EPSO AD5 2026 Preparation Guide: Test Format, Scoring and a Two-Sprint Study Plan

EPSO/AD/427/26 is the open competition for graduate administrators at grade AD 5, published in the Official Journal on 5 February 2026 and seeking 1,490 successful candidates. It attracted 174,727 applications, which is why the testing phase was restructured into two parts. This guide sets out what the competition actually tests, how it is scored, and how to prepare for it in the time that remains.

Every factual claim below links to its official source: the notice of competition, the amending notice, and the EU Careers competition page.

How is the AD5 2026 competition structured?

The amending notice of 30 June 2026 split the testing phase in two, stating that the competition "attracted an unprecedented number of candidates". The structure is now:

• Part 1 — reasoning: verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning, taken in your first language. Expected to take place as of October/November 2026. Each candidate sits all three tests in a single session on one day, with candidates scheduled across different dates in the testing period.
• Part 2 — EU knowledge, digital skills and the EUFTE essay, taken in your second language. Open only to candidates who reach the Part 1 pass scores. EPSO states this will take place in 2027, on dates to be announced later.

Two operational details from the official announcement are worth internalising now: you are invited individually several weeks in advance, and rescheduling of tests is not possible. Your preparation has to be finished before the invitation arrives, not after.

What is the exact test format?

From Tables 2 to 6 of the notice of competition:

Tests are delivered remotely and remotely proctored on the TAO platform. Language 1 must be one of the 24 official EU languages at C1 or above; language 2 must be a different one of the remaining 23, at B2 or above.

Which tests actually decide your ranking?

This is where most preparation goes wrong, because not every test carries weight. Under Table 6 of the notice:

• The preliminary combined score is verbal reasoning 40%, EU knowledge 30%, digital skills 30%.
• Numerical and abstract reasoning do not enter either combined score. They are a threshold you must clear, and nothing more.
• The final combined score is verbal 35%, EU knowledge 25%, digital skills 25%, EUFTE 15%.
• EUFTE scripts are marked, and eligibility checked, only for candidates at the top of the preliminary ranking — a group which "in principle" does not exceed 1.5 times the number of successful candidates sought.

The practical consequence: an hour spent lifting numerical reasoning from a comfortable pass to an excellent score buys you nothing, while the same hour on verbal reasoning moves 40% of your preliminary score. Clear the reasoning thresholds, then put your effort where the weights are.

Is there a situational judgement test or an assessment centre?

No. The notice of competition contains no situational judgement test, no assessment centre and no competition-stage interview. The interview that appears later in the process belongs to the recruiting services after the reserve list is established, and is not part of the EPSO competition. If preparation material sells you an AD5 situational judgement test for this competition, it is describing a format that does not apply here.

What does EPSO itself give you?

EPSO publishes sample tests and is explicit about their limits: "these examples are not training materials. EPSO does not offer preparatory courses or endorse any external publications or training services."

Two gaps in the official material shape how you should prepare:

• The reasoning samples exist in all 24 official languages, but the written test (EUFTE) sample is published in English and French only. If you sit the essay in any of the other 22 languages, there is no official example in your language.
• The samples are a handful of items. They show you the format; they cannot build the speed the timing demands — 45 seconds per digital skills question, 80 seconds per EU knowledge question, 60 seconds per abstract item.

How PassEPSO prepares you for this competition

We are an independent preparation platform with no affiliation to EPSO or the EU institutions. What we provide for AD5, in concrete terms:

• 3,946 active practice questions mapped to the AD5 sections: 322 verbal, 968 numerical, 469 abstract, 1,371 EU knowledge, 758 digital skills, plus 58 items on EU institutional writing.
• 31 EUFTE essay prompts, each built on a source document, graded by an AI writing coach against the five published EPSO assessment anchors — structure and logical flow, concision, clarity, adaptation to audience and purpose, and effective use of the material provided.
• A full exam simulation that mirrors the official paper exactly: 110 questions across 135 minutes, with each section timed as the notice specifies (verbal 20/35, numerical 10/20, abstract 10/10, EU knowledge 30/40, digital skills 40/30). It is regenerated from the bank on every run rather than being a fixed paper, plus eight shorter section-only timed simulations for targeted work.
• Every section in all 24 official EU languages. Coverage per language runs from roughly 40% to 82% of the English bank, and we say so plainly rather than claiming parity we do not have.
• Difficulty calibrated on real performance. Every question carries a difficulty tier that is recalculated nightly from how candidates actually answer it; 72% of the active bank now has enough answered attempts to be calibrated empirically rather than by its original label.
• An AI tutor for the questions you get wrong. The static explanation comes first; when it does not land, you can ask for the reasoning step by step until it does.
• A score gap indicator based on your own recent practice history and the difficulty of what you answered. It is a self-assessment tool, not a prediction of your EPSO result.

How is the question bank kept current?

In the last 90 days we added 1,312 questions to the active bank, and since 8 August 2026 we have revised the English source text, options or explanation of 1,929 of our active questions. Corrections are applied by family: when a defect is found in one item, every question generated by the same rule is checked and fixed, not just the one that was reported.

What should the AD5 study plan look like now?

Not one plan — two. The testing phase is split across two parts more than a year apart, so a single timeline that mixes reasoning, EU knowledge, digital skills and the essay is preparing you for an exam that does not exist. Preparation splits the same way the competition does: a short, focused sprint now for the reasoning tests that are actually coming, and a second sprint later for the Language 2 sections, which are not tested until 2027.

The cost of merging them is concrete: weeks spent on EU knowledge and digital skills before the autumn are weeks not spent on verbal reasoning, which is 40% of the preliminary score and the only ranked test in Part 1.

What goes in Sprint 1, for the autumn 2026 reasoning tests?

Part 1 is verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning in Language 1, all three in a single session on one day: 20 questions in 35 minutes, then 10 in 20 minutes, then 10 in 10 minutes. Nothing else is on that paper, so nothing else belongs in this sprint.

1. Diagnose the three reasoning types before you study anything. Find out where you actually stand across verbal, numerical and abstract, and let the sprint follow the weakness rather than your preference.
2. Make verbal reasoning the centre of the sprint. It is 40% of the preliminary score and 35% of the final one — the only Part 1 test that ranks you. The clock allows about 105 seconds per question; there are 322 active verbal questions in our bank to build that pace on.
3. Take numerical and abstract to a reliable pass, then hold them there. They share one 10/20 threshold and enter neither combined score, so effort beyond a stable pass buys nothing. 968 numerical and 469 abstract active questions are available for that, at 120 and 60 seconds per question respectively.
4. Practise timed from the first session. Untimed practice teaches the content and hides the problem; the failure mode in Part 1 is speed. Eight section-only timed simulations exist for exactly this.
5. Rehearse the three tests back to back at least once. They are sat in one sitting, and switching from a 35-minute verbal block straight into 20 minutes of numerical is its own skill.
6. Let the data re-cut the plan. Every question carries a difficulty tier recalculated nightly from how candidates actually answer it, and 72% of the active bank now has enough attempts to be calibrated empirically rather than by its original label — so the practice you are served tracks your current level, not your starting one.
7. Be finished before the invitation arrives. Invitations go out individually several weeks in advance and rescheduling is not possible, so this sprint has to be complete when the email lands, not started then.

Deliberately not in Sprint 1: EU knowledge, digital skills and the EUFTE essay. None of the three is tested in Part 1.

When does Sprint 2 start, and what is in it?

Sprint 2 covers Part 2 — EU knowledge, digital skills and the EUFTE written test, all in Language 2, and open only to candidates who reach the Part 1 pass scores. EPSO states that Part 2 will take place in 2027, on dates to be announced later. Start this sprint when EPSO announces those dates: until then there is no date to count back from, and any calendar built for it is guesswork rather than planning.

What that sprint will have to cover, once there is a date to plan against:

• EU knowledge — 30 questions in 40 minutes, pass mark 15/30, weighted 30% of the preliminary score and 25% of the final one. 1,371 active questions, at 80 seconds each.
• Digital skills — 40 questions in 30 minutes, pass mark 20/40, also 30% preliminary and 25% final. 758 active questions, at 45 seconds each — the tightest clock in the competition.
• EUFTE — one free-text essay in 40 minutes, pass mark 5/10, 15% of the final score, and marked only for candidates at the top of the preliminary ranking. 31 essay prompts, each built on a source document and graded against the five published EPSO assessment anchors, plus 58 items on EU institutional writing.
• Language 2 itself. All of Part 2 is sat in your second language at B2 or above, and the EUFTE sample published by EPSO exists in English and French only.

There will be months between the two sprints: Part 1 results will be known long before Part 2 has a date. The one thing worth carrying through that gap is keeping Language 2 in active use — reading EU material in it rather than drilling test items — so that Sprint 2 starts from a working language rather than a rusty one.

Practise the AD5 format free or try the score gap report to see where you stand.

PassEPSO is an independent preparation platform. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to EPSO, EU Careers or any European Union institution. Official information about EPSO/AD/427/26 is published only by EPSO in the notice of competition and on eu-careers.europa.eu.