on the company’s experience, a specific behavioral profile tends to succeed in certain roles. For this reason, Pymetrics looks for candidates who show a similar approach during the games, helping identify the best fit without relying solely on résumés or references.
Now that we've covered the basics, let's dive into specific examples of these games.
Types of Pymetrics games
Pymetrics Games are short, simple mini games that take just a few minutes to complete. You don’t need specific knowledge, and there are no right or wrong answers.
The goal is to see how you think, make decisions, respond to different situations, and handle uncertainty.
Let’s break them down and see what each game is all about:
Balloon game
Balloon is a risk tolerance game. The player inflates a virtual balloon with each click. The more it inflates, the more points they earn—but if it pops, they lose everything.
It’s designed to measure risk tolerance and self-control under pressure.
Tower game
This is a planning & strategy game. Candidates must move disks from one tower to another, following specific rules and trying to reach a target configuration in as few moves as possible.
It’s focused on assessing planning skills, logical reasoning, and problem-solving abilities.
Money exchange game
This game simulates a financial exchange between two parties, with cooperation and trust emphasis. The decisions reveal how collaborative or competitive the player is and how much trust he's willing to place in others.
There’s also a second money exchange game, a modified version of the first game. It assesses the candidate's altruism, particularly in social decision-making contexts.
Stop game
Here impulse control is in evidence. The candidate is asked to press a key when specific signals appear and to hold back when others do.
This game measures their ability to suppress automatic reactions and stay focused.
Digits game
Valuing short-term memory, the applicant must memorize and accurately repeat increasingly complex sequences of numbers.
It's a classic test of working memory and attention to detail.
Hard or easy task game
The player chooses between easy and difficult tasks, revealing their attitude toward risk, self-confidence, and motivation.
This game identifies candidate’s approach to effort, decision-making, and motivation, providing insights into how they handle challenges and make choices under pressure.
Arrows game
Directions of two flashing arrows must be identified, each following different rules depending on their color.
It evaluates the candidate’s adaptability and learning ability.
Lengths game
The player will be shown one of two almost identical images, where a specific element may be slightly longer or shorter. Stay focused and determine which version is being displayed.
Attention to detail and motivation are gauged.
Cards game
Cards are chosen from four different decks. Each card can either win or lose you money. At first, the outcomes may seem random, but if you pay close attention, you’ll start to recognize the underlying patterns.
The goal is to maximize your earnings. It assesses decision-making under uncertainty, risk tolerance, pattern recognition, and learning ability.
Faces game
In this unique game, the candidate will be shown various facial expressions, sometimes paired with a short description. Candidate’s task is to identify the emotion being expressed.
It evaluates emotional intelligence and the ability to read nonverbal cues.
Keypress game
In Keypress the candidate is asked to press a specific key as quickly as possible when prompted and then immediately stop when instructed. The game alternates rapidly between “start” and “stop” signals.
This way, it analyzes the ability to follow instructions and impulse control.
Companies that use Pymetrics on their recruitment
Several leading companies currently use Pymetrics in their recruitment processes. These include Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle).
Operating in the highly competitive fields of strategic consulting and professional services, these firms rely on Pymetrics to ensure more objective and inclusive candidate evaluations.
What are good Pymetrics results?
Pymetrics doesn’t provide a traditional score. Instead, it analyzes emotional, cognitive, and social traits to scrutinize candidate’s alignment with the company’s culture and specific role.
Recruiters typically value a candidate’s ability to stay focused and avoid distractions, as well as their motivation and drive.
Strategic and innovative roles often require a moderate to high tolerance for risk, while compliance and oversight positions tend to favor a more cautious mindset.
Being socially aware and able to manage relationships effectively is also essential, as is the ability to make quick, well-reasoned decisions.
Finally, roles that demand patience, long-term thinking, or risk management rely heavily on solid impulse control.
Tips to succeed in the game
You don’t need to get the “right” answers to succeed in Pymetrics games. What matters most is staying focused, thinking logically, and being consistent throughout.
Each game is designed to measure your natural strengths, so try to stay relaxed, clear-headed, and engaged. Above all, trust your instincts.
To help you prepare, check out this article on how to calculate percentages or the math of online assessments. It’s a great way to sharpen your practical reasoning for number-based games like the digits game.
