EPSO AD7 ICT 2026 Preparation Guide: Four Fields, One Test That Ranks You

EPSO/AD/429/26 is the open competition for administrators at grade AD 7 in information and communication technology. It is not one competition but four, run in parallel: you apply for a single field, you are tested on that field, and you are ranked against the people who chose the same one.

Sources throughout: the notice of competition and the official field pages on eu-careers.europa.eu.

What are the four fields, and how competitive is each?

The spread matters and is rarely discussed. Project management drew 4,436 applications for 228 places; clouds and networks drew 548 for 166. Those are very different competitions, and the field was chosen at application — it cannot be changed now. If you are already in, what remains is to prepare for the field you picked.

What is the test format?

Language 1 is one of the 24 official EU languages at C1 or above; language 2 is a different one of the remaining 23 at B2 or above. The notice contains no situational judgement test, no assessment centre and no competition-stage interview.

Why does only the field test decide your rank?

The notice is explicit. The reasoning tests and the EUFTE "will be scored to determine if the candidate obtained at least the required pass score". Only for the field-related test does it say the scores "will be used to create a ranking according to candidates' performance". There is no combined score.

So the whole competition, for ranking purposes, is 30 questions in 40 minutes on your own specialism. Reasoning is a gate you walk through once; the field test is where 782 places are allocated. Anyone spending the autumn drilling abstract reasoning and skimming their field is preparing in inverse proportion to the scoring.

When are the tests?

Not yet published. The application window closed on 10 June 2026 and supporting documents are due by 1 October 2026, but EPSO has not announced a testing period for this competition. The official position is that exact dates are communicated to applicants after the application deadline, through the individual invitation. Prepare on the assumption that the invitation arrives with a few weeks' notice, because rescheduling is not offered.

What material does EPSO publish for the field test?

None. The official sample tests cover reasoning and the written test; for the field-related test the page says only that "further details are provided in the notice of competition and in the invitation letter". EPSO also states plainly that its samples "are not training materials" and that it "does not offer preparatory courses or endorse any external publications or training services".

What you do have is the notice itself: the typical duties annex and the listed areas of relevant experience for your field. That is the content map, and it is the only official one.

How PassEPSO prepares you for it

We are an independent preparation platform, not affiliated with EPSO or the EU institutions. For AD7 ICT:

• Field questions built per specialism, not one generic ICT pool: 72 for ICT project management, 38 for ICT infrastructure, 37 for data science, 34 for clouds and networks. You practise your field, because that is the only test that ranks you. These are the newest part of our bank and we label them as such rather than overstating their depth.
• Around 1,850 active questions in total for an ICT candidate: 322 verbal, 968 numerical, 469 abstract, your field set, and 58 items on EU institutional writing.
• 10 ICT-specific EUFTE essay prompts, each with a source document, graded by an AI writing coach against the five published EPSO assessment anchors.
• A full exam simulation matching the official structure: 50 questions in 80 minutes, each section timed as the notice specifies, sampled fresh from the bank on every run.
• Reasoning practice in all 24 official EU languages, with per-language coverage running from roughly 40% to 82% of the English bank.
• Difficulty recalibrated nightly from how candidates actually answer, and an AI tutor that walks you through any question you got wrong when the written explanation is not enough.

How should you prepare?

1. Get reasoning to a reliable pass and stop. Verbal 10/20, numerical and abstract 10/20 combined. Nothing above that enters your ranking.
2. Spend the rest of your time in your field. Thirty questions decide your place on the list.
3. Do not treat the EUFTE as an afterthought. It is pass/fail at 5/10, and failing it ends the competition whatever your field score.
4. Rehearse the full day once, in order, under the clock. Five tests in one sitting is an endurance problem too.

Practise the AD7 ICT format free, including field questions for your specialism.

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/429/26 is published only by EPSO in the notice of competition and on eu-careers.europa.eu.