EPSO AD5 & AD7 2026 test dates: AD5 reasoning tests on 9–13 November
EPSO has confirmed that the AD5 Graduates reasoning tests run in the week of 9 to 13 November 2026. AD7 Auditors was tested on 30 September, and AD7 ICT is still waiting for a date. Below: what each competition has confirmed, what you must do before test week, and which competitions come next.
Last checked against EPSO's official pages on 22 October 2026.
AD5 Graduate Administrators (EPSO/AD/427/26)
Applications closed on 10 March 2026 with 174,727 candidates — the largest single EPSO competition in years, for a reserve list of 1,490 places. Testing is split into two parts: reasoning first (verbal, numerical and abstract), then the EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the EUFTE essay.
Part 1 (reasoning tests): week of 9 to 13 November 2026. EPSO announced this on 13 October. Candidates got an invitation letter in their Single Candidate Portal account on 19 October, naming the testing week but not the exact time. From 20 October to 6 November, the testing platform is open for a required pre-requisite test that checks your technical set-up. Your exact date and time are shown on the testing platform. EPSO has said only that information on Part 2 will follow at a later stage.
There is no situational judgement test in this round. Candidates need two EU languages: Language 1 (C1) for the reasoning tests, and Language 2 (B2, a different official language) for the EU knowledge test, the digital skills test and the EUFTE essay. Details are in Language 1 vs Language 2 explained, and the pass marks are in EPSO reasoning tests: scoring and pass marks.
Source: EPSO announcement of 13 October 2026.
AD7 Auditors (EPSO/AD/428/26)
Applications closed on 19 May 2026, with more than 7,000 candidates competing for 448 positions. Testing took place in a single day, on 30 September 2026, as EPSO confirmed on 9 September. Candidates were due to submit their supporting documents by the same date. Check your Single Candidate Portal account for results.
Full details are in the Notice of Competition and on EPSO's dedicated competition page.
AD7 ICT Experts (EPSO/AD/429/26)
Applications closed on 10 June 2026, with roughly 8,020 candidates applying across four specialist fields, for 782 reserve-list places in total. EPSO's news page, as of its latest item on 29 September, had not published a testing date for this competition. Watch your Single Candidate Portal account and EPSO's news page for the invitation.
What else is coming later in 2026
EPSO's official Upcoming opportunities page, last updated on 31 July 2026, lists tentative publication and application-deadline dates for five competitions being prepared for 2026 (all marked by EPSO as subject to change):
| Competition | Publication | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| ICT experts (EPSO/AD/430/26, grade AD8) — Artificial Intelligence & Cybersecurity | 8 Sept ✓ | 13 Oct (closed) |
| Data Management experts(EPSO/AST/158/26, grade AST3) — data processing/analytics/statistics, librarianship, or records & archives management | 6 Oct* | 11 Nov* |
| Lawyer-Linguists, Court of Justice (EPSO/AD/431/26, grade AD7) — Bulgarian, German, Greek, Spanish, Irish, Maltese, Dutch or Romanian | 21 Oct* | 25 Nov* |
| Lawyer-Linguists, Parliament/Council/Commission (EPSO/AD/432/26, grade AD7) — Spanish, Finnish, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Maltese, Portuguese or Swedish | 4 Nov* | 8 Dec* |
| Lawyers (EPSO/AD/433/26, grade AD7) — AI law, Criminal law, Procurement law, or Litigation | 9 Dec* | 20 Jan* |
* All dates above are marked by EPSO itself as tentative ("dates to be confirmed") and can still change.
EPSO has also outlined its planned 2027 competitions — month and exact dates are marked by EPSO as tentative, and fields/ grades may still change:
- February: Law — 4 fields (AD)
- March: Assistants in the field of parliamentary work (AST)
- April: Security, Defence & International Affairs (AD)
- May: Proofreaders/editors (Luxembourg) — 8 languages (AST)
- June: Translators — BG, DE, FI, GA, HR, PT, SL, SV (AD)
- July: Lawyer-linguists (AD — European Parliament, Council of the European Union and European Commission)
- September: Financial Management (AD)
- November: ICT (AST)
A quick note on how confirmed these dates are
The AD5 testing week (9 to 13 November) and the AD7 Auditors test day (30 September) come from official EPSO announcements. For AD7 ICT, no date has been announced. Individual AD5 test slots are only visible on the testing platform, so always rely on your own invitation. The table above comes directly from EPSO's own Upcoming opportunities page — though EPSO itself marks every one of those dates as provisional. Always check your EPSO Single Candidate Portal account and eu-careers.europa.eu directly for the latest updates.
Prepare for the reasoning tests now
If you sit the AD5 tests, you have under three weeks. Verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning come first, and each has a pass mark that ends your participation if you miss it. Complete the technical pre-requisite test on the platform before 6 November, then spend the remaining time on timed practice, with verbal reasoning first because it is the only reasoning test that carries into the ranking.