Dystopian novel. Underground society where a test determines the level you live on (e.g., sanitation, mining). Male MC takes test & goes to a new level. People told the Earth's surface is wasteland, and they can't leave. Read around 2015. Spoilers ahead.

[Baden]

I read this book maybe 5 years ago. I remember it starting with a description of an underground civilization who is told the surface of the earth is a wasteland and they can never leave. When People are teenagers they have sort of a graduation test and it determined what level of the underground civilization they end up in, sanitation, mining etc. The main character takes the test and gets on an elevator to a level that nobody has ever been to before and it takes him to a train, but before he can arrive at his final destination, a rockslide stops his train and he goes out to find that the earth is not actually a wasteland. He then finds a group of hunter gatherer type people and follows them around and then becomes friends with one of them. They then find a lakeside house and people and it turns out it was where he was supposed to have ended up. The people have figured out a way to slow aging and live for a millennia. They try to wed the main character with their daughter and it works and his friend gets sad and lives alone. Then he finds his dad at the retirement center and discovers that it’s not a paradise that you get to go to and it’s actually a place where they cut their brains out and use it for testing.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Baden is still looking for this and wrote:

"I read this book maybe 5 years ago. I remember it starting with a description of an underground civilization who is told the surface of the earth is a wasteland and they can never leave. When People are teenagers they have sort of a graduation test and it determined what level of the underground civilization they end up in, sanitation, mining etc. The main character takes the test and gets on an elevator to a level that nobody has ever been to before and it takes him to a train, but before he can arrive at his final destination, a rockslide stops his train and he goes out to find that the earth is not actually a wasteland. He then finds a group of hunter gatherer type people and follows them around and then becomes friends with one of them. They then find a lakeside house and people and it turns out it was where he was supposed to have ended up. The people have figured out a way to slow aging and live for a millennia. They try to wed the main character with their daughter and it works and his friend gets sad and lives alone. Then he finds his dad at the retirement center and discovers that it’s not a paradise that you get to go to and it’s actually a place where they cut their brains out and use it for testing."

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

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[Kris]

Baden, is this book for teens or adults? How old is the main character? Do they take the test at a specific age?

I removed the spoiler from the header (what happens when you retire). Spoilers are okay in the comments - as long as we give everyone a clear warning.

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[Paige]

The city underground
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

[Kris]

Following up on Paige's suggestion of The city underground by Suzanne Martel, Google Books has a snippet search of this book. You might get lucky searching for keywords:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Bnd... There are different cover images.

...section 53. Everything's normal." Five minutes later he announced: "I'm going down to level 4. I'll try Mr. 9 M 16's famous ladder." This engineer and Bernard had managed to find a solution to the problem of changing levels when a pipe...

Keep to the right for another thirty feet; then you'll come to a different level. Ten feet below, turn back south and then go to the right." Hours went slowly by. Bernard slid a meal pill under his mask and swallowed it . He cracked three little...

At last the hunter emerged, his eyes shining, brandishing his trophies: a glove and a wire - cutter of a design and material never before seen in the city. Did these objects prove that there was another race under the earth?

[Rainbowheart]

Maybe Surfacing?

Don't think it's The City Under Ground. The ending doesn't sound right.