EPSO/AD/427/26: the 2026 AD5 competition, test by test

The open competition through which the EU institutions, bodies and agencies recruit administrators at grade AD5: the entry grade for graduates, and the one with most places of any EPSO competition. The notice sets the number of successful candidates sought at 1,490.

To be eligible a candidate had to be a national of an EU Member State with full rights as a citizen, have completed university studies of at least three years with a diploma awarded no later than 30 September 2026, and declare two EU languages: language 1 at C1 or above among the 24 official languages, and language 2 at B2 or above among the remaining 23. No professional experience is required, which is what separates this competition from the specialist ones at AD7 and AD8.

Four blocks, sat remotely with proctoring. The reasoning tests are in language 1; everything else is in language 2.

That is 110 questions and 135 minutes of testing. Since January 2026 EPSO runs these tests on TAO; the invitation says which platform and which modalities apply to you.

In a fixed order, and each test is marked only for those who passed the previous one: reasoning first, then EU knowledge, then digital skills. Fail one pass mark and the competition ends there — the remaining answers are not even processed.

Whoever passes all of them gets a preliminary combined score: 0.40 × verbal/20 + 0.30 × EU knowledge/30 + 0.30 × digital skills/40.

Candidates are ranked by that score in descending order, and that ranking decides who gets their essay marked and their eligibility checked: a number that, in the notice's words, will in principle not exceed 1.5 times the number of places, so around 2,235 candidates, more if there are ties. Those candidates then get a final combined score, with the essay at 15%, and the reserve list is drawn from the top of it.

Note what this means for the reasoning tests: numerical and abstract count for nothing in the ranking. They are 20 questions and 30 minutes whose only possible effect is to knock you out. See how EPSO scores its tests and the table of pass marks.

Three things, in this order:

1. Supporting documents. Every candidate had to upload the scanned documents backing their application by 7 October 2026 at 12.00 Brussels time. The Selection Board compares those documents with what was declared in the form, but only for the best-ranked candidates.
2. Results. They are notified at the end of the competition, whatever stage you reached — not test by test.
3. Reserve list. Names are listed alphabetically, not by score, and made available to the recruiting services. Being on it is not an offer: the notice says in so many words that it confers no right to recruitment.

EPSO does not publish cut-off scores for any of this, so nobody can tell you in advance what score was enough: see the guide to pass marks.

Each test has its own guide here, with its format, its pass mark and where the questions come from:

• Reasoning tests: verbal, numerical and abstract, and why only verbal counts for your place.
• EU knowledge test: the Treaties, institutions, procedures and policies, 30 questions in 40 minutes.
• Digital skills test: 40 questions in 30 minutes on the five areas of DigComp 2.2.
• EUFTE essay: 40 minutes on documentation EPSO publishes in advance, marked on five criteria.
• The TAO screen: the platform, its tools and what the invigilation checks.

The European Court of Auditors put the overall success rate of candidates who sit at least the first test at around 2%: roughly 1,000 recruits a year out of more than 50,000 applicants.

Read that figure for what it is — the end-to-end rate of the whole procedure, not the filter of the testing phase, which is far less brutal. What the 2% really says is where candidates are lost: not in the exotic parts of the competition, but in the ordinary ones, on tests whose format and pass marks are published in advance.