Call Center Typing Test: WPM, Accuracy and How to Practice
Luca from Candidate Falcon
Editorial Team
If you apply for a call center or BPO job, a typing test is often part of the online assessment. Agents type notes, customer details and chat replies all day, so employers want to know how fast and how accurately you type.
This guide explains what a typing test for call center jobs measures, the usual formats, what speeds real job ads ask for, and how to practice in the two weeks before your test.
The short answer
- Most call center typing tests measure words per minute (WPM) and accuracy. Many report net WPM, which takes your errors off your speed.
- There is no single industry standard. The job ads we read asked for 30 to 40 WPM. Harver, a hiring platform used by several large BPOs, publishes an average of 38 net WPM.
- Accuracy matters more than raw speed. In most tests every mistake either lowers your net score or has to be fixed before you can go on.
What a call center typing test measures
Gross WPM, net WPM and accuracy
- Gross WPM is everything you typed, divided by the minutes taken. Many typing tests count a "word" as five characters, including spaces, so long and short words are treated fairly.
- Net WPM subtracts your mistakes. Harver's help center defines it as typed words minus mistyped words, divided by the time. If you type 200 words in 5 minutes and 15 of them are wrong, your gross speed is 40 WPM and your net speed is 37 WPM.
- Accuracy is the share of what you typed that was correct, usually shown as a percentage.
Employers care about the net figure because a fast agent who mistypes an account number or an email address creates work for someone else.
Which WPM do job ads mean?
Most job ads simply say "40 WPM" without saying whether they mean gross or net. To be safe, treat the number in the ad as net WPM, because that is the stricter reading and the one tests such as Harver's report.
Typical call center typing test formats
A timed passage
The classic format shows a paragraph and gives you a fixed time to copy as much of it as you can. Your score is the WPM and accuracy for whatever you typed before the clock stopped.
Sentences copied exactly: the Harver typing test
Harver's typing test is a well-documented example, because Harver publishes its rules in its help centers:
- Copy sentences exactly. A block of sentences appears, each with its own text box. Capital letters, numbers, spaces and punctuation all count.
- The clock starts on your first click into the first box. Harver does not publish how long the test lasts, and employers can change the text and its difficulty.
- Arrow keys, mouse clicks and copy and paste are blocked. You fix mistakes with Backspace.
- Every sentence gets a green check or a red cross. A red cross means there is a mistake, and you must fix it before you can move on.
- The score is net WPM, and Shift and Backspace are not counted as typed characters. Harver reports it as a percentage against a norm group, with a published average of 38 net WPM and a standard deviation of 17.
- You need a physical keyboard. Most Harver modules work on a phone, but the typing test does not.
Because you cannot jump back with the arrow keys, a typo early in a sentence means deleting everything typed after it. That is why accuracy matters so much in this format.
Typing inside other tasks
Not every chat task is a typing test. Harver's live chat simulation has no typing at all: you choose one of three ready-made replies for each customer message. Its newer writing assessment, by contrast, asks for typed replies of 300 to 800 characters with paste disabled, so speed still helps there.
What WPM do call center jobs ask for?
Requirements vary by employer, by account and by role. Chat and email accounts may ask for more than voice accounts. Here is what the public job ads we read on 23 October 2026 asked for:
| Employer or agency, role | Location | Typing requirement |
|---|---|---|
| IBEX Global Solutions Philippines, call center agent (ad posted February 2023) | Tagbilaran City, Bohol | Minimum 30 WPM |
| Linkserve Solutions BPO, call center agent (ads posted 2023 and 2025) | Batangas City | At least 40 WPM |
| Express Employment Professionals (staffing agency), call center agent (no date shown) | Green Bay, Wisconsin, US | At least 35 WPM, "testing required" |
These are individual job ads, not an industry standard, and none of them says whether it means gross or net WPM. Check the ad or ask the recruiter for the role you are applying to.
Harver's average as a reference point
If your assessment runs on Harver, the published average of 38 net WPM is a useful reference point. Harver reports your result as a percentage against its norm group, publishes no pass mark, and leaves each employer to decide what is good enough. The table below shows where some speeds would sit if net WPM followed a normal curve with Harver's average and spread. It is Candidate Falcon's estimate, not Harver's norm table, which is not public.
| Net WPM | Estimated percentile |
|---|---|
| 25 | about 22nd |
| 30 | about 32nd |
| 38 | 50th (Harver's average) |
| 45 | about 66th |
| 55 | about 84th |
| 60 | about 90th |
How to practice for a call center typing test
1. Put accuracy first
Slow down until you make almost no errors, then build speed from there. Every mistyped word comes off your net score, and in Harver-style tests fixing it also costs time. A steady, clean run usually beats a fast run full of corrections.
2. Learn the home row
Touch typing means keeping your fingers on the home row (A, S, D, F and J, K, L, semicolon) and not looking at the keys. The small bumps on F and J let you find the position without looking. If you type with two fingers, switching means a few weeks of slower typing, but it is what lets your speed keep rising later.
3. Practice numbers and punctuation
Call center text is full of order numbers, dates, times, email addresses, prices and percentages. Practice the number row, the @ sign, colons in times such as 2:15 pm, commas in numbers such as 1,250 and periods at the end of sentences. Use Shift for capitals rather than Caps Lock, which is easy to leave on.
4. Type customer-service phrasing
Practice the kind of sentences agents type every day, for example:
- "Thank you for contacting us. May I have your account number, please?"
- "I'm sorry for the delay. Your replacement is booked for Thursday, May 14."
- "I have refunded $24.99 to your card; it should arrive within 5 business days."
Familiar phrases go faster with repetition.
5. Use a physical keyboard and check the layout
Practice on the computer you will use for the real test, with a physical keyboard. Check that your computer's keyboard layout setting matches the keyboard itself: a US keyboard set to another layout moves keys such as @ and quotation marks. Harver's help center prefers Chrome, so use it if you can, and close other windows before you start.
6. Read a few words ahead
Strong typists read the next word or two while finishing the current one, so they do not pause between words. Keep your eyes on the text, not on your fingers.
Common mistakes
- Treating gross WPM as your score. Many free typing sites show gross speed and let errors through. Check your net speed and accuracy.
- Typing two spaces between words or dropping the period at the end of a sentence. In an exact-copy test, both count as errors.
- Reaching for the arrow keys or the mouse. In Harver's test they are blocked, so practice fixing errors with Backspace only.
- Leaving red crosses and going back later. It is faster to fix a mistake the moment you make it.
- Taking the test on a phone or tablet. Harver asks for a physical keyboard, and most people type much slower on a touchscreen.
- Stopping part-way. On Harver, a section you leave before finishing restarts from the beginning, so start only when you have time to finish.
A two-week practice routine
About 15 to 20 minutes a day is enough.
- Days 1 and 2: get a baseline. Take a net WPM test twice. Write down your net speed, your accuracy and which characters caused your errors.
- Days 3 to 7: accuracy and home row. Spend 5 minutes on home-row drills, then do three short runs aiming for zero errors, not a faster time. Add one run of sentences full of numbers and punctuation.
- Days 8 to 12: build speed. Do one run slightly faster than feels comfortable, then two runs back at your accurate pace. Add customer-service phrases and exact-copy sentences with no arrow keys.
- Day 13: a full mock test. Take a timed test under real conditions: same computer, same keyboard, Chrome, a quiet room and no other windows open.
- Day 14: rest and check. Do one calm warm-up run, check your internet and equipment, and read your invitation again.
If your accuracy drops when you push for speed, go back to the slower pace for a day.
Practice a Harver-style typing test
Candidate Falcon's Harver-style typing test follows Harver's published rules: you copy 8 original sentences, drawn from a bank of 40, the clock starts when you click into a box, paste, arrow keys and clicks inside the box are blocked, and each sentence gets a green check or a red cross. Your result shows gross and net WPM, accuracy and corrections, plus an estimated percentile worked out from Harver's published average and spread. That percentile is our estimate, not Harver's norm table.
It is an independent simulation with original sentences, not the real test, and practice results are not Harver scores. Practice runs need a plan that includes Harver; see pricing. For every other part of the assessment, read the free Harver assessment guide. For a chat account, the live chat simulation is worth practicing too.
For the rest of the hiring process, see our guides to the call center assessment test and the Alorica assessment, and why there is no genuine Harver assessment answers key.
FAQs
What WPM do I need for a call center job?
It depends on the employer and the account. The job ads we read asked for 30 to 40 WPM, without saying whether they meant gross or net. Harver's published average is 38 net WPM. Aim to clear the figure in your job ad as net WPM, with very few errors.
Is the Harver typing test hard?
It is stricter than many free typing tests. Every sentence must match exactly, including capitals and punctuation, a red cross must be fixed before you move on, and arrow keys, the mouse and paste are blocked. The speed itself is ordinary: Harver's average is 38 net WPM.
Can I take a call center typing test on my phone?
Usually not. Harver asks for a computer with a physical keyboard for its typing test, and most people type much slower on a touchscreen. Use a laptop or desktop.
What is a BPO typing test?
It is the same thing as a call center typing test: a timed test of how fast and accurately you copy text, used by BPO companies for voice, chat, email and back-office roles. It is often one part of a longer online assessment.
Sources
- Harver help centers: typing test for candidates, typing test scoring, saving progress, live chat simulation and writing assessment (read October 2026).
- Harver: typing test product page (read October 2026).
- Job ads (read 23 October 2026; ads can expire): IBEX Global Solutions Philippines on PhilJobNet, Linkserve Solutions BPO on PhilJobNet and Express Employment Professionals, Green Bay. Individual ads, not an industry standard.
Candidate Falcon is independent and not affiliated with Harver or any employer named here.
