Emjai is pretty much spot on for the initial interview stage.
The job knowledge test is 50 Questions - about 40 are directly from the booklet they give - literally. Anyone who doesnt know anything about flying, but had memorised the booklet would get 40 correct. About 7 or 8 are derived from the subjects in the booklet, and you will know them if you've either have some aviation type degree/studies, got some kind of very basic ppl knowledge, or are genuinely passionate and have searched forums/cathay website. There are about 2 or 3 where you either know or dont. As such, most people will get 45+ on this and so it won't distinguish awesome people from good people. It will distinguish awesome people from those who turned up to the wrong interview.
The english test is a doddle if your native or fluent. To give you an idea, most people finish in about 20mins and use the rest of the time prepping for interview. Its basic grammar testing. Trick is not to read it too hard and go with instinct.
The reasoning test - by far the hardest test and the one test that realistically will help distinguish awesome people from very good people. The Quantas test booklet doesnt really prepare you for this, they are basic easy ones. The closest I know is to go to
Non-Verbal Reasoning Test and learn how to solve the harder ones towards the end - get an idea of what types of transformations/patterns exist and what to be looking for. Most people will nail the first 18 or so, but after that they get more complex and time pressure means you'l probably end up guessing the last 7. Agreed you either can recognise logic sequences or you cant, but those who have practiced will score 5 or 6 more than those who havent and will stand out.
Interview
This is all about homework, basics and consistency. About 70% is on the cadet program, ie do you know where it is, how long, how many hours approximately would you fly, what planes would you fly, where is adelaide on the map, what company trains you, what would you learn, would you be paid a salary - if so how much, what does a second officer do, how long for, in 10 years time where would you be if you were an awesome pilot and got promoted as early as possible, is it conditional we offer you a job at the end of your CPL, whats an instrument rating, how much sim time you think a captain, FO, SO gets each year.
About 20% on cathay in terms of where do we fly etc, what planes do we have, have we bought any recently, how many pilots for each. The most technical question ever was roughly as an approximation, do you know how heavy a typical jet is e.g a330 etc (incase you say like 10,000lb etc), do you know roughly how much they cost Cathay to buy new (ie ballpark figure incase you say US$'000).
They seem to follow up on almost everything if you dont seem to be too confident or a seem a little hazy. Ie, do you know where we fly in North America and you say yes, X and Y, followed by a few curveballs like, do we fly cargo there, which one is more North than the other. Basically, if you say something, be able to support it with something.
10% was on history of you, normal interests and how you and family would be happy with you moving etc, where hong kong is on a map, approximate exchange rate. If your serious about this, they expect people who are saying they will move to live in HK and Adelaide for the next 5 years to at least know where it is without really hesistating.
Not one technical question (for my interview but maybe for others i dont know) on aircraft, engines, recognition, aero, all that good stuff you hear about - that comes later apparently when a pilot is there. This is purely a screening stage where you need to be careful, particularly if you are genuinely worthy of this oppotunity, to make sure you dont forget to nail the basics, because everyone else does and it seems you will stand out if you dont.
I can see by this interview how you can be a person who has the underlying ability or passion, but instead of getting told no by a pilot after a proper assessment - which is fair play, they get told no by HR because they didnt practice interview basics. You can be the best pilot in the world, but you have one chance, and the first chance is with HR so my advice would be to brush up on basics as a first priority re the program details and logic reasoning test.
Wish everyone the very best for the initial and second stages! Hope to see you all in HK!