| 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 | — |
The European Union knowledge test is a multiple choice questionnaire covering the European Union, its institutions, procedures and main policies: 30 questions in 40 minutes.
It is the one test in the competition where revising pays off directly. The reasoning tests measure an aptitude; this one measures what you have learnt, and the gap between a candidate who has prepared and one who is discovering the subject shows immediately.
The test is eliminatory: below 15/30, the application goes no further. Its score then counts for 25% of the ranking mark.
EU knowledge appears in the generalist competitions, where the job is not defined by a technical speciality. A future generalist administrator has to know the house they are joining.
Specialist competitions work differently: they replace this test with a field-related one, in audit, IT, taxation or data. The table below sets out, competition by competition, what the Official Journal publishes.
Worth remembering: when this test is on the programme, it is almost always both eliminatory and part of the ranking. It cannot be made up elsewhere, and a point gained here weighs as much as a point gained in reasoning.
| Competition |
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The questions below come from our practice bank, in the format of the test: one stem, four options, only one correct, with the full worked answer and an analysis of every distractor.
Answer key — B
Article 290 TFEU empowers the Commission, when authorised by the legislator, to adopt non-legislative acts of general application supplementing or amending non-essential elements. Article 291 TFEU confers on the Commission (exceptionally on the Council) the power to adopt implementing acts where uniform conditions are needed, under Member State control (comitology).
A. Both delegated and implementing acts are, as a rule, adopted by the Commission; the Council only intervenes exceptionally for implementing acts under Article 291(2) TFEU.
B. Article 290 TFEU empowers the Commission, when authorised by the legislator, to adopt non-legislative acts of general application supplementing or amending non-essential elements. Article 291 TFEU confers on the Commission (exceptionally on the Council) the power to adopt implementing acts where uniform conditions are needed, under Member State control (comitology).
C. No formal consent of Parliament is required for a delegated act; under Article 290(2) TFEU, Parliament may only object to it or revoke the delegation.
D. Articles 290 and 291 TFEU provide for no such split by policy field between the internal market and the CFSP.
Answer key — C
Article 5 TEU sets out three principles. The principle of conferral governs the limits of Union competences: the Union acts only within the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties. The principles of subsidiarity and proportionality govern the use of those competences: the Union acts only where the objectives cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, and its action does not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties.
A. Article 4 TEU concerns relations with Member States, not these principles.
B. Article 7 TEU concerns sanctions.
C. Correct: Article 5 TEU.
D. Article 13 TEU establishes the institutional framework.
| Connaissances de l'Union europeenne | 30 | 40 min | L2 | 1 pt/question | 15/30 | Yes | Yes | 25 % |
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| Competences numeriques | 40 | 30 min | L2 | 1 pt/question | 20/40 | Yes | Yes | 25 % |
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| EUFTE (epreuve ecrite) | 1 | 40 min | L2 | 1 pt/question | — | Yes | Yes | 15 % |
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| Pass mark |
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| Administrateurs generalistes (AD 5)EPSO/AD/427/26 | 30 | 40 min | L2 | 15/30 | 25 % |
EPSO describes this test in a single sentence, and that sentence marks out exactly four fields. It publishes no syllabus, no list of topics and no weighting between them: what follows takes up the official sentence and stops there.
That silence is not an oversight, and it has a counterpart few candidates make use of: EPSO says it will publish, roughly two months before the test, the references of the sources used to build it. That is the only revision syllabus in existence, and it comes with a date.
The four fields above are the ones set out in EPSO’s own description of the test, “a multiple-choice questionnaire covering the European Union, its institutions, procedures, and main policies” (news item of 16 March 2026). Breaking them down into sub-topics is our reading, not an official syllabus: EPSO publishes none. The only official figures on this page are those in the table and the banner, taken from the Official Journal.
Answer key — B
Article 101(1) TFEU prohibits "all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the internal market". Exemptions exist (Article 101(3)) for agreements contributing to improving production or distribution, under conditions.
A. Abuse of a dominant position is prohibited by Article 102 TFEU, not 101.
B. Article 101(1) TFEU prohibits "all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the internal market". Exemptions exist (Article 101(3)) for agreements contributing to improving production or distribution, under conditions.
C. Concentrations are governed by Regulation (EC) 139/2004, not directly by Article 101.
D. State aid is prohibited by Article 107 TFEU.
Answer key — B
The EAFRD is Pillar 2 of the CAP. It finances rural development: farm competitiveness, sustainable natural-resource management and climate action, balanced territorial development. Pillar 1 (direct payments and market measures) is financed by the EAGF. Since 2023, both funds are implemented via national CAP Strategic Plans under Regulation (EU) 2021/2115.
A. Pillar 1 (direct payments and market measures) is financed by the EAGF, not the EAFRD.
B. The EAFRD is Pillar 2 of the CAP. It finances rural development: farm competitiveness, sustainable natural-resource management and climate action, balanced territorial development. Pillar 1 (direct payments and market measures) is financed by the EAGF. Since 2023, both funds are implemented via national CAP Strategic Plans under Regulation (EU) 2021/2115.
C. Horizon Europe is the Union's research and innovation framework programme, unrelated to the EAFRD.
D. The LIFE programme funds environmental and climate action, separate from the EAFRD's rural development role.
Answer key — B
The EU sanctions regime rests on a dual basis: Article 29 TEU enables the Council to adopt CFSP decisions setting out the Union's position (asset freezes, travel bans, arms embargoes, etc.); Article 215 TFEU then enables the Council, on a joint proposal of the HR and the Commission, to adopt the implementing regulation with direct effect in the Member States.
A. Article 21 TEU sets out the general principles of external action but is not the specific legal basis for sanctions.
B. The EU sanctions regime rests on a dual basis: Article 29 TEU enables the Council to adopt CFSP decisions setting out the Union's position (asset freezes, travel bans, arms embargoes, etc.); Article 215 TFEU then enables the Council, on a joint proposal of the HR and the Commission, to adopt the implementing regulation with direct effect in the Member States.
C. Article 50 TEU concerns the withdrawal of a Member State; Article 218 TFEU concerns international agreements.
D. Article 17 TEU deals with the role of the Commission; Article 294 TFEU is the ordinary legislative procedure.
Answer key — B
Under Article 15(5) TEU, the President of the European Council is elected by qualified majority of the European Council for a term of two and a half years, renewable once. The total maximum mandate is therefore five years.
A. Five years is the term of the European Commission, not of the President of the European Council under Article 15(5) TEU.
B. Correct: 2.5 years renewable once.
C. One year does not correspond to the term set by Article 15(5) TEU for the European Council Presidency.
D. Six months is the length of the rotating Council of the EU Presidency, not the European Council Presidency.
The most common mistake is revising without EPSO’s material. The references of the sources are published roughly two months before the test: starting before that is useful, but ignoring the document when it appears amounts to revising the wrong syllabus.
The second is confusing neighbouring institutions. European Council and Council of the Union, Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights, Commission and High Representative: these pairs supply formidable distractors precisely because they are almost right.
The third is learning lists without the procedures. Being able to name the seven institutions says nothing about who proposes, who amends, who blocks. Questions almost always turn on how the pieces fit together, rarely on the list itself.
The method that works: start from the procedures, because they bring the institutions into play in a set order, and remembering the order makes you remember the roles. Everything else hangs on that afterwards.
Every question is worked through option by option, with its reference: you see not only the correct answer, but which article or which treaty grounds it, and by which mechanism each of the three distractors fails.
Spaced repetition (the FSRS algorithm) reschedules the points you get wrong. On a knowledge test that is the main lever: forgetting is the adversary, not difficulty.
The readiness index (ERI) aggregates coverage, regularity and success rate to show whether you are ready, on this test as on the others in the competition.
Timed mock tests reproduce the time pressure of the real thing, which changes everything: a point you can recite in three minutes is worth nothing when eighty seconds are left.
30 multiple choice questions in 40 minutes for the generalist administrator competition, according to the official notice (reference at the foot of the page). The parameters differ between competitions: the table on this page compares them.
15 points out of 30 for this competition. The test is eliminatory and its score counts for 25% of the final mark used for the ranking.
EPSO describes it as a multiple choice questionnaire covering the European Union, its institutions, procedures and main policies. That is the whole of the official description: no detailed syllabus is published, and we do not invent one.
On 16 March 2026 EPSO announced that it would make available on its website the references of the sources used to build the test, roughly two months before the date of the test. That is the revision document closest to an official syllabus: watch for it to appear on the EPSO website for your competition.
The official parameters we recorded set a language regime for this test, shown in the table on this page. Your individual invitation and the notice of the competition concerned remain the only reference.
No. Specialist competitions replace EU knowledge with a field-related test: audit, IT, taxation, data management. The table on this page shows which competitions carry which test.
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