# The Commission Quietly Changed Its Internal Competition Test — Here's the Full Breakdown URL: https://eu-now.com/blog/commission-internal-competitions-shl-test-2026 Published: 2026-07-18 Category: EPSO News Tags: internal competitions, European Commission, SHL, AD5, AD7, AST3, 2026, cognitive assessment The 2026 COM internal competitions (AD7, AD5, AST3) now open with an adaptive SHL cognitive assessment: 24 interactive questions in 36 minutes, pass mark at the 60th percentile. Everything we verified about the new format — and how to get ready. ## Key takeaways - Since 2026, COM internal competitions (AD7, AD5, AST3) open with an adaptive cognitive assessment run on the SHL platform: 24 questions, 36 minutes, three reasoning types in one sitting - You need the 60th percentile of SHL's fixed external norm group — not of your fellow candidates — to stay in the competition; the test is an eligibility gate, before the EU Knowledge MCQ and the written test - The format is interactive: no A–E options. You paint time slots, drag badges and handles, build figures and draw chains — and you cannot go back to a question - EU·Now is the first platform to cover all three SHL-style sections — deductive, inductive and numerical — with verified formats, documented traps and method, in 5 languages If you are preparing an internal competition at the European Commission — AD7, AD5 or the brand-new AST3 — stop for a second, because the first hurdle no longer looks like anything you have trained for. Since 2026, the Commission's internal competitions open with an **adaptive cognitive assessment delivered on the SHL platform**. Not the familiar EPSO-style multiple choice. Not [verbal reasoning](/blog/epso-verbal-reasoning-how-to-read-like-an-examiner) passages. A single 36-minute sitting, 24 interactive questions, three reasoning types — and a pass mark set at the **60th percentile** of SHL's own reference norm group, an external benchmark that has nothing to do with how your fellow candidates score. We spent the last weeks verifying every detail of the new format: the official notices, the SHL product documentation, the official practice assessments — the complete pipeline, item by item. Here is what actually awaits you, and how to turn it into an advantage. ## What changed, exactly Three internal competitions have adopted the new model in 2026: - **COM/AD/107/2026 — Administrators AD7** (generalist, also open to temporary agents): published 31 March, its candidates already sat the new test in June. - **COM/AD/108/2026 — Administrators AD5**: applications closed 30 June; the cognitive assessment is expected in **September 2026**. - **COM/AST/109/2026 — Assistants AST3**: the newest one — applications are still open until **31 July 2026**, with tests following shortly after. In all three, the structure is the same: the cognitive assessment comes **first**, as an eligibility gate. Only candidates at or above the 60th percentile continue to the traditional stages — the EU Knowledge MCQ (30 questions, 30 minutes), a written assignment, and the oral. The EU Knowledge and written stages you know from previous internals are still there; the entrance door is what changed completely. ## Inside the 36 minutes This is the part almost nobody tells you. The assessment mixes three sections in one continuous, adaptive flow — roughly eight questions each: **Deductive reasoning** — the section that replaces classic verbal reasoning. You get rules and facts, and you must make everything fit: reschedule a meeting across four colleagues' calendars (client meetings cannot move), fit tasks with durations into the gaps of a day, assign people to rooms respecting capacity and adjacency, work out shift calendars over a month, rank six colleagues from five clues. No options to choose from — you paint the slots, drag the badges, pick the dates. **Inductive reasoning** — the closest cousin of [abstract reasoning](/blog/epso-abstract-reasoning-patterns-and-tips), with a twist: you **build** the answer. Four frames are shown; you construct the fifth by tapping regions of a figure (each tap cycles blank → green → dotted). Or you extend a sequence of labelled bubbles by literally drawing the line to the next one, once you have cracked the hidden rule. **[Numerical reasoning](/blog/epso-numerical-reasoning-strategies-and-practice)** — workplace data (allowance rates, project revenues, team sizes) turned into actions: order six people with ranking badges, approve or reject each tab against a threshold, drag pie-chart handles until the percentages match the facts, set bar totals and splits, plot a monthly series node by node. Three properties shape the whole experience: the test is **adaptive** (correct answers bring harder questions — struggling at the end is a good sign, not a bad one), there is **no going back** (once you press Next, the answer is locked), and there is **no negative marking** — but leaving items unfinished lowers your score, so you always finish. ## Why it catches people off guard From the official practice materials and the notices, a few patterns stand out — the kind that punish an unprepared first-timer: - **Rules that bind per line, not per total.** A meal-allowance item can reject a claim whose total fits comfortably, because one single line exceeds its rate. Read the rule twice; it is worded deliberately. - **Boundary cases on purpose.** Project revenue at 2.02× the investment is "Funded"; at 1.98× it is "Deferred". The items are built around the threshold. - **The obvious answer is trapped.** In calendar items, the tempting early gaps tend to be client meetings — the one thing you cannot move. - **Directions flip.** One ranking asks 1 = highest, the next 1 = lowest. The stem tells you; momentum betrays you. None of this is hard once you have seen it. All of it is expensive to discover live, with the timer running and no way back. ## The calendar is tight — and that is your opportunity AD7 candidates have already gone through it. AD5 internal candidates sit the test **around September**. AST3 follows right behind. That leaves a preparation window measured in weeks. And here is the thing about the percentile that most people get backwards: **the bar is fixed**. Your score is set against SHL's external norm group, not against the colleagues sitting the same competition — the exercise creator set the level, not the other candidates. So there is no curve to hide in, and no one else's bad day helps you. But the flip side is the one that matters: nothing you earn by preparing gets diluted. Understanding the mechanics, knowing the item types, having burned the classic traps in practice — every bit of it lands directly in your own percentile. The 60th percentile is a known, stable target, and a target that stands still is a target you can train for. ## Train for it today — in your language This is why we built it: **EU·Now is the first preparation platform to cover the three SHL-style sections of the Commission's new internal test** — deductive, inductive and numerical reasoning — with the verified format, every documented item type, the traps and the method, available in **English, French, German, Spanish and Italian**. The SHL Lab is **already live** on [EU-now.com](https://eu-now.com). Try the format right now with the [free demo simulator](https://eu-now.com/tools/shl-simulator) — 12 interactive questions across the three sections, no account needed. And when you are ready to train seriously, the full **Internal Competition Prep** is open: dedicated trainers for deductive, inductive and numerical reasoning with an explanation on every question, the full-length adaptive simulator (24 questions, 36 minutes, with adaptive difficulty selection and a per-section report) and the EU Knowledge module — all included in the **2026 Pass: €99 one-time, valid for the whole cycle until 31 January 2027** ([see pricing](https://eu-now.com/pricing)). The bar will be exactly where it is whether you prepare or not — the only thing you decide is how far above it you land. Don't let the September window close on you. *EU·Now is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, SHL Group Ltd or the European Commission. All practice items on our platform are original, created in the style of the assessment; we never reproduce SHL content. Format details verified against the official notices of competition, SHL's public product documentation and the official practice assessments — sources below.* ## FAQ ### What is the new test in the 2026 Commission internal competitions? Internal competitions COM/AD/107/2026 (AD7), COM/AD/108/2026 (AD5) and COM/AST/109/2026 (AST3) start with an adaptive computer-based cognitive assessment delivered by an external specialist company on the SHL platform. It combines numerical, inductive and deductive reasoning in a single sitting: 24 questions in 36 minutes. ### What score do I need to pass the Commission's SHL cognitive assessment? You must score at or above the 60th percentile of SHL's reference norm group — a fixed, external benchmark population set by the exercise creator, not by the other candidates, so the bar does not move with how your colleagues perform. The test works as an eligibility gate: only candidates who pass move on to the EU Knowledge MCQ, the written test and the oral. There is no negative marking, and unanswered questions reduce your score — so always finish the test. ### How is the SHL test different from the classic EPSO reasoning tests? Three big differences. First, it is adaptive: questions get harder as you answer correctly, and your score is a percentile, not points. Second, it is interactive: instead of choosing between options A–E, you build the answer — painting calendar slots, dragging ranking badges, adjusting pie charts, drawing chains between bubbles. Third, classic verbal reasoning is gone from stage 1: its place is taken by deductive reasoning (schedules, rankings, room plans solved from rules). ### When are the next Commission internal competition tests? Based on the official timelines shared with candidates: the AD5 internal competition (COM/AD/108/2026) points to September 2026 for the cognitive assessment, with the EU Knowledge MCQ and written test in October. The AST3 competition (COM/AST/109/2026) has applications open until 31 July 2026, with tests expected in the following weeks. AD7 candidates already sat the cognitive assessment in June. ## Official sources - EU Training — 2026 COM Internal Competition AD7 (applications open): https://eutraining.eu/content/2026-com-internal-competition-ad7-applications-open - EU Training — What's coming up in July 2026 (EPSO Rundown): https://eutraining.eu/content/whats-coming-july-2026-epso-rundown - Generation 2004 — Analysis of internal competition COM/AD/107/2026 (PDF): https://generation2004.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-04-AD7-Internal-Competition-.pdf - Prepari — EU Commission Internal Competitions 2026: https://prepari.eu/eu-commission-internal-competitions-2026/ - SHL — Practice tests and example questions (official): https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/ - SHL — Verify Deductive Reasoning fact sheet (official): https://service.shl.com/docs/Verify_Deductive%20Reasoning_Fact%20Sheet.pdf ## This article in other languages - French: https://eu-now.com/fr/blog/commission-internal-competitions-shl-test-2026/llms.txt - German: https://eu-now.com/de/blog/commission-internal-competitions-shl-test-2026/llms.txt - Spanish: https://eu-now.com/es/blog/commission-internal-competitions-shl-test-2026/llms.txt - Italian: https://eu-now.com/it/blog/commission-internal-competitions-shl-test-2026/llms.txt Source of record: https://eu-now.com/blog/commission-internal-competitions-shl-test-2026 — published by EU-now (eu-now.com), which is not EPSO and not affiliated with the European Commission.