EPSO IT/ICT Experts Open Competition (EPSO/AD/429/26 and related)

In the EPSO/AD/429/26 ICT competition, how many multiple-choice questions does the Field-Related MCQ contain, and how long is it?

• A30 questions in 40 minutes
• B40 questions in 40 minutes
• C20 questions in 35 minutes
• D50 questions in 60 minutes

What is the pass mark for the Field-Related MCQ in the EPSO AD7 ICT competition?

• A15/30
• B20/30
• C10/30
• D25/30

In the EPSO reasoning tests, the verbal reasoning section asks you to decide whether a statement is true based only on the passage. What is the correct approach?

• AChoose the answer fully supported by the text, ignoring outside knowledge
• BChoose the answer that matches your general knowledge of the topic
• CChoose the longest, most detailed answer option
• DChoose the answer that sounds most professional

Passage: 'All regions receiving Cohesion Funding have a GNI per capita below 90% of the EU average. Region X has a GNI per capita of 95% of the EU average.' Which conclusion is fully supported?

• ARegion X does not receive Cohesion Funding
• BRegion X receives Cohesion Funding
• CRegion X is the poorest region in the EU
• DRegion X will lose funding next year

A data centre processed 1,200 TB of traffic in 2024 and 1,500 TB in 2025. What was the percentage increase in traffic?

• A25%
• B20%
• C30%
• D300%

A server cluster has 8 nodes and serves 24,000 requests per minute evenly. If 2 nodes fail and load is redistributed evenly across the remaining nodes, how many requests per minute does each remaining node handle?

• A4,000
• B3,000
• C3,500
• D6,000

A cloud bill was EUR 8,000 in Q1 and rose by 15% in Q2, then fell by 20% in Q3. What was the Q3 bill?

• AEUR 7,360
• BEUR 7,600
• CEUR 9,200
• DEUR 6,800

EPSO abstract reasoning items show a series of figures with an underlying rule. What ability does this test primarily assess?

• AIdentifying logical patterns among shapes without using language or numbers
• BKnowledge of geometry formulas
• CSpeed of mental arithmetic
• DFamiliarity with EU institutions

Which set of pass marks correctly describes the EPSO AD7 ICT reasoning tests?

• AVerbal 10/20; Numerical and Abstract combined 10/20
• BVerbal 15/20; Numerical 5/10; Abstract 5/10 separately
• CAll three combined 30/40
• DVerbal 12/20; Numerical and Abstract combined 12/20

How many distinct fields are offered in EPSO/AD/429/26, and to how many may a candidate apply?

• AFour fields; a candidate may apply to only one
• BFour fields; a candidate may apply to all four
• CTwo fields; a candidate may apply to both
• DFive fields; a candidate may apply to two

What grade is the EPSO/AD/429/26 ICT Experts competition recruiting for?

• AAD 7 (administrator level)
• BAST 3 (assistant level)
• CAD 5 (entry administrator level)
• DAST/SC 1 (secretarial level)

Which language requirement applies to EPSO/AD/429/26 candidates?

• ALanguage 1 any official EU language at C1; language 2 English, French or German at B2
• BBoth languages must be English at native level
• COnly one EU language at A2 is required
• DLanguage 1 must be English; language 2 must be French

The EUFTE component of the AD7 ICT competition is a free-text essay on EU matters. How is it scored?

• APass mark 5/10, assessing written communication, sat in language 2
• BPass mark 15/30, sat in language 1
• CIt is a multiple-choice test of 30 items
• DIt is pass/fail only with no numerical score

How are the EPSO AD7 ICT selection tests delivered?

• ARemotely and proctored online, all on a single testing day
• BIn a physical assessment centre in Brussels over several days
• CBy paper exam mailed to candidates
• DThrough an oral interview panel only

Does EPSO charge candidates an application fee to enter the AD7 ICT competition?

• ANo, there is no application fee to apply through EPSO
• BYes, a fee of EUR 50 is required
• CYes, a fee of EUR 120 is required
• DOnly candidates outside the EU pay a fee

Why is the Field-Related MCQ score described as both a pass/fail and a ranking test?

• AYou must reach 15/30 and be among the highest scorers for your EUFTE to be marked
• BIt is graded only as pass or fail with no ranking
• CIt is averaged with the reasoning tests for a single grade
• DIt determines language proficiency

What is the total number of successful candidates (reserve-list places) sought across all four fields of EPSO/AD/429/26?

• A782
• B500
• C1,490
• D204

A candidate scores 9/20 on verbal reasoning but 14/20 combined on numerical and abstract reasoning. What happens?

• AThe candidate fails because verbal reasoning is below the 10/20 pass mark
• BThe candidate passes because the combined total is high
• CThe candidate passes because verbal is averaged with the others
• DThe candidate is given a retake of verbal only

Which document is the only legally binding source of rules for the EPSO AD7 ICT competition?

• AThe Notice of Competition published in the Official Journal of the EU
• BA third-party prep provider's summary article
• CA LinkedIn post from EPSO
• DThe candidate's own EPSO account dashboard

A table shows four regions' broadband coverage: A 92%, B 78%, C 85%, D 88%. The EU target is 90%. How many regions meet or exceed the target?

• AOne (A)
• BTwo (A and D)
• CThree (A, C, D)
• DNone

Passage: 'The new platform reduced incident resolution time. Teams that adopted it earliest saw the largest gains.' Which statement can be safely concluded?

• AEarlier adopters of the platform experienced larger reductions in resolution time
• BAll teams now resolve incidents instantly
• CThe platform increased the number of incidents
• DLate adopters refused to use the platform

A project's budget is EUR 2,000,000. After spending 35%, how much remains?

• AEUR 1,300,000
• BEUR 700,000
• CEUR 1,650,000
• DEUR 650,000

When must EPSO/AD/429/26 candidates upload their supporting documents (degrees and proof of professional experience)?

• ABy 1 October 2026
• BBy 10 June 2026
• COn the testing day only
• DThere is no deadline for supporting documents

Which statement best reflects the professional-experience requirement for EPSO/AD/429/26?

• ASeveral years of relevant ICT experience are required, varying by degree length and field
• BNo professional experience is required, like AD5
• CA PhD is mandatory for all fields
• DOnly EU institution experience counts

In which language is the Field-Related MCQ taken in the AD7 ICT competition?

• ALanguage 2 (English, French or German)
• BLanguage 1 (any of the 24 official EU languages)
• CAlways English only
• DThe candidate's mother tongue

In an enterprise data centre, what is the primary purpose of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)?

• AProvide short-term battery power during outages so systems shut down safely or generators…
• BIncrease the clock speed of servers
• CEncrypt data at rest on disk arrays
• DBalance network traffic across switches

What does the term RTO (Recovery Time Objective) describe in business continuity and disaster recovery planning?

• AThe maximum acceptable time to restore a service after a disruption
• BThe maximum data loss measured in time
• CThe total cost of a recovery operation
• DThe number of redundant servers required

Which RAID level provides striping with distributed parity, tolerating the failure of a single disk?

• ARAID 5
• BRAID 0
• CRAID 1
• DJBOD

In a DevSecOps pipeline, what does 'shift left' on security mean?

• AIntegrating security testing early in development rather than only before release
• BMoving servers physically to the left of the rack
• CDelaying security checks until production
• DAssigning all security tasks to a separate end-of-cycle team

What is the main characteristic of High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters used for scientific and EU research workloads?

• AMany interconnected nodes working in parallel on large computational problems
• BA single very large mainframe with no networking
• CLow-power devices optimised for battery life
• DStandalone desktops not connected to each other

Which technology lets multiple isolated operating system instances run on one physical server by abstracting hardware via a hypervisor?

• AServer virtualization
• BNetwork address translation
• CDisk defragmentation
• DPacket sniffing

What does the metric PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) measure in a data centre, and what value is ideal?

• ATotal facility energy divided by IT equipment energy; ideal value approaches 1.0
• BCPU temperature; ideal value approaches 0
• CStorage utilisation percentage; ideal value is 100%
• DNetwork throughput in gigabits; higher is always better

Which EU directive sets harmonised cybersecurity obligations for operators of essential and important entities, replacing the original 2016 framework?

• ANIS2 Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2555)
• BGDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)
• CThe eIDAS Regulation
• DThe Machinery Directive

Within the CIA triad of information security, which property ensures that data has not been altered in an unauthorised way?

• AIntegrity
• BConfidentiality
• CAvailability
• DAccountability

What is the purpose of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or Ansible?

• ADefine and provision infrastructure through version-controlled, repeatable configuration…
• BManually click through cloud consoles to create resources
• CReplace all programming languages
• DEncrypt network packets in transit

Which cloud service model gives the customer the most control, providing virtualized compute, storage and networking that the customer manages and configures?

• AInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• BSoftware as a Service (SaaS)
• CPlatform as a Service (PaaS)
• DFunction as a Service (FaaS)

In Kubernetes, what is the smallest deployable unit that can hold one or more containers sharing storage and network?

• AA Pod
• BA Node
• CA Cluster
• DA Namespace

Which European initiative aims to build a federated, secure and sovereign cloud and data infrastructure ecosystem for Europe?

• AGAIA-X
• BSchengen Information System
• CGalileo
• DCopernicus

What is the primary function of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) on the internet?

• AExchange routing and reachability information between autonomous systems
• BAssign IP addresses to devices automatically
• CResolve domain names to IP addresses
• DEncrypt web traffic between browser and server

How many bits are in an IPv6 address, and what notation is used to write it?

• A128 bits, written as eight groups of hexadecimal digits
• B32 bits, written as four decimal octets
• C64 bits, written in binary only
• D256 bits, written in decimal

What does SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) primarily enable for distributed organisations?

• ACentralised, policy-based control of WAN traffic across multiple links and locations
• BReplacement of all physical network cabling with wireless
• CStorage of backups in a single data centre
• DAutomatic writing of application source code