From Personality and English Fluency Tests to the On-Demand Video Interview, We’ve Got You Covered
Once your application is submitted, the recruitment process rarely goes straight to a human recruiter. Most major airlines now use a sequence of online assessments and an online video interview to further filter candidates before anyone is invited to an Assessment Day.
The online video interview (or ODVI for short) is one of the most common, and perhaps the most dreaded, of the online assessments you might face at this stage, but, depending on the airline, you could also be looking at a personality test, a situational judgment or Virtual Job Tryout exercise, a values-fit assessment, an English fluency test, a verbal reasoning or reading test, or one of the newer gamified formats that some airlines have adopted
But don’t worry, we’ve got you. This page covers every one of them, with free practice tools that mimic exactly what you are going to face in real life.
Insight: The online assessment stage is where Artifical Intelligence (AI) has a massive role in cabin crew recruitment. Video interviews are scored by natural language processing, personality tests are scored against a predefined ideal profile, and situational judgment tests are scored against the response an airline has decided is correct. Understanding how these systems work changes how you should prepare for every one of them.
Which Tests Will You Actually Face?
The good news is that you won’t face every single test that we cover in detail on this page. Many airlines will use just one or two of these formats, with the ODVI being the most popular, closely followed by Virtual Job Tryouts and then English tests, if you’re applying for an international carrier.
We’ve listed the online assessments your mostly likely to face at some of the airlines we cover in detail in our step-by-step application guides.
| Airline | Formats Commonly Used |
|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | |
| American Airlines | |
| British Airways | |
| Delta Air Lines | |
| Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways | |
| flydubai | |
| JetBlue | |
| Riyadh Air | |
| United Airlines |
If you don’t see the airline you are applying for listed above, work through this page from start to finish, paying particular attention on to the online video interview section.
On-Demand Video Interviews (ODVI)
On-demand video interviews are now standard practice, used by Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Riyadh Air, and flydubai among others. If you’ve been invited to record video responses to a set of questions with no interviewer present, this is what you’re dealing with, and it’s worth taking seriously rather than treating as an afterthought before the “real” interview.
What is an On-Demand Video Interview (ODVI)? The Complete Guide: Part One How ODVIs actually work, what the AI is assessing when it analyses your responses, and what the human reviewer sees once the system has done its first pass.
How to Ace the Cabin Crew Video Interview: Part Two The practical preparation guide. Planning, rehearsing, setup, appearance, pacing, and how to let your personality come through on camera rather than freezing up in front of it.
Common Cabin Crew Video Interview Questions: What to Expect and How to Answer The five question categories that come up in almost every cabin crew ODVI, with real questions candidates have faced and how to approach each one.
Personality Tests
Many major airlines use an online personality assessment early in the screening process, often before you’ve spoken to anyone at all.
How to Ace the Cabin Crew Online Personality Test What these tests are actually measuring, the traits airlines are looking for, and how to answer honestly while still presenting the best version of your working personality.
Worth knowing: Personality tests aren’t designed to be beaten the way a multiple-choice exam can be revised for. They’re built to catch inconsistency, answering the same underlying trait differently across different questions, which is a flag the system is specifically looking for. Answering honestly, calibrated to how you behave at your best, consistently outperforms trying to guess what the airline wants to hear.
Situational Judgment and Virtual Job Tryouts
Used by Delta, United, American Airlines, Riyadh Air, and others as part of the online assessment stage. These test judgment and decision-making rather than personality or language, and the preparation is genuinely different from anything above.
Situational Judgment Practice Test Ten standalone scenarios covering the core competencies airlines assess, such as service recovery, teamwork, safety judgment, composure under pressure, and cultural sensitivity. Pick your answer and get an honest breakdown of why it was or wasn’t the strongest option, including why the wrong answer often still feels reasonable in the moment.
Advanced Cabin Crew Situational Judgement Test: Progressive Scenario A single situation that develops across five decision points, closer to the roleplay format some airlines, including British Airways, use. Your choices shape what happens next, which makes this the closest practice available anywhere to how the real format actually feels.
Insight: These tests reward a specific mindset: always look for the best available option rather than the easiest one, never settle for “there’s nothing I can do,” and put the passenger’s experience and safety ahead of convenience. The wrong answers are rarely absurd. They feel reasonable in the moment, which is exactly why they catch candidates out.
Values Fit Assessment
If you’re applying to Delta, Alaska, United, or British Airways, part of the process is a values-fit instrument, designed to see how closely your instincts align with the airline’s stated values rather than testing judgment in a scenario.
Cabin Crew Values Fit Practice Assessment Agree or disagree with each statement as it appears on screen. Built around the confirmed values frameworks of the airlines that use this format, not a generic personality quiz.
Worth knowing: A values-fit test is easy to underestimate because it looks like a personality quiz. The difference is that it’s scored against a specific, named framework, Delta’s Integrity, Resilience, Care, and Servant Leadership values, for example, rather than a general trait profile. Reading up on the specific airline’s stated values before you sit this test is worth the ten minutes it takes.
English Fluency Tests
Gulf carriers, including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, and Riyadh Air, require fluent English regardless of your first language. This stage catches more candidates than almost any other single part of the process.
The English tests used by some major international airlines catches more candidates out than almost any other single stage in Gulf carrier recruitment. If English isn’t your first language, these are worth completing more than once, not to memorise answers, but to get comfortable with the format and the time pressure before it counts.
Verbal Reasoning Tests
Used by a wide range of airlines to assess how quickly and accurately you can process written information and reason through verbal problems under time pressure.
Reading and Memory Test
Tests your ability to absorb written information quickly and answer questions on it without referring back to the text, a specific, learnable technique rather than a measure of general intelligence.
Worth knowing: The skill being tested here is less about intelligence and more about a specific technique, active reading, mental note-taking, and time management. It improves noticeably with practice, which is exactly why it’s worth attempting more than once before the real thing.
Gamified Assessments
Several airlines, including JetBlue, use gamified online assessments, short memory and pattern recognition exercises designed to judge how well you take in information under pressure.
Cabin Crew Sequence Recall Memory Practice Test Watch a sequence, then repeat it back under time pressure.
Cabin Crew Pattern Spotter Practice Test Pick the odd one out from a set of pattern cards, under time pressure.
What Happens Next?
If you pass the online assessment stage, the next step is typically an invitation to an Open Day or Assessment Day.
Head to the Stage 3 – Cabin Crew Assessment Day Hub, which covers everything you need for that stage.
If you haven’t yet submitted your application, start at Stage 1 – Cabin Crew CV and Resume Hub
Frequently Asked Questions
Most major airlines use a combination of different tests and assessment tools, including on-demand video interviews (ODVI), a personality test, and increasingly a situational judgment test or Virtual Job Tryout (VJT). Gulf carriers also commonly use English fluency and aptitude tests. The exact combination varies by airline.
A Virtual Job Tryout (VJT) presents realistic workplace scenarios and asks you to choose the best response from several options. It is used by several US carriers, including Delta, United, and American Airlines, as part of their early screening process. Unlike a personality test, a VJT assesses situational judgment – whether you understand what good customer service and safe decision-making actually look like in practice.
Personality tests are not pass or fail in the traditional sense, but airlines do screen out profiles that fall outside the range they are looking for. Answering honestly and consistently is the most reliable approach, as the systems are specifically designed to detect inconsistent answers, which can be more damaging than an honest answer that doesn’t perfectly match the ideal profile.
Most ODVI platforms, including HireVue, use AI and natural language processing to analyse the content of your spoken responses, which means the specific words used, the relevance to the competency being assessed, and the structure of your answer. A human recruiter then reviews a prioritised list generated by the AI before making final decisions.
Yes, to some extent. US carriers more commonly use situational judgment tests and VJTs, which reward a different kind of preparation than a Gulf carrier’s combination of personality testing and English fluency assessment. Both reward honesty and clear thinking, but the format and the specific skills being measured are different.