How to pass the WorkQuay skills assessment

Every worker on WorkQuay takes a 20-question assessment before applying to their first job. It's not there to trip you up — it's there so companies know the person on the other end of a chat or a task can actually follow instructions written in English. Here's what to expect and how to approach it.

What's on the test

Two 10-question sections, both timed at 10 minutes:

1. English proficiency — grammar, vocabulary, and short reading-comprehension questions. We're checking whether you can understand English instructions, not whether you speak it natively.
2. General knowledge — tech literacy, AI basics, remote-work conventions. "What is a CSV file", "what does RLHF stand for", "what's the difference between a contractor and an employee". Nothing exotic.

You need ≥ 70% on each section. You get 3 attempts within a rolling 7-day window. If you fail three times, the test unlocks again a week after your oldest failed attempt.

Why we test at all

Before we had the assessment, about 1 in 4 applications came from accounts that couldn't follow the job description. Companies wasted hours filtering. We wasted money on no-show candidates. Now they don't — and the workers who pass know up-front that their profile is taken seriously.

How to actually prepare

For the English section

• Read job posts on the site (/jobs). The vocabulary and sentence structure in those posts is exactly the level the test targets. If you can skim 5 job posts and understand the requirements without a dictionary, you're ready.
• Don't rush. You have 60 seconds per question. Most questions can be answered in 15 — use the rest to re-read tricky ones.
• Common traps: tense confusion (was/were, have been/had been), prepositions (in/on/at), and negation ("not all results were accurate" is not the same as "all results were not accurate").

For the general-knowledge section

• Know what CSV, JSON, JPG, MP4, PDF are.
• Know what CPU, RAM, cloud storage do.
• Know what AI, machine learning, training data, prompt, chatbot mean — in one sentence each.
• Know what timezone, UTC, async communication are.
• Know the difference between full-time, part-time, contract, and task-based work.

You won't be asked to code or do math. The question pool is deliberately practical.

During the test

• Close other tabs. Not a rule, but distractions cost you points you don't have to lose.
• Questions are randomized per attempt. You won't see the same set twice.
• You must answer every question before submitting. There's no partial submit.
• Skipping is fine — click through, come back to hard ones at the end.

If you don't pass

Don't panic. The system shows you which section you failed and you can retry. If it's English, spend a day reading job posts and English news sites like BBC or Reuters. If it's general knowledge, re-read this article and the beginner's guide to annotation.

If you fail 3 times, the 7-day cooldown starts on the day of your first failed attempt — so one attempt "expires" each day and your counter resets organically.

After you pass

Your profile is marked verified and you can start applying. Head to jobs or finish your profile at /dashboard/profile — a complete profile dramatically improves the quality of companies that reach out to you.