Take The Sports Knowledge Test Given To Wannabe ESPN Employees

The brain— and maybe the soul—of the world's largest sports media company is the ESPN Stats & Information Group, the behind-the-scenes crew of impossibly dedicated experts responsible for every stat, trend, and non-stupid talking point that makes it onto an ESPN platform. Here's your chance to see if your sports knowledge is even in the same ballpark.

Below, you'll find a test taken by all job applicants to the Stats & Info Group. It gauges your proficiency in: 1) Calculating basic statistics; 2) Proofreading box scores for errors; 3) Spelling athletes' names; 4) Scoring plays; 5) Naming major sporting events; 6) Matching athletes to their sports; 7) Matching pro athletes to their colleges; and 8) Matching athletes to their teams.

It is just a small part of a multi-step job application process. (You can read all about that process in this thread, which also contains the 2008 version of the test. It's updated every so often; the version below, shared with us by an applicant, is from a couple of years ago. There are similar tests for other departments. When I applied to work as a fact-checker at ESPN The Magazine, I took a shorter exam that focused less on numbers and more on general knowledge.)

Real applicants have 45 minutes to complete and return the exam, which is handed out via email. They are allowed to use the internet, which is remarkably logical—no Stats & Info employee is expected to know everything by heart. But if you'd like a true challenge, give it a shot without looking things up.