The Harver assessment is a modular hiring screen with cognitive tests, pymetrics games, and job simulations. Formats, timing, and what your score means.
Dr. Russell T. WarneChief Scientist
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The Harver assessment is a modular pre-employment screen used in high-volume hiring: employers assemble it from Harver's library of cognitive ability tests, behavioral questionnaires, game-based modules, job simulations, and practical checks like typing and system diagnostics. The cognitive sections run roughly 6 to 24 minutes each, and the game-based module, built from the pymetrics games Harver acquired in 2022, takes about 25 minutes. Because it is modular, no two employers' Harver assessments are quite alike. This article explains the pieces, the company history, and what a Harver score does and does not measure.
What is inside a Harver assessment
Harver groups its library into four buckets: work behavior, work ability, work knowledge and skills, and remote-work readiness. The parts candidates ask about most:
• Cognitive ability tests: Five areas: logical reasoning with figures, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, perceptual speed and accuracy, and spatial ability. Employers pick the subtests per role; the vendor says each section takes about 6 to 24 minutes.
• Game-based behavioral modules: Twelve-plus short games measuring traits like effort, risk tolerance, attention, and decision-making. These are the former pymetrics games, marketed as nonverbal to reduce language and cultural bias.
• Situational judgment and job previews: Realistic scenarios that double as a preview of the actual work.
• Skills and practical checks: Typing tests, language assessments, contact-center simulations, and internet-speed diagnostics for remote roles.
The company behind it
Harver began in Amsterdam as a volume-hiring software company. In May 2021 the Dallas-based assessment firm Outmatch acquired it and, six months later, adopted the Harver name for the combined company. In August 2022 Harver completed its acquisition of pymetrics, the neuroscience-based games company founded by Frida Polli, folding its games into the platform. The vendor reports more than 1,300 customers and over 100 million candidates processed, which puts Harver alongside HireVue and SHL among the largest screening platforms. One genuinely useful artifact of its scale: Harver publishes a New York City Local Law 144 bias audit of the pymetrics platform, one of the few public fairness documents in the industry.
Is the Harver assessment an IQ test?
No, though its cognitive modules are the closest thing in the suite. Logical, verbal, numerical, and spatial reasoning are exactly the abilities IQ batteries sample, and the selection literature consistently finds general cognitive ability among the strongest predictors of job performance. But Harver scores candidates against job profiles and applicant pools, publishes no technical manual with per-module reliability, and returns no IQ score or population percentile. Prep-site tables of "Harver answers" and pass marks are guesswork; cutoffs are set by each employer. Timed screens in this family, like the CCAT, work the same way. If you want to know where your reasoning actually stands, the Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test from RIOT IQ measures six abilities against real norms, and you can take a free IQ test today.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the Harver assessment take?
It depends on the modules your employer chose. Cognitive sections run about 6 to 24 minutes each; the game-based module takes about 25 minutes.
What do the Harver games measure?
Behavioral traits such as effort, risk tolerance, attention, focus, and decision style, via the former pymetrics games.
Did Harver buy pymetrics?
Yes. The acquisition was completed on August 11, 2022, and the games now ship as Harver's game-based behavioral assessments.
Is Harver the same company as Outmatch?
Yes. Outmatch acquired Harver in May 2021 and rebranded the combined company as Harver that November.
Can you retake a Harver assessment?
Retake policy belongs to the hiring employer, not Harver; there is no published universal rule.
