Ticket practice
IT ticket simulator: practice the decision each ticket asks for
A ticket rarely says what the problem is. “The internet is slow” could be one laptop or a whole floor. “Can you just reset my password” could be the user, or someone pretending to be them. This simulator gives you tickets written the way people actually write them, and asks what you'd do next.
You can work 25 of them without signing up.
One ticket, taken apart
Here's the first ticket in the free set, as you'd see it.
Password reset request by phone
“Hi, this is Dana from Accounting. I'm locked out of my account and I have payroll due in an hour. Can you just reset my password real quick? My username is dchen.”
You get four responses to choose from:
- A. Reset the password now and read the temporary one over the phone. Payroll is urgent.
- B. Verify Dana with your standard checks (employee ID, manager callback, or an MFA prompt), then reset and force a change at next login.
- C. Ask Dana to email you from her work mailbox to prove it's her.
- D. Escalate to the security team and let them handle all password resets.
Pick one before you read on.
The answer, worked through
B is the best call. The check takes a minute, and forcing a change at next login keeps the temporary password short-lived. The others fail for different reasons:
- A. Urgency is a common social-engineering tactic. You'd be handing an account to a caller you haven't verified.
- C. She's locked out, so she can't. And a mailbox on its own is weak proof if it's already compromised.
- D. Password resets are normal service desk work. Sending them all upstream slows everyone down and doesn't make them safer.
In the simulator, the feedback after your pick covers the same ground: what the ticket is really testing (here, whether a deadline makes you skip identity checks), what a strong answer looks like, the mistakes people make most, and a sentence you could say to Dana that insists on the check without sounding obstructive. Tickets often go wrong in the conversation, not the fix.
What to look at before you answer
The tickets are built to reward the same quick read a good technician gives any ticket:
- Who's asking, and can you confirm it? Anything touching passwords, MFA or access needs a check first.
- How many people are affected? One user is a ticket. A burst of the same complaint is an incident.
- What's the deadline or the business impact? It changes the order of your steps, not the steps you're allowed to skip.
- Is this a request or something broken? Requests go through an approval path. Faults get a workaround first, then a fix.
- Is it yours? Some tickets should go to another team, with a note on what you already tried.
More tickets from the free set
The 25 free tickets cover four areas (accounts and identity, endpoints and hardware, network and remote access, and software and permissions) with priorities from Low to Critical. Eight of them:
- Accounts and identity: Account locks itself every morning (Medium); Team wants a shared login (Low)
- Endpoints and hardware: 'The printer doesn't work' (Low); Salary sheet stuck at the shared printer (High)
- Network and remote access: 'The internet is slow' (Medium); Personal travel router under the desk (High)
- Software and permissions: 'Just give me admin rights' (Low); No license seats left, deadline today (Medium)
Work them one at a time from the practice list, or run all 25 back to back as a scored shift.
Beyond single tickets
Real tickets don't end at the first reply. Pro's other 475 questions include formats that follow a ticket further:
- Step-order drills: put the troubleshooting steps for a fault in the order you'd actually do them.
- Follow-up chains: give your first move, then answer the “what if” questions an interviewer or team lead would ask next.
- Interview questions and STAR stories: turn tickets you've worked into answers you can say out loud.
- Employer packs: sets built around where you'd work, from a managed service provider juggling many clients to a clinic where downtime and privacy both matter.
Plans and prices are on Pricing.
Simulator or ticketing-system lab?
If you want to practice the software itself (ticket fields, queues, SLA timers, assignment rules), install a free open-source ticketing system in a home lab and work a few tickets through it end to end. That teaches the tool. This simulator teaches the decision each ticket asks for. Doing both gives you more to talk about in an interview. Our free training plan walks through a simple lab setup.
Quick answers
Are these real tickets from a company?
No. They're fictional, but the answers follow widely used service desk practice (the kind ITIL describes), and the feedback explains the reasoning so you can judge it.
Can I write my own reply instead of choosing?
The free tickets are multiple choice. In Pro, STAR questions give you a box to draft your own story, and interview questions ask which points you'd cover, then show a strong answer.
Do I need an account?
Not for the free tickets. Progress stays in your browser. Pro is tied to your account, so it works on any device you sign in to.