EPSO AD5 2026 tests: Part 1 is 9 to 13 November 2026

Update, 13 October 2026: the week is 9 to 13 November

EPSO published a new item on 13 October 2026: “The first part of the AD5 competition testing will take place during the week of 9 to 13 November 2026.” It supersedes the September wording quoted further down this page, which gave only the month. What it adds, in EPSO's own words:

On 19 October candidates receive an invitation letter through the Single Candidate Portal, confirming the week in which they will sit the tests and providing further instructions. It does not carry your individual date or time.
“From 20 October until 6 November, candidates will be able to access the testing platform and complete the required pre-requisite test.”
Once on the TAO platform, you also see the precise date and time of your own test session.
For the second part, further information will be provided at a later stage. EPSO has published nothing else about it.

Source: EU Careers — “AD5 Graduates Competition: Testing in the Second Week of November 2026”, 13 October 2026.

The EPSO AD5 2026 reasoning tests — verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning — take place during the week of 9 to 13 November 2026. That is Part 1 of the competition, and it is the only part with a date on it. Your testing week is confirmed by an invitation letter that reaches your Single Candidate Portal account on 19 October, and your own exact date and time appear on the TAO testing platform once you access it, from 20 October.

Those are EPSO's own words, published on 18 September 2026, and they replace the “expected as of October/November 2026” wording of 30 June 2026. Every fact below is given with the official sentence it comes from.

In short, from the official update:

The testing happens in two parts.
Part 1 — the reasoning tests (verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning) is planned to start in November 2026.
Candidates receive an invitation letter approximately three weeks before the first testing session, in their Single Candidate Portal account.
That letter states the week of testing — not the exact date and not the time.
The exact date and time are available on the testing platform at least two weeks before the test.
Candidates should make sure they have access to their Single Candidate Portal account and are able to log in.
Part 2 — the EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the free-text essay on EU matters (EUFTE) — has no communicated dates; further information will be provided at a later stage.
The references used to develop the EU knowledge test will be provided approximately two months before that test.
An information letter with the details of the AD5 testing has been in candidates' Single Candidate Portal accounts since 30 June.

What EPSO actually published. From the update of 18 September 2026, on the EU Careers important-information page (also published as a news item):

“The first part (reasoning tests: verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning) is planned to start in November 2026.”

“Approximately three weeks before the first testing session, candidates will receive an invitation letter through their Single Candidate Portal account, informing them of the week in which they will take their tests.”

“The letter will not include the exact date and time of testing assigned to the candidate within the indicated testing week. Candidates will be able to find these details at least two weeks before their test by accessing the testing platform.”

And from the communication of 30 June 2026 that split the testing into two parts, two sentences that still apply:

“Rescheduling of tests will not be possible.”

“These tests will take place in 2027 on dates to be announced later.”

The second of those two sentences is about Part 2: the EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the free-text essay on EU matters (EUFTE).

When are the EPSO AD5 2026 tests?

The first part of the testing — the reasoning tests — takes place during the week of 9 to 13 November 2026. EPSO still publishes no per-candidate calendar: the week is common to the whole first part, and your own date and time appear only on the TAO platform. The named week replaces two earlier indications in turn — the communication of 30 June 2026 expected Part 1 "as of October/November 2026", the update of 18 September narrowed that to a planned start in November, and the news item of 13 October named the week.

For a candidate, the practical difference is small but real. October is out of the picture as a likely start month, and the testing roll-out — EPSO's own word — will run across sessions rather than landing on a single national exam day. Your session is yours; somebody else in your country may sit the same tests in a different week.

What is tested in Part 1, and what waits for Part 2?

Part 1 is the reasoning stage: verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and abstract reasoning. That is the whole of the first phase, and it is the phase with a date on it.

Part 2 covers the EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the free-text essay on EU matters (EUFTE). EPSO states that further information on this second part will be provided at a later stage; no dates have been communicated for it. The earlier communication of 30 June placed these tests in 2027, on dates to be announced later, and that remains the only year EPSO has ever published for Part 2.

One concrete commitment does exist for Part 2: the references used to develop the EU knowledge test will be provided approximately two months before that test. In other words, you will get the reading list, and you will get it with enough notice to use it — but not before EPSO is ready to schedule that phase.

How and when will you be invited?

This is the part of the update that changes what a candidate should do this week, and it has three steps:

Approximately three weeks before the first testing session, you receive an invitation letter. It arrives in your Single Candidate Portal account.
The letter names the week in which you will be tested. It does not name the exact date, and it does not name the time.
At least two weeks before your test, the exact date and time become available on the testing platform. You retrieve them yourself by logging in.

Read together, those three facts mean the binding information about your own test does not arrive in your inbox — it sits behind a login. EPSO's instruction is explicit and it is the single action every candidate can take today: make sure you have access to your Single Candidate Portal account and are able to log in.

Why should you check your Single Candidate Portal login now?

Account recovery is the kind of problem that is trivial in September and expensive in November. If your registered email address has changed since you applied, if two-factor recovery codes were saved on a phone you no longer use, or if you simply have not logged in since the application deadline of 10 March 2026, the time to discover it is now — while a reset is an inconvenience rather than a missed session. The information letter EPSO has kept in portal accounts since 30 June is also worth reading in full for the same reason: it is the detailed document, and it is only available there.

Can I change the date of my AD5 test?

No. EPSO's sentence on this is one line long and leaves no margin: “Rescheduling of tests will not be possible.” It was published on 30 June 2026 and nothing in the September update softens it. In practice, the week named in your invitation letter and the slot you then retrieve from the testing platform are the ones you sit. That is an argument for doing the planning now, while your calendar still depends on you: keep November 2026 as clear as you can, and settle the practical side — a quiet room, a machine that works, the identification the invitation asks for — before the slot is published rather than after.

What does this mean for how you prepare?

A planned start in November 2026 gives the reasoning stage a real horizon, and it makes the order of preparation obvious rather than a matter of taste. Verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning are what is examined first, so they are what should be trained first. The EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the EUFTE belong to a phase with no date at all — they matter, but a week spent on them now is a week taken from the tests that are actually scheduled.

That is also how the AD5 preparation plan on PassEPSO is structured: Sprint 1 covers verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning for Part 1, and Sprint 2 covers EU knowledge, digital skills and the EUFTE, to be started when EPSO announces the Part 2 dates. Until September, Sprint 1 had a window; it now has a month.

Two details from the notice of competition are worth keeping in view while you plan, because they are independent of any test date. Supporting documents are due 7 October 2026, and that deadline does not move if a test month does. And the competition offers 1,490 places on the reserve list, under reference EPSO/AD/427/26 (Official Journal C/2026/711 of 5 February 2026).

What has changed since the June announcement?

	30 June 2026	18 September 2026
Part 1 (reasoning)	expected "as of October/November 2026"	planned to start in November 2026
How you are invited	not described	invitation letter in the portal, about three weeks before, naming the week
Exact date and time	not described	on the testing platform, at least two weeks before the test
Part 2	"in 2027, on dates to be announced later"	further information at a later stage; no dates communicated
EU knowledge references	not described	provided approximately two months before that test

Frequently asked questions

When do the EPSO AD5 2026 tests start?

The first part — the reasoning tests: verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning — takes place during the week of 9 to 13 November 2026. Your own date and time inside that week appear on the TAO testing platform. Source: EU Careers, “AD5 Graduates Competition: Testing in the Second Week of November 2026”, 13 October 2026.

How will I know the exact date and time of my AD5 test?

On 19 October you receive an invitation letter in your Single Candidate Portal account; it confirms the week in which you sit the tests but not your individual date and time. From 20 October until 6 November you can access the testing platform and complete the required pre-requisite test, and once on the TAO platform you also see the precise date and time of your own test session.

Does the invitation letter give me my exact test slot?

No. The invitation letter states the week of testing, not the exact date or time. The exact slot appears separately on the testing platform, at least two weeks before the test.

What should I do now, before the invitations go out?

Make sure you have access to your Single Candidate Portal account and are able to log in, because the invitation letter and everything that follows are delivered there. An information letter with the details of the AD5 testing has been available in that account since 30 June.

When is Part 2 of EPSO AD5 2026 — EU knowledge, digital skills and the EUFTE?

EPSO has communicated no dates for Part 2 and states that further information will be provided at a later stage. Its earlier communication of 30 June 2026 placed these tests in 2027, on dates to be announced later.

Will EPSO publish a syllabus for the EU knowledge test?

EPSO will provide the references used to develop the EU knowledge test approximately two months before that test takes place.

Is the supporting-documents deadline affected?

No. Supporting documents are due 7 October 2026 under the notice of competition EPSO/AD/427/26, and that deadline is independent of the test dates.

Can I reschedule my EPSO AD5 test if the date does not suit me?

No. EPSO's communication of 30 June 2026 states that “Rescheduling of tests will not be possible”. Your testing week arrives with the invitation letter, approximately three weeks before the first testing session, and the exact date and time appear on the testing platform at least two weeks before the test.

Sources

EU Careers — “AD5 Graduates Competition: Testing in the Second Week of November 2026”, 13 October 2026.
EU Careers — “AD5 Graduates Testing – more details about timing and roll-out”, 18 September 2026.
EU Careers — “AD5 Graduates testing split into two parts”, 30 June 2026.
EU Careers — “AD5 Graduates selection process: how you are assessed”.
Notice of competition EPSO/AD/427/26 — Official Journal C/2026/711 of 5 February 2026.

For the whole of AD5 on one page — what each test scores, the pass marks and the two-sprint plan — see the EPSO AD5 2026 page and the AD5 cheat sheet of official figures.

What the weeks before a planned November start are for is practice in the real format of the exam: the three reasoning tests, the same clock, the same on-screen tools, and an honest reading of where the points are actually lost. You can start free.

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, on eu-careers.europa.eu and in the notice of competition.

EPSO AD5 2026 test dates: Part 1 runs 9 to 13 November 2026