EPSO AD5 Part 2: the EU knowledge test in EPSO/AD/427/26

Last checked against sources: 26 October 2026. Every test fact here comes from EPSO's own notice, FAQ, news and testing instructions (confirmed), except where we say we estimate. This guide is about EPSO's open competition, not the Commission's internal AD5 competition (COM/AD/108/2026), which has a different knowledge test.

The test in one table

Who sits Part 2

EPSO split the AD5 graduates' testing into two parts in June 2026. Part 1 is the reasoning tests, sat in the week of 9 to 13 November 2026. Candidates who reach at least 10/20 in verbal reasoning and a combined 10/20 in numerical and abstract reasoning are invited to Part 2: the EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the free-text essay on EU matters (EUFTE), all in language 2. EPSO notes that the three may be delivered in a different order.

The audience is large. EPSO received 174,727 applications for 1,490 places. How many will pass Part 1 is not known.

When: 2027

On 30 June 2026 EPSO announced that Part 2 will take place in 2027 on dates to be announced later. Its 18 September and 13 October updates promised further information on Part 2 at a later stage. We estimate April to June 2027: Part 1 ends on 13 November, results are unlikely before January, and the source list must appear about two months before the test.

The sources: EPSO publishes its own list

The notice describes the test in two sentences:

EPSO's FAQ puts the publication at approximately two months before the testing session. No list had been published by 26 October 2026. EPSO's AD5 page meanwhile points to a selection of publications to help candidates prepare, but says they are for guidance only and are not the official source texts. So this test has no date cut-off of the kind the Commission's internal competitions use: the list itself will define the corpus. The content cut-off explained covers the internal rule.

How it differs from the Commission's internal test

The two tests share a name, 30 questions and a 15/30 pass mark. Almost everything else differs:

What transfers is the institutional core. A bank built for the internal test covers much of EPSO's stated scope, but not the reverse: the Commission's own governance, budget and HR rules and its named 2025 packages go deeper than EPSO's wording suggests. Once EPSO's list is out, the overlap can be measured document by document. How the EU knowledge test works compares both formats in full.

Using the flag-and-return screen

EPSO's testing instructions for its TAO platform describe the navigation in plain terms:

Each question carries a bookmark, an overview panel lists answered, unanswered and flagged questions, and the platform warns you before you submit a part with questions left unanswered. Forty minutes for 30 questions is 80 seconds each. A sound plan is a first pass that answers everything you know and flags the rest, then a second pass on the flags. The notice scores the test from 0 to 30 and mentions no deduction for wrong answers, so leave nothing blank. The AD vs AST timing guide sets out pacing for 40 minutes.

If you believe a question contained an error, the notice's general rules give you 3 calendar days, counting from the day after your test, to complain through your candidate account; the Selection Board may neutralise it. No request for review is possible against knowledge-test results.

What to read before the list appears

Start where the notice starts: the institutions. Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union lists the Union's seven institutions (the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors), and Articles 14 to 19 set out the role of the Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the High Representative and the Court of Justice in turn. These are short, stable texts that any source list on institutions and procedures will touch.

Then the procedures: how the ordinary legislative procedure runs and how qualified majority is calculated. The seven institutions compared brings the first block together, and what to read, ranked by exam value per hour gives the order we recommend. Leave the main policies until EPSO names its documents, because that is where a list narrows the field most.

Practise in the right mode

Our free 30-question test can be set to open-competition rules: 40 minutes, flag and return, blanks allowed, in English, French or German, with the official source shown behind every answer. When EPSO publishes its list, we will check this page and our questions against it and log any change in the corrections log. For the Part 1 reasoning tests that come first, our sister site ad5practice.com offers practice. The competition's reference card is EPSO/AD/427/26.