German proficiency testing for hiring

Questions people ask

What level of German should a role require?

B2 is the usual bar for a role where someone has to handle an unscripted conversation in German, which covers most customer support agents, nurses and care workers and technical support engineers. B1 is generally enough for internal or heavily scripted work, and C1 is worth asking for where the wording carries risk: escalations, client management, anything contractual.

Do I need to speak German to use the results?

No. The result is a CEFR level for speaking and for writing, with a score on each of five dimensions and the reasoning behind the level, in a dashboard that is in English. That is the point of it: most teams hiring for German have nobody on the hiring side who could judge it themselves.

Does the candidate have to read the instructions in German?

The questions are in German, because that is what is being tested. The interface around them, the buttons, timers and welcome screen, follows the candidate instead: it opens in their browser's language, in any of the languages we assess, and they can switch it before the clock starts. Somebody being assessed on German should not also be assessed on reading the page.

How long does a German test take, and what does it cost?

Speaking takes about 7 minutes and returns a level on its own. Add writing and the whole assessment is about 20 minutes. It costs from $0.60 a test on annual billing, the same in every language, and you can start free with ten assessments without a card.

Can we use our own German questions?

Yes. You can write your own question library in German, for example one per role, and choose for each assessment whether it draws from yours or from our standard German library. Question types and timings stay fixed, so a level from your library means the same as one from ours.