The NYC Probation Officer
exam: a complete guide

What the job is

A probation officer supervises people serving a sentence in the community: interviews, conditions of release, and the pre-sentence reports the courts rely on.

The reading is case material: intake summaries, conditions sheets, employer letters. It looks like paperwork because the job is.

What is on the exam

Six sections, and one of them is Time Sharing — attending to two streams of information at once, which only two titles in the line test.

Section	Questions	Time	Per question
Written Comprehension	18	24 min	80 sec
Deductive Reasoning	18	24 min	80 sec
Problem Sensitivity	18	23 min	77 sec
Information Ordering	18	24 min	80 sec
Time Sharing	18	26 min	87 sec
Written Expression	18	22 min	73 sec
Total	108	143 min

The reading is case material: intake summaries, conditions sheets, employer letters and curfew records.

The pacing

Time Sharing gives you eighty-seven seconds a question, the most generous section here, and it is still the one people run out on.

Passing does not get you the job

This is the part almost nobody explains, and for a Probation Officer candidate it matters more than anything else on this page. Answering enough of these 108 questions correctly does not hire you. It places you on an eligible list with a number on it, and that number is your position in the queue for every Probation Officer vacancy the City fills.

Hiring runs down that list under the Rule of Three: for any Probation Officer vacancy, the agency must select one of the three highest-ranking candidates who are willing to take it. The difference between a list number of 300 and one of 3,000 is not a difference of degree. It is usually the difference between being called and never being called.

Probation Officer requires a degree, which narrows the field considerably before anyone sits down. Smaller field, smaller list, and a hiring pace tied to the Department's caseload rather than to a class schedule.

The list expires

A Probation Officer eligible list typically runs four years from the date it is established, and it can be extended. If your number has not been reached when it expires, the list is gone and your place on it goes with it. You start again with the next Probation Officer exam, which may be years away.

Probation Officer lists are small and are worked against caseload rather than to a schedule. An expired list is a real risk here, and the degree requirement means the candidates around you are not casual about it.

The points you have to ask for

The Probation Officer exam is an open competitive exam, so veterans are entitled to 5 additional points on it, or 10 if disabled, and New York City residents are entitled to 5 additional points on some exams. Claim at filing. On a list this size, five points moves you meaningfully.

Here is the part that costs people the job. Those credits are not applied automatically. You claim them when you file for the Probation Officer exam and produce documentation later. Nobody looks up your service record and adds the points for you. A candidate entitled to ten points who does not claim them sits ten points lower on the Probation Officer list, permanently, and will never be told that is why the call did not come.

Filing is a deadline, not a date

You file for a specific exam number during a specific filing period, and missing it means waiting for the next administration. Filing periods are published in advance and they are not long. Check the number on the Notice of Examination against the annual schedule before you pay the fee: candidates file for the wrong exam every year, and a Notice of Examination never says it is the wrong one.

What happens after you pass

Background investigation and agency screening, then training. The educational requirement is checked, so make sure your transcript situation is clean before you file rather than after.

How to prepare

The reading is case material: intake summaries, conditions sheets, employer letters, curfew records. It looks like paperwork because the job is paperwork. Time Sharing gives you the most generous eighty-seven seconds a question and is still the section people run out on, because attending to two streams at once is genuinely hard and not something you have practiced.

One thing worth being clear about: you do not need to know the conditions of release, the sentencing guidelines or any court's practice. These exams test abilities, not job knowledge, and candidates who spend their preparation memorizing procedures are preparing for a different test.

What we found when we tested our own exam

Probation Officer candidates are graduates who tend to assume they will do fine on a written exam, which makes them the group least likely to check whether their practice material is any good.

So we measure it. Across the 38 sections of our NYC civil service exams long enough to measure (760 questions, in sections of 20 or more), the best score any length-based strategy reaches is 40%, against the 25% that guessing alone should give. Four strategies are scored: pick the longest option, pick the shortest, cross off the longest and guess, cross off the shortest and guess. Time Sharing is tested on only two titles in the line and this is one of them, and its options are long case-material extracts, which is worth watching in the measurement.

The reading is case material: intake summaries, conditions sheets, employer letters, curfew records.

Generated from the live bank by the script that fails our build over 40%. Case-material options run long by nature, which is exactly the condition that produces a length tell, so the sections on this title were among the ones checked most carefully.

Where to practice

We publish two full Probation Officer practice exams with no questions shared between them, and you can sit a single section on its own when that is all the evening allows. Every wrong answer carries its own explanation saying what a student who picked it was probably thinking, which is the part that turns a score into something you can act on. There is a free sample on the samples page if you want to see the format before paying for anything.

Common questions

How many questions are on the NYC Probation Officer exam?

108 questions across 6 sections. Six sections, and one of them is Time Sharing — attending to two streams of information at once, which only two titles in the line test.

Does passing the civil service exam mean you get the job?

No. Passing puts you on an eligible list with a list number, and hiring runs down that list. For a Probation Officer vacancy the agency must select one of the three highest-ranking candidates on the list who will accept it, which is the Rule of Three.

How long does the Probation Officer eligible list last?

Typically four years from establishment, and it can be extended. If your number is never reached before it expires, you sit the Probation Officer exam again whenever DCAS next offers it.

How do I get veterans' or residency credits on the Probation Officer exam?

You claim them yourself. Veterans get 5 additional points on an open competitive exam, or 10 if disabled, and New York City residents get 5 on some exams. Nothing is applied automatically: claim at the point you file for Probation Officer and document it later.

What does the Probation Officer job involve?

A probation officer supervises people serving a sentence in the community: interviews, conditions of release, and the pre-sentence reports the courts rely on.