Is there a penalty for wrong answers on the CCAT?

No. Criteria Corp states that no penalty applies to incorrect responses, so a guess costs no more than a blank.

What is the average CCAT score?

Criteria publishes that the average test taker answers 24 of the 50 questions correctly.

Do I have to finish all 50 questions?

Almost nobody does — Criteria says fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50. Accuracy on the questions you reach matters more than reaching more of them.

What score do I need for a specific job?

Only the employer knows. Criteria does not publish role cut-offs, employers do not publish theirs, and any table of “target scores by job title” you find online is invented.

How the CCAT is scored

The scoring is simpler than the mythology around it. Criteria Corp publishes what it reports and what it does not, and almost everything else you will read about CCAT scores — cut-offs by job title, formulas that penalise guessing — is somebody filling the silence.

Two numbers, and only two

Criteria reports a raw score — the number of questions you answered correctly out of 50 — and a percentile that places that raw score against its norm group. That is the whole report as far as the number goes.

There is no penalty for an incorrect answer. Criteria states it plainly, and it has a practical consequence: at the end of the test, an unanswered question and a wrong answer are worth exactly the same, which is nothing. If thirty seconds remain and four questions are untouched, guessing on them cannot cost you anything.

That is specific to the CCAT. Do not carry the habit into the Wonderlic, whose publisher says its scoring weights each question by difficulty and by the effect of guessing, and that guessing is not likely to improve your score.

The average is 24 out of 50

Criteria publishes both of the numbers that matter for calibration: the average test taker answers 24 questions correctly, and fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50.

Read those together and the design of the test becomes obvious. It is not built to be finished. It is built so that where you stop is itself the measurement. Someone who treats it as a test to complete will rush, and rushing on a test with no completion bonus is the most expensive mistake available.

What Criteria publishes	Figure
Questions	50
Time	15 minutes
Pace that implies	18 seconds a question
Average correct	24
Candidates who answer all 50	fewer than 1%
Penalty for a wrong answer	none
Calculators	not allowed

All from Criteria’s own candidate page, read on 25 August 2026. Criteria describes the pace as “approximately 20 seconds per question”; 15 minutes divided by 50 is 18 seconds, which is the figure this site uses.

What a “good score” is, and why nobody can tell you

The employer sets the bar, not Criteria, and employers do not publish theirs. A score that clears the line for one role at one company is short for another role at the same company.

You will find tables online listing target CCAT scores by job title. No publisher document supports them. This site does not print one, and a site that does is telling you something it cannot know.

What you can do is calibrate against the published average of 24 and work on the two things that move a raw score: recognising a question type instantly, and abandoning a question that is going to cost thirty seconds.

Now find out what the clock does to you.

A full-length timed run, free, with a score by section and an explanation for every question afterwards.

Take a timed test

Frequently asked

Is there a penalty for wrong answers on the CCAT?: No. Criteria Corp states that no penalty applies to incorrect responses, so a guess costs no more than a blank.
What is the average CCAT score?: Criteria publishes that the average test taker answers 24 of the 50 questions correctly.
Do I have to finish all 50 questions?: Almost nobody does — Criteria says fewer than 1% of candidates answer all 50. Accuracy on the questions you reach matters more than reaching more of them.
What score do I need for a specific job?: Only the employer knows. Criteria does not publish role cut-offs, employers do not publish theirs, and any table of “target scores by job title” you find online is invented.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, with the date it was read. Requirements change; if a source has moved on since that date, the source is right and this page is out of date.

Criteria Corp — What to Expect on the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) Read August 25, 2026

Page facts last verified August 25, 2026.

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Hiring Test Practice is independent practice material and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Criteria Corp or Wonderlic, Inc. CCAT® is a registered trademark of Criteria Corp; Wonderlic® is a registered trademark of Wonderlic, Inc. Test names are used only to describe what this material prepares you for. Every question here is original and none is taken from any actual assessment.