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Financial Reasoning Test

Name: Financial Reasoning Tests
Brand: Practice Aptitude Tests
Rating: 4.7 (56 reviews)

Graphs, tables and financial passages: margins, revenue, costs and ratios under time pressure. Every question below comes with the full working.

10 questions
12 minutes
Worked solutions
Printable PDF

Free · No sign-up · Scored the moment you finish

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Excellent, 4.7 out of 5 from 56 reviews

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Written by Guy Thornton, Founder, Practice Aptitude Tests

Published 8 May 2019 · Updated 11 September 2026

Built to frameworks from chartered occupational psychologists, and checked against real candidate results

What is a financial reasoning test?

A financial reasoning test measures how well you read financial figures and draw the right conclusion from them. Employers use it to sift applicants for finance and commercial roles before interview. You interpret data from statements, budgets and reports, then calculate figures such as margins, growth and ratios, choosing the best answer from four options. Clear reading of the numbers matters as much as the arithmetic.

Free financial reasoning test

What's inside

2 easy 6 medium 2 hard

Skills covered

margins
profit and loss
interest
currency conversion
percentage change
cash discounts
cashflow

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Question 1 of 10

01 / 10 Margins Medium

A product sells for £80 and costs £52 to make. What is its gross profit margin?

A 35%

B 53.8%

C 65%

D 28%

Show worked solution

Gross profit is £80 − £52 = £28. Gross profit margin expresses that profit as a percentage of the selling price, so 28 ÷ 80 = 0.35, which is 35%. Dividing the profit by the cost instead, 28 ÷ 52 = 53.8%, gives the mark-up, which uses the wrong base. Dividing the cost by the price, 52 ÷ 80 = 65%, gives the cost as a share of the price, the opposite of the margin. Reading the £28 cash profit itself as a percentage gives 28%, but a sum of money and the margin it represents are different quantities.

Question 2 of 10

02 / 10 Profit and loss Easy

What was the total profit across all three months?

Monthly revenue and costs for a small business
Month	Revenue (£)	Costs (£)
January	120,000	95,000
February	138,000	102,000
March	145,000	118,000

A £88,000

B £403,000

C £315,000

D £61,000

Show worked solution

Profit each month is revenue minus costs. January: 120,000 − 95,000 = £25,000. February: 138,000 − 102,000 = £36,000. March: 145,000 − 118,000 = £27,000. Total profit = 25,000 + 36,000 + 27,000 = £88,000. Adding the revenue column alone gives £403,000, and adding the costs column alone gives £315,000; neither is profit, and in fact 403,000 − 315,000 = 88,000 confirms the answer. Adding only January and February profit gives £61,000 and drops March.

Question 3 of 10

03 / 10 Interest Medium

£12,000 is invested at 4% simple interest per year. How much interest is earned after 3 years?

A £1,440

B £480

C £1,498.37

D £13,440

Show worked solution

Simple interest is the same each year: 12,000 × 4% = £480 per year. Over 3 years that is 480 × 3 = £1,440. Answering £480 gives one year only and forgets to multiply by three. Using compound interest, 12,000 × 1.04³ − 12,000 = £1,498.37, adds interest on the interest, but the question specifies simple interest, where the base stays £12,000 every year. Answering £13,440 gives the final balance, principal plus interest, when the question asks only for the interest earned.

Question 4 of 10

04 / 10 Currency conversion Medium

A company pays a supplier $18,600. The exchange rate is £1 = $1.24, and the bank adds a 1.5% fee to the converted sterling amount. What is the total cost in pounds?

A £15,225

B £15,000

C £23,410

D £14,775

Show worked solution

Convert dollars to pounds by dividing by the rate: 18,600 ÷ 1.24 = £15,000. Then add the 1.5% fee: 15,000 × 0.015 = £225, so the total is 15,000 + 225 = £15,225. Stopping at £15,000 forgets the fee. Multiplying by 1.24 instead of dividing, then adding the fee, gives 23,064 × 1.015 = £23,410, which runs the conversion the wrong way: a dollar is worth less than a pound, so the sterling figure must be smaller. Deducting the fee rather than adding it gives 15,000 × 0.985 = £14,775, but a bank charge increases what is paid.

Question 5 of 10

05 / 10 Percentage change Medium

By what percentage did operating profit change from Year 1 to Year 2?

Revenue and operating profit over two years
Year	Revenue (£)	Operating profit (£)
Year 1	500,000	60,000
Year 2	560,000	75,000

A 25% increase

B 20% increase

C 12% increase

D 2.5% increase

Show worked solution

Percentage change uses the starting year as the base. Operating profit rose by 75,000 − 60,000 = £15,000, so 15,000 ÷ 60,000 = 0.25, a 25% increase. Dividing by the Year 2 figure, 15,000 ÷ 75,000 = 20%, uses the wrong base. Looking at revenue instead of profit, (560,000 − 500,000) ÷ 500,000 = 12%, answers about the wrong line of the table. Reading 0.25 as 0.025 gives 2.5% and misplaces the decimal point by one place.

Question 6 of 10

06 / 10 Cash discounts Easy

A £6,000 invoice offers a 2% discount for payment within ten days. How much is paid if the invoice is settled early?

A £5,880

B £120

C £6,120

D £4,800

Show worked solution

A 2% discount reduces the £6,000 by 6,000 × 0.02 = £120, so the amount paid is 6,000 − 120 = £5,880. Answering £120 gives only the size of the discount, not the amount payable. Adding the discount instead of subtracting it gives 6,000 + 120 = £6,120, but a discount lowers the bill. Taking 20% off rather than 2%, 6,000 × 0.80 = £4,800, misreads the rate by a factor of ten; 2% is 0.02, not 0.20.

Question 7 of 10

07 / 10 Margins Medium

Which product has the highest gross profit margin?

Selling price and unit cost by product
Product	Selling price (£)	Unit cost (£)
Product A	25.00	15.00
Product B	40.00	22.00
Product C	80.00	50.00
Product D	100.00	80.00

A Product A

B Product B

C Product C

D Product D

Show worked solution

Margin is gross profit as a percentage of selling price, so divide each product’s profit by its price. Product A: (25 − 15) ÷ 25 = 40%. Product B: (40 − 22) ÷ 40 = 45%. Product C: (80 − 50) ÷ 80 = 37.5%. Product D: (100 − 80) ÷ 100 = 20%. Product B has the highest margin at 45%. Product C makes the most cash profit per unit at £30, but on an £80 price that is only 37.5%, so cash profit and margin are different measures. Product D has the highest selling price at £100, yet its £20 profit is just 20% of that price, the lowest margin here. Product A is the cheapest to make at £15, but a low cost does not guarantee the best margin: its 40% still trails Product B.

Question 8 of 10

08 / 10 Interest Medium

£8,000 is deposited in an account paying 5% interest compounded annually. What is the balance after 2 years?

A £8,820

B £8,800

C £8,400

D £820

Show worked solution

Compound interest applies each year to the growing balance. After year one: 8,000 × 1.05 = £8,400. After year two: 8,400 × 1.05 = £8,820. Using simple interest, two lots of 5% of the original £8,000 gives 8,000 + 400 + 400 = £8,800, which misses the interest earned on the first year’s interest. Answering £8,400 applies only one year of growth and stops early. Answering £820 gives the total interest earned but not the balance the question asks for.

Question 9 of 10

09 / 10 Cashflow Hard

A market stall began the week with £500 in its cash float. Using the receipts and payments below, what was the closing cash balance at the end of Wednesday?

Daily cash receipts and payments (opening float £500)
Day	Receipts (£)	Payments (£)
Monday	1,200	900
Tuesday	1,500	1,750
Wednesday	1,100	800

A £850

B £350

C £4,300

D £1,350

Show worked solution

Each day’s net change is receipts minus payments: Monday +300, Tuesday −250, Wednesday +300. The net movement is 300 − 250 + 300 = +£350. Add the £500 opening float: 500 + 350 = £850. Answering £350 gives the net movement but forgets the opening float. Answering £4,300 adds the float to total receipts (500 + 3,800) and ignores the payments entirely. Answering £1,350 treats Tuesday’s £250 shortfall as a gain rather than a loss, 500 + 300 + 250 + 300, when payments that week exceeded receipts on that day.

Question 10 of 10

10 / 10 Currency conversion Hard

What is the combined value of the three invoices in pounds?

Supplier invoices in three currencies and the rate applying to each
Supplier	Invoice amount	Currency	Exchange rate (units per £1)
Supplier P	6,900	EUR	1.15
Supplier Q	9,000	USD	1.25
Supplier R	4,200	CHF	1.05

A £17,200

B £20,100

C £17,478

D £23,595

Show worked solution

Each rate is quoted as foreign-currency units per £1, so convert by dividing. Supplier P: 6,900 ÷ 1.15 = £6,000. Supplier Q: 9,000 ÷ 1.25 = £7,200. Supplier R: 4,200 ÷ 1.05 = £4,000. Combined, 6,000 + 7,200 + 4,000 = £17,200. Adding the face values without converting gives 6,900 + 9,000 + 4,200 = £20,100, treating three currencies as interchangeable. Adding those face values and converting the lot at a single rate, 20,100 ÷ 1.15, gives £17,478; each invoice has its own rate. Multiplying by the rate instead of dividing, 7,935 + 11,250 + 4,410, gives £23,595, running every conversion backwards.

How to interpret your score

Illustrative bands for a 10-question financial reasoning test, not measured pass marks
Score	What it suggests
9 to 10	Comfortably above the bar for most graduate schemes
7 to 8	Around the typical pass mark. Worth practising for speed
5 to 6	Below most employer thresholds. Focus on method before speed
4 or fewer	Work through the worked solutions above before retrying

Employers set their own thresholds and many sift on the top percentage of applicants rather than a fixed mark, so treat these as a guide.

How to move up the scale

One test tells you the style. A pack gives you the pace: batches under time pressure, marked, with the working shown.

Unlock 11 Financial Reasoning tests £39 a year, or £29 a month. Cancel any time

11: Financial Reasoning tests
188: questions, all solved

What is a financial reasoning test?

A financial reasoning test measures how well you interpret financial data and calculate from it under time pressure. It presents information through graphs, tables and short passages, much like a numerical reasoning test, but the context is finance and the language is drawn from the financial sector.

Employers use it to sift applicants for roles where reading financial figures matters, from accountancy and banking to consulting and financial management. The skill it checks is practical: can you pull the right numbers out of a business scenario and reach a correct conclusion quickly.

Most questions are multiple choice. The arithmetic itself rarely goes beyond percentages, ratios, averages and interest, so the challenge is speed, accuracy and knowing what the financial terms mean.

What maths and knowledge do financial reasoning tests require?

Financial reasoning tests require confident basic arithmetic plus a working grasp of a few finance concepts. You do not need an accountancy qualification, but you do need to recognise the terms and know which calculation each one implies.

The maths to be fluent in:

The four operations on realistic, sometimes large, figures.
Percentages, including increase, decrease and percentage of a total.
Ratios and proportion, for comparing figures and splitting amounts.
Averages, most often the mean.
Interest, both simple and compound, and how it accumulates over periods.

The finance knowledge to have:

Reading business statements such as profit and loss accounts and balance sheets.
Understanding what profit, revenue, costs and margin mean and how they relate.

What financial terminology should you know?

Learn the core finance terms before you sit the test, because a question can be easy arithmetic wrapped in a word you do not recognise. The vocabulary is where candidates from a non-finance background lose the most marks.

The terms worth knowing cold:

Profit margin: profit as a percentage of revenue. Gross margin and net margin use different profit figures, so read which one is meant.
Market capitalisation: the total value of a company’s shares, found by multiplying share price by the number of shares.
Gross and net: before and after deductions such as tax or costs.
Interest rate, simple and compound: whether interest is charged on the original amount only, or on the running balance.
Revenue, costs and profit: revenue minus costs gives profit, and questions often give you two of the three and ask for the missing one.

How do you read the data passage quickly?

Read the question before the passage, so you know which figures you are hunting for. A financial scenario deliberately gives you more information than any single question needs, and reading it all first wastes the time the test is measuring.

A reliable order:

Read the question stem and note the exact figure it wants and its unit.
Scan the passage and any table for those figures only. Ignore the rest until a later question needs it.
Check the units and the wording. A figure in thousands, a rate quoted per year, or a margin asked as a percentage are all easy to misread under pressure.
Do the calculation, then sanity-check the size of your answer against the scenario before choosing an option.

Watch for a fee, a tax or an exchange rate tucked into the text below a table, as it often carries the piece that makes the calculation possible.

How are financial reasoning tests scored?

Most employers score you against other candidates, not against a fixed pass mark: your raw score becomes a percentile. Competitive graduate schemes commonly sift at around the 70th to 80th percentile. Attempting questions matters, because most tests are built so few candidates finish, and guessing usually pays: negative marking is rare, but check the instructions.

Average score60%

75th-percentile score90%

0%50%100%

Average75th percentile

Source: Practice Aptitude Tests

Based on 139 completed practice sittings, all time. Checked 11 September 2026.

The 75th percentile marks the boundary of the top quarter of recorded scores; tied scores can share that boundary. These are our practice results, not employer pass marks.

How we calculate these figures

We use all-time completed, scored attempts across our financial tests. Repeat attempts count separately, so the sample is sittings rather than unique people.

The average is the mean score across those sittings. The 75th percentile comes from their recorded score distribution. The “checked” date is when we retrieved the figures, not the period when the tests were taken.

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Sharing these figures? Please credit Practice Aptitude Tests and link to this page.

Who uses financial reasoning tests?

Financial reasoning tests are standard across banking, accountancy, professional services and consulting, and appear for any role that involves interpreting financial data. If you are applying into finance, expect one.

Most employers license their tests from a small number of publishers, and the timing and question style vary between them, so find out which publisher your employer uses before you prepare seriously. It is usually named in the invitation email. Our test publisher guides cover each format, and the employer guides cover specific companies’ processes.

Video tutorials

The methods behind the questions above, from our team

Graph Interpretation 2

Currency Conversion 2

Percentage Change 2

Frequently asked questions

What candidates ask us most often

Who takes a financial reasoning test?

Applicants for finance and accountancy roles most often, but also candidates for any job that involves interpreting financial data, including consulting and management positions. If a role description mentions financial analysis, expect a test of this kind.

How long is a financial reasoning test?

It varies by employer and publisher. Because the scenarios are longer than a standard numerical test, you are usually given a little more time per question, but the test is still tightly timed overall. Your invitation email will confirm the length.

Can you use a calculator in a financial reasoning test?

Usually yes, and many online tests provide one on screen, because the calculations can run to several steps. Estimating first still saves time, since seeing the rough size of an answer often lets you eliminate options before calculating exactly.

Do I need a finance background to pass?

No, but you do need to know the core terminology. The maths is percentages, ratios, averages and interest, all learnable, and the finance terms that appear are a short list. Candidates from any degree pass these tests with focused practice.

What is the best way to prepare?

Practise under the real time limit from the start, and review every answer you got wrong; untimed work builds accuracy but not the speed the test measures. Our financial preparation guide covers the full sequence.

Financial vs numerical reasoning: what is the difference?

A financial reasoning test is a numerical reasoning test with a finance wrapper: the same core arithmetic applied to business data. Expect more text per question, slightly more time, more multi-step calculations, and financial vocabulary such as margins, revenue and costs.

Reviews

Rated 4.7 out of 5 across 56 reviews. A selection:

Easy to understand the questions

The first 4/5 questions were not easy to work out I felt like I was missing some information. I could not really tell the hours it took to produce one item.

Financial Reasoning Test

The test was challenging enough to me to test my numerical skills and easy enough to act as confidence boost. Could I have at least two freebies that are quite challenging to test the level of difficulty?

Rating

Overall, the test was dynamic. Presented a very wide view of the possibilities of arithmetic reasoning. However, the time was a bit limited for the test in my opinion. I liked the way the questions were set. The first batch gave me a challenge.

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