COM/AST/112/2026: the AST2 internal competition

Last checked against sources: 26 October 2026. The notice is published on the Commission's intranet only, so the facts below come from vendors who quote it. Each carries a label: reported (a vendor or staff union gives it) or estimated (our inference, with the reasoning).

Status at a glance

The public reports we rely on do not set out AST2's eligibility conditions, so read them in the notice itself before you apply. Every test is sat in language 2, which must differ from the main language recorded in Sysper (reported by EU-Now).

The EU knowledge test: 40 minutes, not 30

AST2 candidates get 40 minutes for the same 30 questions that AD candidates answer in 30: 80 seconds a question rather than 60. Two independent sources give the 40 minutes for AST2: EU-Now and a union-linked training provider. Whether the AST questions differ in content from the AD ones is not public. AD vs AST timing sets out a pacing plan for each timer.

In the 2026 competitions, the Commission's guidance to candidates has described a forward-only screen: questions answered in order, no going back, and no moving on without choosing an option. A wrong answer scores zero, the same as a blank, so never leave a question unanswered.

The pass mark is 15/30. In the other 2026 generalist notices, only the top scorers, up to 2.5 times the places, have their written test marked. The reports of the AST2 notice do not spell that out; if the same rule applies, it means the top 125 (estimated). See how scoring and the 2.5x rule work.

What is in scope: the content cut-off

The 2026 rule, from the Commission's guidance to candidates, is publicly available official EU sources only, and nothing published after the application period opened. No public source gives the day this notice opened. The first public reports are dated 6 October 2026, so we estimate a cut-off of about 5 to 6 October 2026, the same as AD6. Documents such as Omnibus XI and XII (24 June 2026) and the customs reform adopted on 16 September 2026 are therefore in scope for AST2, though not for the earlier 2026 competitions.

The content cut-off guide lists what changed between the 2026 cut-offs, and the source register can be filtered to this competition. The syllabus areas are mapped in the topic hubs.

Dates that are not public yet

Neither the cognitive test nor the knowledge test has a date. We estimate the cognitive test for 7 to 18 December 2026 or, more likely, 11 to 29 January 2027, and the knowledge test and written test about five to seven weeks later, in February to April 2027. A Commission staff union reports that HR has committed to announce each test at least two weeks ahead.

Before and after the knowledge test

Before: the cognitive gate at the 40th percentile (reported). Our sister site epsoshlprep.com offers practice for that test.

After: the written test, sat the same day (90 minutes, pass 25/50), then an oral of up to 60 minutes with a pass mark of 25/50 (reported by EU-Now). The whole journey is in the AD6 and AST2 guide.

Practise in the right format

Our free 30-question test offers the Commission's forward-only rules with the 40-minute AST timer, in English, French or German, and shows the official source behind every answer. For the full format, read how the EU knowledge test works. Changes to our questions and pages are logged in the corrections log.