AD5, AD7 Audit, AD7 ICT and CAST: what actually differs in format and eligibility

You have found four EPSO routes into the EU institutions — AD5 Graduates, AD7 Audit, AD7 ICT and the contract-staff CAST procedure — and every guide you read describes them with the same vocabulary: reasoning tests, Language 1, Language 2, reserve list. That vocabulary hides the differences that actually decide which one is worth your time.

The four differ in three places that matter: what you must already have to be eligible, what sits in Language 2, and which test decides your rank. Below is each of the three, from the notices themselves.

What do all four have in common?

Exactly one thing, and it is worth isolating because it is the only part of your preparation that carries across all four: the reasoning tests.

In EPSO/AD/427/26, EPSO/AD/428/26 and EPSO/AD/429/26 the reasoning block is written identically — verbal reasoning, 20 questions in 35 minutes, pass 10/20; numerical, 10 questions in 20 minutes; abstract, 10 questions in 10 minutes; numerical and abstract sharing a single combined pass score of 10/20. All of it in Language 1. CAST uses the same three reasoning skills as its only tests.

So if you are undecided between routes, reasoning practice is never wasted. Everything after the reasoning block is route-specific.

Which tests are in Language 2 in each competition?

The substitution is the whole story. Where AD5 asks two general tests — the EU and its institutions, and digital literacy against the DigComp framework — the two AD7 competitions ask one test about the field you applied in, in the same 30-question, 40-minute, 15/30 shape. Nothing about EU institutions, nothing about digital literacy. And CAST asks neither: shortlisted candidates sit the reasoning tests and nothing else.

In all four, Language 1 must be at C1 in one of the 24 official EU languages and Language 2 at B2 in a different one chosen from the remaining 23. None of the three notices restricts Language 2 to English, French or German.

Which test actually decides who gets on the reserve list?

This is the deepest difference between AD5 and the two AD7 competitions, and the one most often described wrongly.

AD5 builds a weighted score. The notice sets out a preliminary combined score — verbal reasoning 40 %, EU knowledge 30 %, digital skills 30 % — used to decide whose EUFTE gets marked and whose eligibility gets checked. Then a final combined score: verbal 35 %, EU knowledge 25 %, digital skills 25 %, EUFTE 15 %. Numerical and abstract reasoning carry no weight in either score; the notice marks them «n/a». They are a gate, not points.

Both AD7 competitions build no weighted score at all. The notices give a table headed «How will the test scores be used?» with three rows. Reasoning: «scored to determine if the candidate obtained at least the required pass scores». EUFTE: «scored to determine if the candidate obtained at least the required pass score». Only the field-related MCQ produces a ranking — its scores «will be used to create a ranking according to candidates' performance». So in AD7 Audit and AD7 ICT, one test determines your position and the other four are pass/fail.

There is a second consequence worth knowing before you write the essay: in both AD7 notices, EUFTE scripts are marked, and eligibility checked, only for candidates taken from the top of that field-MCQ ranking, in a number that «will in principle not exceed 1,5 times the number of successful candidates sought». A perfect essay from someone ranked below that line is never read.

Who is eligible for each one?

The practical reading: AD5 is the only one of the four that a candidate with a degree and no career behind them can enter. The AD7 competitions are for people already five to seven years into a specialism, and in Audit four of those years must be audit work. CAST is not a competition at all in the same sense — it is a database.

How is CAST different in kind, not just in format?

Three ways, all from EPSO's own contract-staff page.

• There is no deadline. Registration is continuous and open at all times. The AD competitions closed in March, May and June 2026 respectively and cannot be joined now.
• Applying does not get you a test. Your profile sits in the contract-staff database; when a recruitment need arises, the institutions shortlist candidates matching the job, and only shortlisted candidates are invited to sit the reasoning tests.
• A pass lasts ten years. EPSO states that CAST test results «stay valid for a period of 10 years». Nothing comparable exists in the AD competitions, where the reserve list has its own validity set in the notice.

CAST also runs on fixed, published testing dates rather than an individually scheduled window; the dates listed on that page on 26 August 2026 were 17 June, 22 July, 6 October and 19 November 2026, with indicative result windows next to each.

What is not in any of these competitions?

None of the three notices — 427/26, 428/26 or 429/26 — provides for an assessment centre, a standalone situational judgement test, an interview, a case study or a group exercise. The tests are held and proctored remotely. Guides describing those stages are describing older competition cycles, not these.

What this means for how you prepare

If you are in AD5, the reasoning block is a gate and verbal reasoning is the only reasoning test that carries weight afterwards. If you are in either AD7 competition, the reasoning block is purely a gate and your rank is decided by a single 30-question field test. If you are in CAST, reasoning is the whole examination.

Three different shapes, one common floor: nobody gets past the reasoning tests without clearing 10/20 in verbal and 10/20 combined in numerical and abstract, in Language 1, on a clock.

PassEPSO covers that common floor in all 24 official EU languages — timed verbal, numerical and abstract practice with an explanation for every item — plus the route-specific material for AD5 EU knowledge and digital skills, and EUFTE writing practice. See also the one-page reference of every official AD5 figure and how the four AD7 ICT fields differ.

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