1,490
places on the reserve list
more than 170,000
applications submitted
under 0.9%
theoretical success rate
Places: notice EPSO/AD/427/26. Applications: EPSO news of 11 March 2026. Selectivity: the ratio of the two.
The generalist administrators competition (AD 5) is the main gateway into the EU institutions: no field of specialisation, no professional experience required.
Applications for 2026 are closed; the testing phase is under way, in two parts since the EPSO announcement of 30 June 2026.
This page tracks the competition with its verified official parameters, from the test calendar to the pass marks of each test.
A free diagnostic places you on verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning, where everything is decided first.
Take the diagnosticTest calendar: EPSO announcement of 30 June 2026 (tests split in two parts); individual invitation letters give the exact dates.
The notice conditions come down to four points, with no professional experience required.
Conditions as published in notice EPSO/AD/427/26 and on the EPSO application page. Laureates are recruited at grade AD 5, the entry administrator grade, by all the institutions.
| Test | Questions | Duration | Language | Scoring | Pass mark | Eliminatory | Ranked | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raisonnement verbal | 20 | 35 min | — | 1 pt/question | 10/20 | Yes | Yes | 35 % |
| Raisonnement numerique | 10 | 20 min | — | 1 pt/question | 10/20 (combined) | Yes | No | — |
| Raisonnement abstrait | 10 | 10 min | — | 1 pt/question | 10/20 (combined) | Yes | No | — |
| Connaissances de l'Union europeenne | 30 | 40 min | L2 | 1 pt/question | 15/30 | Yes | Yes | 25 % |
| Competences numeriques | 40 | 30 min | L2 | 1 pt/question | 20/40 | Yes | Yes | 25 % |
| EUFTE (epreuve ecrite) | 1 | 40 min | L2 | 1 pt/question | — | Yes | Yes | 15 % |
Since the competition model reform decided by the EPSO Management Board on 31 January 2023, AD5 selection is decided entirely on the online written tests listed above.
EPSO information note on the new competition model (31 January 2023) and notice EPSO/AD/427/26: only the tests listed in the notice count.
Questions from our practice bank in the format of the tests. The digital skills module is open below; the public samples of the other modules arrive with their test pages.
Answer key — A
The W3C Web App Manifest is a JSON document describing how a web app should behave once installed on a device. It declares name, short_name, icons (multi-sized), start_url, display ("standalone", "fullscreen", "minimal-ui"), theme_color, background_color and orientation. The browser uses it to render the splash screen and install icon.
A. Correct: PWA install metadata (W3C Web App Manifest).
B. Wrong: the Web App Manifest has no link to cookie consent; consent categories are managed by a separate consent management platform, not manifest.json.
C. Wrong: saved passwords and autofill are handled by the browser's built-in credential manager, not the manifest.json file.
D. Wrong: offline data sync is the role of the Background Sync API and service workers, not the manifest.json file.
Answer key — B
UTF-8 (RFC 3629) is a variable-width encoding (1 to 4 bytes) covering the entire Unicode code-point range. ASCII characters are encoded in 1 byte identical to US-ASCII: full backward compatibility. It is the default encoding recommended by W3C/HTML5. Source: RFC 3629, WHATWG HTML Living Standard.
A. UTF-8 is not a fixed 8-bit encoding; it is variable-width (1 to 4 bytes) per RFC 3629, unlike single-byte Latin-1.
B. UTF-8 (RFC 3629) is a variable-width encoding (1 to 4 bytes) covering the entire Unicode code-point range. ASCII characters are encoded in 1 byte identical to US-ASCII: full backward compatibility. It is the default encoding recommended by W3C/HTML5. Source: RFC 3629, WHATWG HTML Living Standard.
C. A character encoding does not encrypt data; UTF-8 has no cryptographic function, unlike TLS which handles HTTPS confidentiality separately.
D. UTF-8 does not compress text; it can be the same size as ASCII or larger than UTF-16 for many non-Latin scripts.
Answer key — B
Article 50 AI Act = labelling and transparency obligations for AI content.
A. False: Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 specifically imposes transparency duties on synthetic/deepfake content, independent of the Annex III high-risk classification.
B. AI Act Article 50: transparency obligations for systems interacting with humans, synthetic content and deepfakes - explicit labelling required.
C. False: Article 50 requires disclosure/labelling, not deletion of the content within any deadline.
D. False: no printing or physical-copy submission obligation exists under Article 50; the requirement is digital disclosure to the audience.
Answer key — B
Pro tone adjusts to the relationship: 'Dear Ms. Smith' > 'Dear Mary' > 'Hi Mary' depending on closeness.
A. Too informal for a first professional contact with someone unknown to the sender.
B. 'Dear Mr/Mrs [Last name]' is the standard professional English greeting.
C. Inappropriately casual slang, unsuitable for any professional correspondence.
D. Inappropriately casual and overly familiar for someone the sender does not know.
Answer key — B
WCAG 2.2 SC 1.4.3 (Contrast Minimum, AA) requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for "large" text (≥ 18 pt or 14 pt bold). SC 1.4.6 (Contrast Enhanced, AAA) raises these thresholds to 7:1 and 4.5:1. Luminance follows the WCAG formula on sRGB components.
A. 3:1 is the AA threshold for large text, not normal text.
B. Correct: 4.5:1 (normal text AA, WCAG 2.2 §1.4.3).
C. 7:1 is the AAA threshold (1.4.6), not AA.
D. 21:1 is the theoretical maximum (black/white), not a normative threshold.
Answer key — C
Per NIST SP 800-145, SaaS = the consumer uses the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure, without managing the underlying infrastructure or platform. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are canonical examples. IaaS exposes VMs/network/storage; PaaS exposes an application runtime (Heroku, App Engine).
A. A IaaS delivers raw resources (VM, storage) - the customer manages OS and middleware. Not the case here.
B. B PaaS exposes an application runtime where the customer deploys code - still too low-level.
C. Per NIST SP 800-145, SaaS = the consumer uses the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure, without managing the underlying infrastructure or platform. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are canonical examples. IaaS exposes VMs/network/storage; PaaS exposes an application runtime (Heroku, App Engine).
D. D on-premise means hosting at the customer site, the opposite of provider cloud.
Training covers all six tests of the competition, with spaced repetition and per-module tracking.
Start practisingParameters aligned with the notice: every mock exam uses the official durations, pass marks and weightings, including the combined thresholds.
Spaced repetition (FSRS) focuses your revision on what you miss, module by module, following the real test calendar.
The readiness index (ERI) tells you whether you are ready for part 1, then for part 2, rather than a meaningless overall average.
No. Applications closed on 10 March 2026 at midday, Brussels time. The next AD5 cycle is not yet announced in the EPSO planning.
In two parts since the EPSO announcement of 30 June 2026: the reasoning tests are expected in October-November 2026, then EU knowledge, digital skills and EUFTE in 2027. Individual invitation letters give the exact dates.
1,490 places on the reserve list, for more than 170,000 applications submitted: a theoretical success rate under 0.9%.
No. The notice requires EU citizenship, a diploma attesting at least three years of university studies and two official EU languages (minimum C1 and B2); no professional experience is required.
No. Since the reform of 31 January 2023, the assessment centre and oral tests are gone from the selection; interviews only come at recruitment, after the reserve list.
The reasoning tests (verbal, numerical, abstract) act as a filter; the final ranking combines verbal reasoning, EU knowledge, digital skills and EUFTE according to the official weightings shown in the table on this page.
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