Hogan Development Survey (HDS) Preparation (2026)

The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) is one of the Hogan Assessments and is used to evaluate whether you have the required characteristics to succeed in a specific position.

It's an online personality test that focuses on tendencies that may limit your performance when you're under high stress or in extreme situations. These potentially problematic traits are known as the Hogan "dark side" personality traits. 

Here is a snapshot of the HDS test format: 

• Number of questions: 168
• Time Limit: The HDS is not timed but takes approximately 15 - 20 minutes to complete
• Application: It's mostly taken online, together with the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

The HDS is predominately used to assess leadership potential as part of leadership development programs or for building teams. 

Knowing the format of a test and familiarising yourself with practice questions is half the battle won. Here's what Hogan Development Survey questions look like: 

Answering HDS questions may seem relatively straightforward.

For example, as someone who is very organized and has high standards for yourself and others, you may answer "strongly agree" on the above statement.

On the HPI, agreeing strongly with a similar statement would be a positive signal, reflecting conscientiousness, reliability, and a commitment to quality.

However, the HDS works differently: Unlike the HPI, which measures your personality at its best, high scores on the HDS indicate risk. Scoring extremely highly here doesn't mean you're impressively detail-oriented. It flags that under stress or pressure, these tendencies are likely to tip into perfectionism and micromanagement, including struggling to delegate, being overly critical of others' work, and creating bottlenecks because tasks don't meet your exacting expectations.

The "right" answer to HDS questions depends on the context of your job. Always ask: Are the potential drawbacks of this trait critical for your position?

In this specific example, if you're in a people-management or leadership role, scoring extremely high could be a red flag.

• Managers who need to trust their teams, empower direct reports, and maintain morale may find that perfectionist and controlling tendencies undermine their effectiveness.
• But if you're in an individual contributor role requiring precision and attention to detail, such as compliance, quality assurance, or financial auditing, a high score on this trait would be well-suited to the position.

Becoming familiar with the types of questions being asked will help you prepare better for test day. You can get more sample questions in the style of HDS and other Hogan assessments in our full Hogan Bundle PrepPack.

The main purpose of the Hogan Development Survey is to measure behavioral tendencies that may impede your job performance.

These are assessed by focusing on 11 personality traits that could be seen as strengths. But, higher scores on each scale also indicate a higher risk for these traits to cause problems in work relationships and performance, especially when stressed, tired, or distracted.

For example, being highly diligent indicates many traits that are considered strengths, including being precise and meticulous with much attention to detail and sticking to high work standards. But, if you're highly diligent, these characteristics could also make you hard to please or be perceived as controlling or overly critical. 

These HDS personality traits are known as the dark side personality traits or job derailers.

Take a look at all 11 dark side personality traits:

Each personality trait is composed of 3 subscales, adding up to a total of 33 subscales. 

Read more about this in the Hogan HDS subscales guide.

HDS scores are given to employers as percentile scores, indicating where you stand on a certain trait scale compared to others.

This is what an HDS report would look like:

As opposed to HPI scores, you can have good and bad HDS scores.

The higher you score on a certain trait, the higher risk the negative aspects of this trait could be to your job performance. But, this does not necessarily mean that a lower score is better.

Let's look at diligence as an example:

• As a manager, having very high standards and paying close attention to detail could risk your ability to meet deadlines and prioritize or finish projects effectively. It could also make you seem controlling and critical, making it difficult for your employees to perform effectively.
• However, as a quality assurance engineer, being detail-oriented is very important, even if it means not seeing the bigger picture. Poor attention to detail and having difficulty working in a systematic manner would actually negatively affect your job performance.

So, high diligence is a negative in one job but a positive in another.

Ultimately, whether a lower or higher score is better really depends on the context of your job.

It's helpful to practice for the Hogan HDS to gain a better understanding of each of these dark side traits and what they could tell potential employers about you.

Here are a few guidelines that can help you answer HDS personality test questions effectively:

• Consider the critical qualities for your role: Think about which traits actually matter for the job you're applying for, and avoid high-risk scores on the ones that do. For example, a highly excitable person might lose motivation quickly under frustration, which is fine for many roles, but worth avoiding if you're applying somewhere that demands persistence and follow-through, like a research position.
• Aim for the optimal range, not the extremes: Every trait has drawbacks at both ends, not just the high end. Very low excitability, for example, can read as calm and stable, but it also risks coming across as lacking urgency or drive. The sweet spot is usually somewhere in the middle (roughly the 35th - 90th percentile), depending on the role.
• Avoid high-risk scores on critical traits: As a general rule, keep answers related to important traits below the 90th percentile, since that's where Hogan's own risk bands mark the shift into High Risk territory.
• Answer honestly and consistently: The HDS is designed to detect patterns across many similar statements rather than catch you out on any single question, so consistency across your answers matters more than trying to guess the right one.

Getting familiar with how each trait is scored, and what counts as a risk in your specific role, is the best preparation you can do - and it's exactly what our Hogan Development Survey practice test resources in our Hogan Bundle PrepPack are built to help with.

JobTestPrep was founded in 1992 and has over three decades of experience helping job seekers navigate competitive hiring assessments, including aptitude and personality tests like the Hogan Development Survey. With over 220 preparation courses and millions of individuals supported worldwide, we offer expert-created PrepPacks, regularly updated to reflect the latest test formats, alongside advanced AI-powered tools like our CV Analyzer and Interview Prep platform. Together, these resources help professionals across the US and globally strengthen their applications, improve their performance, and achieve outstanding results.