Free Practice Questions for Concours CPE

A CPE is a Catégorie A civil servant in French public secondary schools (collèges and lycées). Under Circulaire n° 2015-139 of August 10, 2015, their mission encompasses three interrelated dimensions: organising the collective living conditions of the school (managing school life spaces, security, schedules, and supervising the AED team), providing individualized academic and personal guidance to students in partnership with teachers, and cultivating student citizenship, democratic engagement, and school climate.

Since session 2026, the main external route is open at bac+3: candidates must be enrolled in the final year of a licence (L3) or already hold a licence or recognised equivalent at the date the admissibility results are published. A bac+5 external route is maintained transitionally for the 2026 and 2027 sessions and disappears from 2028. Applicants must be citizens of France or a European Economic Area member state, possess full civil rights, have no disqualifying criminal record on bulletin n° 2, and be in regular standing regarding national military obligations (JDC). Parents of at least three children and high-level athletes are exempt from the degree requirement.

In the bac+3 external concours organised since session 2026, admissibility comprises two written papers of 4 hours each — the first with coefficient 3, the second with coefficient 2 — taking the form of a dissertation and an analysis of a documentary dossier on educational policy. Admissible candidates then sit two oral tests: an exposé built from a documentary dossier (1 h 30 preparation, 15-minute presentation of the professional situation and a proposed response, followed by exchange with the jury), and an interview in two parts covering the candidate's background and then their capacity to take on and convey public-service requirements, Republican values, and the issues of the ecological transition. Both oral tests are marked out of 20 and a mark of 0 is eliminatory.

An 'information préoccupante' (IP) is sent to the Cellule de Recueil des Informations Préoccupantes (CRIP) of the Conseil Départemental when a minor's physical, psychological, or moral health, safety, or education appears compromised or at risk, but there is no immediate felony/misdemeanor requiring urgent judicial intervention. An Article 40 Code de Procédure Pénale notification is an urgent transmission made directly to the Procureur de la République by a public official who acquires knowledge of a crime or serious offense committed against or by a student.

The official CPE concours does not employ multiple-choice questions; it requires long-form dissertations, case study analyses, and live oral interviews before a jury. This 100-question bank is an English-language MCQ study adaptation designed for active recall, self-assessment, and conceptual consolidation of French educational sociology, administrative law, student life policies, and crisis management protocols.

Public education in France is grounded in the principle of laïcité codified by the Law of 1905, the French Constitution, the Charte de la laïcité à l'école (2013), and Law n° 2004-228 of March 15, 2004, which strictly prohibits students from wearing ostensible signs or attire indicating religious affiliation in public schools. Furthermore, all civil servants (including CPEs and AEDs) are subject to strict neutrality and must neither manifest nor promote religious convictions.