AD6 and AST2 2026: every stage of the Commission internal competitions

Last checked against sources: 26 October 2026. The notices of competition are published on the Commission's intranet only, so every test fact below comes from vendors who quote them and carries a label: reported where a vendor or a staff union gives it, estimated where it is our own inference.

The two competitions at a glance

Who can apply to AD6, as reported by EPSOHQ: AD officials and temporary agents, officials and temporary agents at AST4 and above, and contract agents in function group IV, with six consecutive months in those categories and twelve in the Commission (36 months in total for contract agents). There are four qualification routes: a three-year degree plus two years' experience, a four-year degree plus one, Commission certification plus two years at AD level, or equivalent vocational training plus two. The public reports we rely on do not set out AST2's eligibility conditions, so read the notice itself before you apply.

Both competitions are sat in your language 2: English, French or German, which must differ from the main language recorded in Sysper (reported by EPSOHQ for AD6 and by EU-Now for AST2).

Stage 1: the cognitive gate

The first stage is a reasoning test. AD6 candidates need to reach the 60th percentile and AST2 candidates the 40th (reported). No date has been announced. We estimate 7 to 18 December 2026 or, more likely, 11 to 29 January 2027, from the gaps between deadline and cognitive test earlier in 2026 and the Commission's Christmas closure.

The cognitive gate is a different test from the knowledge test, and you must clear it first. For practice in that format, our sister site epsoshlprep.com covers the Commission's 2026 cognitive test.

Stage 2: the EU knowledge test

Candidates who clear the gate sit the EU knowledge test: 30 four-option questions, in 30 minutes for AD6 and 40 for AST2, with a pass mark of 15/30 (reported by EPSOHQ for AD6, and by EU-Now and a union-linked training provider for AST2). It is taken online on the same day as the written test (reported).

In 2026 the Commission's guidance to candidates has described a forward-only screen: one question at a time, 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 there is no penalty for guessing. What that means for pacing is in tactics for a test with no back button.

Passing is only the first hurdle. Only the top scorers, up to 2.5 times the places, have their written test marked: up to 250 for AD6 (reported). The public reports of the AST2 notice do not spell out the multiplier; if it follows the other 2026 generalist notices, that is 125 (estimated). No score distribution has ever been published, so nobody can say in advance which mark puts you in that group. The arithmetic is set out in how the pass mark and the 2.5x rule work.

We estimate the knowledge test for February to April 2027: five to seven weeks after a cognitive test in December or January, on the 2026 pattern. A Commission staff union reports that HR has committed to announce each test at least two weeks before it takes place.

The content cut-off, and what it adds

In 2026 the Commission's guidance to candidates has limited the knowledge test to publicly available official EU sources and excluded anything published after the start of the application period. If the AD6 and AST2 guidance keeps that rule, the cut-off is the day these notices opened. No public source gives that day; the first public reports are dated 6 October 2026, so we estimate about 5 to 6 October.

That is about four months later than the AD5 cut-off (29 May 2026, estimated) and six months later than AD7's (31 March 2026). A few official documents fall in the gap:

The political agreement on the customs reform, which the Commission welcomed in March 2026, sits inside every 2026 cut-off; only the formal adoption is new for AD6 and AST2. Older documents that are still Commission policy stay in scope. The rule and every competition's cut-off are in the content cut-off explained, the twelve packages are listed in the omnibus packages, and the source register can be filtered to this competition.

Stage 3: the written test

The written test follows the knowledge test on the same day: 90 minutes, with a pass mark of 30/50 for AD6 and 25/50 for AST2 (reported). In the 2026 competitions it has been a written assignment, such as a briefing, letter or note, drafted from a set of documents provided on screen. It is marked only for candidates in the top 2.5 times the places on the knowledge test, so a strong essay cannot rescue a weak knowledge score.

Stage 4: the oral and the reserve list

The last stage is an oral with a pass mark of 25/50; EU-Now gives AST2's as up to 60 minutes (reported). Successful candidates go on the reserve list, in alphabetical order. For AD5, the notice as reported keeps a list valid until 31 December of the second year after its publication; if AD6 and AST2 follow suit and their lists are published in 2027, they would run to 31 December 2029 (we estimate). A place on a list gives the right to be considered for posts, not a job.

Guidance from the Commission

The Commission has said it will publish preparation guidance and sample questions on Staff Centre before the test; they were not yet available on 6 October (reported by EPSOHQ). When they appear, read them closely, because they are the Commission's own description of the format. We do not reproduce them, and our questions are written from the official texts, not from them.

Not to be confused with AD6 health experts

COM/AD/110/2026, for AD6 health experts, is a separate competition. It has no cognitive gate and no general EU knowledge test: candidates sit a field MCQ of 40 questions in 60 minutes on public health or food safety, pass mark 25/40, for 35 and 15 places. Applications closed on 19 October 2026 (reported by EPSOHQ). This guide does not cover it.

Timeline

How to prepare

Start with a diagnostic. The free 30-question test runs on the Commission's forward-only rules with the AD or AST timer, in English, French or German, and shows the official source behind every answer. Then follow a four-week study plan across the three areas the test covers: the EU's institutional set-up, the Commission's governance, budget and HR, and the 2024-2029 mandate and priorities. Our full mocks use the same rules.

For the test itself, see how the EU knowledge test works. For the reference cards, see COM/AD/111/2026 and COM/AST/112/2026. We log every change to our pages and questions in the corrections log.