UN Written Assessment Test: Which Sample PDFs Exist, and Practice Questions

A UN written assessment is one possible step after your application is screened and before any interview. UN Careers says that if your qualifications fit the position you may be invited to an assessment, which could be a written test on the United Nations Online Examinations and Tests System (UNOETS), a pre-recorded video interview, a request for work samples or an assessment centre. General Service applicants may need to pass the Global General Service Test (GGST). For Professional (P-level) jobs, the assessment is described in each job opening, and the official pages read for this guide list no sample paper for it. Independent guide. ProSyllabus is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the United Nations.

On the "PDF" question, plainly: the UN Careers site lists official sample tests for the Verbal Reasoning Test, the Trades and Crafts Test and the GGST, but when we checked each of those links on 6 November 2026, every one returned a 404 error (page not found). This guide shows what each written test covers, what the official pages say, where the samples were listed, one worked numerical question and one P-level drafting prompt of our own, with a marking rubric and a practice plan.

UN Careers lists a separate page for each test family. The table sets out what each official page says. On those pages, each test follows an application for a specific opening (or examination); none describes a test you can book yourself.

Read them yourself: Assessments, Global General Service Test, Trades and Crafts Test, Verbal Reasoning Test, Security Officer Test and Competitive Examinations for Language Positions. The YPP exam has its own guides on this site: the YPP exam structure and syllabus guide and the YPP sample questions guide, which are not repeated here.

UN job openings on careers.un.org have an "Assessment" section. We read it in all 460 openings live on 6 November 2026. The phrase "assessment exercise" appeared in 157 of the 173 Professional and Director-level openings and in 31 of the 37 General Service openings. A few named the format: for example the Communications Officer, P-3 opening 287275 says evaluation "may include a substantive assessment, such as a written test". Five Professional and Director-level openings said previously rostered candidates would not be assessed again, and five mentioned a "desk review".

Our count is a snapshot of one day; the openings change daily. It shows that most of the Professional, Director and General Service openings we counted (188 of 210) mention an assessment exercise, which may or may not be written. In our view, the opening itself is the best place to start preparing: the UN says assessments may test areas relevant to its evaluation criteria, so read the responsibilities, the competencies and the required languages closely.

This is the question most people searching for a "UN written assessment test PDF" want answered, so here is the full picture from the official pages, checked on 6 November 2026.

The GGST page says it assesses competencies core to General Service work, such as communication or planning and organizing, through work-relevant scenarios and tasks. The UN Geneva learning centre calls it a general ability test, says no preparation is needed, and lists three things you may find helpful before the test.

The UN Careers page says that after your application is reviewed and you are shortlisted, you are invited to take the GGST at the duty station you applied to; UN Geneva says it is taken by computer in a supervised computer room. The Trades and Crafts Test is also computer-based and proctored, with two sections: numerical reasoning and situational judgment.

The four questions above are a free sample from our independent UN YPP Exam Practice kit: our own multiple-choice questions on reasoning, UN values and the UN system, each with the answer explained. They are YPP-style practice, not GGST, TCT or job-assessment questions, and not UN questions.

UN Geneva suggests practising percentages and changes in percentages for the numerical section. This question is ours, with invented figures; it shows a two-step trap to watch for. Cover the answer, choose, then read why.

P-level assessments are described in each opening, so no sample can be "the" UN test. What the official pages say assessments may test includes subject or technical knowledge, situational judgment and communication or drafting skills. One way to practise all three at once is a short timed note on a work problem. The prompt, word limit, time and rubric below are ours. They draw on two core competencies the UN lists on How to apply, Communication and Planning and Organizing.

A P-level assessment may, for example, use a technical task from the field of the opening: an analysis for a legal post, a dataset for a data post, written copy for a communications post. Use the responsibilities section of your own opening to write two or three prompts like this one for your field. If you pass, the next step is the interview: see our competency-based interview guide.

Our suggestion for the time between applying and the assessment. Mark each task as done; the tracker saves in this browser only.