EPSO digital skills test: format, pass score and practice
The EPSO digital skills test assesses your practical command of everyday professional digital tools and habits: 40 multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes, taken in your language 2.
Applications closed
- Application deadline
- Last verified
Notice EPSO/AD/427/26
Official test parameters
It covers the 5 domains of the European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), from finding information to solving technical problems.
- Questions
- 40
- Duration
- 30min
- Pass score
- 20/40
- Weight
- 25%
- Scoring
- 1 pt/question
- Eliminatory
- Yes
- Ranked
- Yes
- Notice
- EPSO/AD/427/26
The test is eliminatory: below 20/40, your application goes no further, whatever your results in the rest of the competition.
Verbal reasoning
Numerical reasoning
Abstract reasoning
EU knowledge
Digital skills
EUFTE (written test)
Content based on the notice EPSO/AD/427/26 (C/2026/711). Official parameters last verified: .
Which competitions include this test
Among the EPSO notices of competition currently published, the digital skills test only appears in the competition for generalist administrators (AD 5). Candidates in specialist or linguist competitions do not need to prepare for it.
The table below shows the exact parameters of the test in each competition concerned, as published in the Official Journal.
Administrateurs généralistes (AD 5)EPSO/AD/427/26
The competition families
What it really measures, and what it does not
What the test measures
- Practical reflexes: assessing the reliability of an online source, choosing the right communication channel, spotting a phishing attempt.
- Knowledge of good practice: personal data protection, licences and reuse rights, basic digital hygiene.
- The ability to diagnose a common technical problem and pick the appropriate response.
What it does not measure
- Mastery of any specific software: no question is about the menus of a particular tool.
- IT professional skills: no programming and no system administration; it is a general digital literacy test, not a technical one.
- Typing speed or dexterity: only the answers count.
The format in detail: the 5 official domains
The notice of competition explicitly ties the test to the European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp) and lists five domains. Every question in the test belongs to one of them.
Information and data literacy
Searching, filtering and evaluating digital data and content; judging the reliability of a source; organising and retrieving information.
Communication and collaboration
Interacting and collaborating through digital technologies; choosing the appropriate channel; sharing while respecting usage rules and your digital identity.
Digital content creation
Creating and editing digital content; understanding copyright and licences; integrating existing content.
Safety
Protecting devices, personal data and privacy; recognising risks (phishing, weak passwords) and responding to them.
Problem solving
Diagnosing a common technical problem; identifying the right tool for a given need; addressing your own digital skills gaps.
Domains as listed in the official notice of competition (full reference at the bottom of the page).
Try questions from the test
The questions below come from our practice bank, in the same format as the test: one question, four options, a single correct answer, with the full explanation.
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 encoding recommended by the W3C and required by the HTML standard. 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 encoding recommended by the W3C and required by the HTML standard. 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 of the AI Act sets labelling and transparency obligations for AI-generated content.
A. False: Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 specifically imposes transparency duties on synthetic content and deepfakes, 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 is required.
C. False: Article 50 requires disclosure and 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
A professional tone adapts to the relationship: from 'Dear Ms Smith' to 'Dear Mary' and then 'Hi Mary' as closeness grows.
A. Too informal for a first professional contact with someone unknown to the sender.
B. 'Dear Mr/Ms [Surname]' is the standard professional salutation in British English.
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 (at least 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 on white), not a normative threshold.
Answer key : C
Under NIST SP 800-145, in 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 provides virtual machines, network and storage; PaaS provides an application runtime (Heroku, App Engine).
A. IaaS delivers raw resources (virtual machines, storage); the customer manages the operating system and middleware, which is not the case here.
B. PaaS provides an application runtime on which the customer deploys code; this is still too low-level.
C. Under NIST SP 800-145, in 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 provides virtual machines, network and storage; PaaS provides an application runtime (Heroku, App Engine).
D. On-premises means hosting at the customer's own site, the opposite of a provider's cloud.
Questions written by Erudiam from official EU sources; EPSO does not publish past papers.
Common mistakes and method
The costliest mistake is neglecting the test because you “use a computer every day”. The questions test specific good practices (licences, data protection, criteria for judging whether a source is reliable) that everyday use alone does not teach you to formalise.
Second trap: time. At 40 questions in 30 minutes, you have less than a minute per question; scenario questions (a context, then the question) are best read by first identifying what is being asked.
Finally, the test is taken in your language 2: the digital vocabulary in that language (licence, backup, authentication…) must be learnt before the day of the test, not discovered during it.
How Erudiam trains this test
- Every question in the bank is mapped to one of the 5 official domains: your dashboard shows, domain by domain, where you lose points.
- Spaced repetition (the FSRS algorithm) automatically reschedules the concepts you got wrong at the right moment, instead of making you go over what you already know.
- The readiness index (ERI) combines coverage, regularity and success rate to tell you whether you are ready, for this test as for the other tests in the competition.
Frequently asked questions about the digital skills test
40 multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes, according to the official notice of competition (reference at the bottom of the page).
20 points out of 40. The test is eliminatory and its score counts for 25% of the final mark used for ranking.
In your language 2, the one you declared when you applied for the competition, not in your main language.
No. Among the notices currently published, only the competition for generalist administrators (AD 5) includes it. We have checked each notice individually; the up-to-date list is in the table on this page.
The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), cited in the notice of competition, with five domains: information and data, communication and collaboration, content creation, safety, problem solving.
Work domain by domain rather than taking one full test after another: identify your weak domains with a diagnostic test, then practise them separately before taking a test under real conditions again.
