Arctic Shores vs HireVue Games vs Pymetrics: Key Differences

Arctic Shores, HireVue games and pymetrics all turn part of a job application into short interactive tasks, so candidates often treat them as one thing. They come from different companies, and each describes its assessment differently. This guide sets out what each vendor says and where the formats differ.

"Arctic Shores says" means its own website, help centre or demo page. "Candidates report" or "prep sites report" means the claim comes from people who took the tasks, not the vendor. Arctic Shores publishes no task list. Apart from the security or "Code Breaker" task described in an Arctic Shores insight, every Arctic Shores task name here is candidate-reported.

The short answer

• Arctic Shores says its task-based assessment has up to nine tasks, chosen by the employer, with no written or spoken responses. If the employer chooses, you receive a feedback report.
• HireVue games are short games in three competency areas, and HireVue's candidate guide says many take about 3 minutes. Employers choose the mix, and there is no universal pass mark.
• Pymetrics, now part of Harver, said each of its games lasts 1 to 3 minutes and cannot be paused, and that it uses behavioural data to match candidates to jobs.

This guide does not rank any of them as better, easier or fairer.

Side by side

Who makes it

• Arctic Shores: Arctic Shores says it is a UK-based tech company that has been working since 2014, and that an in-house team of neuroscientists and psychometricians developed its assessment.
• HireVue games: HireVue, whose platform also runs video interviews. A process can be video-only, game-only or both.
• Pymetrics: now part of Harver.

What you do

• Arctic Shores:
  • Arctic Shores says there are no direct questions with definitive answers and no written or spoken responses. You complete interactive tasks one by one, and finishing a task unlocks the next.
  • Official example: in an April 2024 Arctic Shores insight, occupational psychologist Jill Summers described a security or "Code Breaker" task in which you stop a dial on a number to unlock a series of codes and open a safe.
  • Candidate-reported examples: repeating tile sequences (Tiles), labelling facial expressions (Expressions) and pumping balloons for money (Balloon).
• HireVue games: short games in three competency areas: Personality & Work Style, Working with People, and Working with Information.
• Pymetrics: short games whose behavioural data, pymetrics said, is used to match candidates to jobs, often many jobs. One is a balloon game that follows the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (Lejuez et al., 2002). This guide does not list its other games.

How many games or tasks

• Arctic Shores:
  • Arctic Shores says "up to nine tasks", chosen by the employer according to what it wants to assess.
  • Candidates and prep sites report 15 task names across employers: Security, Direction, Tiles, Predict, Balance, Balloon, Order, Expressions, Tickets, Energy, Team Sales, Patterns, Analysis, Token Search and Firefly Freedom. Patterns and Analysis are reportedly not used by every employer, and Firefly Freedom is a reported legacy game.
• HireVue games: employers choose the mix, so the number varies.
• Pymetrics: not stated in the source we checked.

How long it takes

• Arctic Shores:
  • The Arctic Shores pages we checked give no total time, and the employer chooses which tasks you get. Arctic Shores says its public demo practice task takes about five minutes.
  • Reported single-task times range from about 2 to 3 minutes (Direction, Tickets) to about 18 minutes (Analysis, about 18 questions). Security is reportedly untimed, and candidates often stop after 5 to 15 minutes.
• HireVue games: HireVue's candidate guide says many games take about 3 minutes; its product page says under 20 minutes, with adaptive levels.
• Pymetrics: pymetrics advised allowing about 30 minutes in a quiet place. It said each game lasts 1 to 3 minutes and cannot be paused.

Whether there are right answers

• Arctic Shores:
  • Arctic Shores says there is no right or wrong way to approach the tasks. It also says each employer values different qualities and there is "no single way to 'pass'".
  • Candidate reports suggest the tasks are not all alike, though: Balance, where you work out shape weights from scales, seems to have correct answers, and Analysis is reportedly timed multiple-choice questions from tables and charts. Balloon and Team Sales have no published right answer.
• HireVue games: not set out game by game in our sources; there is no universal pass mark.
• Pymetrics: pymetrics' candidates page (archived October 2024) said there is no right or wrong way, and that being yourself makes your results more helpful.

Results and feedback

• Arctic Shores:
  • Arctic Shores says a report is emailed automatically after you finish if the employer chooses to share feedback, and the employer receives your results at the same stage.
  • The report compares you with a norm group of similar candidates. The help centre describes a four-point scale and the candidate guidance a 1 to 10 spectrum, with no better or worse end. See our guide to the Arctic Shores feedback report.
• HireVue games: no universal pass mark; no candidate report is described in our sources.
• Pymetrics: pymetrics said your behavioural data is used to match you to jobs; no candidate report is described in our source.

Practice options and each vendor's stance

• Arctic Shores:
  • Arctic Shores says you just need to be yourself and no practice is needed, although getting familiar with the format is "totally fine".
  • The assessment opens with a practice task that does not count towards your score and lets you check your device, and there is a public demo task.
  • Arctic Shores also warns that help guides found online outside its own website and knowledge base are not created by its experts and may be misleading or false. It says it has found that using them "will result in poor or invalid measures, meaning you're less likely to progress", and advises forgetting any guides and completing the tasks naturally. Candidate Falcon's guides and simulations are outside guides in this sense. For more on the official position, see can you practise for Arctic Shores?.
• HireVue games: the sources we checked contain no HireVue statement on practice.
• Pymetrics: its candidates page said to be yourself, with no right or wrong way to complete it.

What Candidate Falcon covers

• Arctic Shores: 15 Arctic Shores-style task simulations at Arctic Shores practice. They are independent recreations built from candidate reports, not the real tasks, and practice results are not Arctic Shores scores. The Arctic Shores task guides are free to read.
• HireVue games: independent simulations of 11 HireVue game formats (Numerosity, ShapeDance, Singularity, PathFinder, PuzzlePicture, DigitSpan, Flashback, Portrait, PortraitXT, TeamChat and E-Motions) at HireVue games practice. They are not HireVue's own games. The HireVue games guide is free to read.
• Pymetrics: no simulation. Two free articles cover its balloon game: a pymetrics balloon game example and what counts as a good balloon game score.

Candidate Falcon's simulations are not free to play: playing them needs the "HireVue Games Prep" plan or Full Access (see pricing). The guides are free to read.

Which one is in my invitation?

Check the invitation itself rather than guessing.

• Sender and branding. Look at who sent the email and the name and logo on the email and the assessment page. Pymetrics is now part of Harver, so look for either name.
• Wording. Arctic Shores calls its product a task-based assessment. It says its invitation comes from the prospective employer and includes a brief introduction, reasonable-adjustment information and a support email address. HireVue games may come alone or alongside a video interview.
• Spam folder. Arctic Shores advises checking spam for its invitation.
• Not on this list. The Switch Challenge is an Aon assessment, not a HireVue game.
• Still unsure? Ask the employer which platform it uses.

Where Arctic Shores and pymetrics overlap: balloon tasks

Pymetrics' balloon game follows the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (Lejuez et al., 2002). Candidates also report an Arctic Shores Balloon task: pump a balloon to add money and collect before it bursts, with different balloon types behaving differently, over a reported 45 balloons. Arctic Shores has not published this task, so we cannot say how closely the two match or how either is scored. Our Balloon simulation recreates the reported version only.

How preparation differs

The formats differ, so getting to know one does not show you the others.

Arctic Shores

Arctic Shores' own advice is about conditions, not tactics:

• Use a quiet space and a fully charged device no more than four years old, on a stable connection.
• Turn off notifications, disable browser extensions and auto-translate, close other tabs and turn off any VPN.
• Pick the time of day you feel most alert, and finish in one sitting if you can.
• Do the practice task and read each set of instructions carefully. You can re-read them as often as you wish.
• Forget any guides found online and approach the tasks in the way that feels most natural.
• Declare any reasonable adjustment before you start, because Arctic Shores says adjustments cannot be added once you begin. See our adjustments and neurodiversity guide.

The free Arctic Shores task guides describe what candidates report about the tasks, and the preparation guide covers setup and adjustments. Both are outside guides in Arctic Shores' sense, and its warning applies to our simulations too. Candidate Falcon's simulations are independent recreations for getting used to format, controls and pace, and we do not claim they change your results. A practice result says nothing about your Arctic Shores result.

HireVue games

• Check whether your process includes games, a video interview or both.
• HireVue's candidate guide says many games take about 3 minutes, and its product page says under 20 minutes, with adaptive levels.
• HireVue's candidate guidance says progress is saved if your connection drops.
• Read the HireVue games guide, and use HireVue games practice to get used to the format and controls. For adjustments, see the HireVue accommodations request guide.

Pymetrics

• Pymetrics advised allowing about 30 minutes in a quiet place, and said its games cannot be paused.
• Pymetrics' candidates page asked you to be yourself.
• Candidate Falcon does not simulate pymetrics; start with the two balloon game articles above.

FAQs

Is Arctic Shores the same as pymetrics?

No. Arctic Shores describes itself as a UK-based tech company that has been working since 2014; pymetrics is now part of Harver. Both use short interactive tasks and both have said there is no right or wrong way, but they describe their tasks, timings and results differently.

Is the Switch Challenge a HireVue game?

No. The Switch Challenge is Aon's. Candidate Falcon simulates 11 HireVue formats, and the Switch Challenge is not one of them.

Which one is harder or fairer?

We do not rank them. Arctic Shores, for example, says looking beyond the CV at natural behaviours removes unconscious bias at this stage of recruitment. This guide reports such claims as the vendor's own and does not judge any of the three as fairer.

Can I practise for all three?

Arctic Shores says no practice is needed, though getting familiar with the format is "totally fine". It offers a practice task and a public demo, and warns that outside guides may be misleading or false and lead to poor or invalid measures. Pymetrics' candidates page said to be yourself. Candidate Falcon, which is independent and not affiliated with any of these vendors, offers simulations of 11 HireVue formats and 15 Arctic Shores-style tasks for familiarity with format, controls and pace; playing them needs the "HireVue Games Prep" plan or Full Access. They are independent recreations, not the real tasks, practice results are not Arctic Shores scores, and we do not claim they change your results. We do not simulate pymetrics.

How long does each assessment take?

The Arctic Shores pages we checked give no total time. Reported single-task times range from about 2 to 18 minutes, and some tasks, such as Security, are reportedly untimed. HireVue's product page says under 20 minutes. Pymetrics advised allowing about 30 minutes.

Sources

• Arctic Shores candidate guidance: up to nine tasks, feedback, preparation and technical advice, 1 to 10 spectrum.
• Arctic Shores help centre: What does the assessment involve?, Do I need to practice?, What do the tasks measure?, What is a Task-Based Assessment?, Who are Arctic Shores?, What's the science behind the assessment?, Will I receive a report?, Devices and web browsers, The Arctic Shores Task-Based Assessment: An Overview and How will my results be used?.
• Arctic Shores demo task and Arctic Shores insight, April 2024: the practice task and the security task.
• Arctic Shores task names, mechanics and durations: candidate reports and prep sites, not official.
• pymetrics candidates page (pymetrics.ai, archived October 2024; pymetrics is now part of Harver), and Lejuez et al. (2002) on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task.
• Candidate Falcon's HireVue games guide, drawing on HireVue's candidate guide and product page, a 2020 I-O audit and a 2022 Frontiers study.

Candidate Falcon is independent and not affiliated with Arctic Shores, HireVue, pymetrics or Harver.