Sanitation Worker Written Examination - Core Tested Skills
Sanitation Worker Written Examination - Core Tested Skills
The NYC Sanitation Worker written examination is a multiple-choice civil service test administered by DCAS. Because the source does not enumerate separate content domains, treat the exam as one integrated domain: it measures how accurately you read procedures, apply arithmetic to collection work, interpret spatial and route information, and retain rule details under time pressure. The job context-curbside refuse and recycling collection, snow and ice response, and safe movement around heavy trucks-shapes the scenarios.
What the test rewards
- Literal reading. Questions often ask what a regulation or passage says, not what seems sensible. Answers that add outside assumptions are wrong.
- Unit discipline. Convert tons to pounds (1 ton = 2,000 lb), cubic yards to cubic feet (1 yd³ = 27 ft³), and hours to minutes before calculating.
- Procedure order. Safety steps and collection sequences are tested in the order written: inspect, secure, load, signal, proceed.
- Spatial orientation. Route maps, truck diagrams, and loading patterns require mental rotation and left/right orientation from the driver's seat.
- Memorization. Short rule sets-setback distances, collection frequencies, prohibited items-may be presented and then tested.
Worked example
A crew collects 9 tons of refuse in 4.5 hours. What is the average collection rate in pounds per hour?
9 tons × 2,000 = 18,000 lb. Then 18,000 ÷ 4.5 = 4,000 lb/hr. Checking: 4,000 × 4.5 = 18,000. The trap is stopping at 2,000 lb/hr by forgetting the ton conversion, or misreading 4.5 hours as 4 hours 50 minutes.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering from general knowledge instead of the passage.
- Missing EXCEPT, NOT, LEAST, and BEST in the question stem.
- Mixing up radius and diameter, gross and tare weight, or starting and ending odometer readings.
- Rotating a diagram in the wrong direction; always anchor on a fixed landmark.
- Rushing memorization items; rehearse the exact order, not the gist.