Nobody outside the process has the real questions, and anyone offering them is selling something else. What does exist is a consistent description of the item types, from candidates who sat the June and September 2026 rounds and from the briefing slides a Commission staff union published for the AD5 and AST3 competitions. This guide goes through them section by section, with the trap in each and the tip the briefing gives.
Numerical reasoning
The briefing's summary: very similar to EPSO numerical reasoning, reading the problem is key, despite the format. The format is the difference. You are given data and a set of conditions, and you build the answer on a chart or table rather than picking it from a list.
| Item | What you do | The trap, and the briefing's tip |
|---|---|---|
| Conditions on a table | Monthly sales per employee, online sales shared equally, a bonus if someone sells 25 or 50 per cent above the quarter's average. Work out who gets what. | Every condition matters. Read all of them before touching a number; the arithmetic is short once the conditions are clear. |
| Adjust the pie chart | A shop sold 15,000 items; plastic toys were thirteen times the teddy bears, construction games nine times, baby toys double. Set the slices. | The briefing's words: easier than you may think, no long calculations. Work in ratios, then convert to percentages at the end. |
| Plot the graph | A table of production by fruit over four years. Plot the line showing the strongest variation. | Without fast mental calculation this becomes long, very long. Compare differences first, then draw. |
Candidates from the June AD7 sitting described the same territory: financial charts, sales data, percentage calculations and budget distributions, reimbursement and compliance checks. Several noted examples with non-metric units and American terminology, which adds reading load unrelated to the reasoning being tested. Expect gallons and fiscal quarters and do not let them slow you.
Deductive reasoning
The briefing's summary: reading is key here too; EPSO verbal reasoning helps as practice, but these items pack more detail into less text, and some ask you to drag and drop elements to construct your answer, which means close reading. Three item families are described.
| Item | What you do | The trap, and the briefing's tip |
|---|---|---|
| Daily schedule | A day planner from 9 to 6 with some slots already blocked (post office, a call, the shop, a lesson). Place the remaining tasks so everything ends as early as possible, respecting conditions such as two tasks that cannot happen before the shop. | Check the blocked slots: their content may be tied to a condition. Identify the minimal condition that must hold, then everything else falls into place. |
| Month calendar | A month of 28 to 31 days. Select the dates that satisfy a chain of conditions, for example who is on duty when, with people on mission and orderings between them. | The calendar is US-style and starts on Sunday. Instructions may cap the number of dates you can select. Assume a Monday-to-Friday working week unless told otherwise. Cancel every date on which the condition cannot hold and what remains is the answer. |
| Rooms and people | Four to six people and a set of rooms, each with their own constraints: who must be together, who cannot, which room cannot host which activity. | Pay attention to the details; with the constraints covered the solution should be fast. Start from the person with the most restrictive condition. |
Inductive reasoning
The briefing's summary: the same mechanics as EPSO abstract reasoning, though the patterns can look very different, linking elements according to a logic. Two item families are described.
| Item | What you do | The trap, and the briefing's tip |
|---|---|---|
| Colour the shapes | A series of figures where regions are filled with colour 1, colour 2 or left blank. Find the rule and colour the next figure. Shapes can be anything; three to five reference figures are shown. | The logics listed: movement or displacement, overlap, counting, symmetry, alternation. Test one rule at a time against every reference figure before committing. |
| Sequences in circles | Two to four circles each holding two to five items (letters, numbers or signs, alone or combined). Find the logic and complete the sequence. | Adding or subtracting, letters shifting through the alphabet, letters carrying a numerical value, or an instruction embedded in the set. Write the alphabet positions down; it is faster than counting in your head. |
What the practice examples do not show: hidden information
Candidates who sat on 21 September 2026 reported, many of them independently, that the real assessment hides some information until you click for it. In the questions with several people, you click a person's picture or name to see their conditions, and they hide again when you click the next person. Some numerical questions put data behind tabs in the same way. The practice test linked from the invitation shows everything at once, and so do the tests on this site.
The habit that deals with it costs nothing to practise: write each person's conditions on paper the first time you see them, and solve from the paper. Candidates also report a second practice test, offered on the day beside the exam, that uses the real interface. Take it before you start. More of what they said is on what candidates report.
What this means for practice
Every one of these families is interactive: you drag a task into a slot, click dates, place people in rooms, colour regions, adjust slices and plot points. That is precisely what multiple-choice practice cannot teach, and it is what this platform is built to teach. All five tests here use these item types, in the three-section split the briefing describes, on a 36-minute clock. The first one is free and needs no card.
Sources: a Commission staff union's briefing slides for the AD5 (June 2026) and AST3 (July 2026) competitions, whose worked examples are summarised above; the same union's reflection on the AD7 cognitive test (28 May 2026); candidate feedback from the 11 June 2026 AD7 sitting; candidates who sat the September 2026 rounds. Read 26 September 2026.
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Try these question types in one sitting
The free test mixes numerical, deductive and inductive questions, all of them interactive, across 24 questions and 36 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Are the questions in the cognitive assessment multiple choice?
Some are reported to be interactive: candidates from the June 2026 sitting described dragging lines, adjusting bars and clicking chart and person elements, and the staff union's briefing describes dragging and dropping elements to construct an answer. The proportion of interactive to multiple-choice items is not known.
Is a calculator allowed?
Candidates report that a phone used as a calculator, a physical calculator, and pen and paper were all allowed. Screenshots, outside help, switching tabs or apps, and AI tools were reported as not allowed.
Does everyone get the same questions?
No. The test is reported to be adaptive and candidates from the June 2026 sitting reported receiving different question sets.
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