The CAST exam, explained
How the contract agent procedure works, what you sit, and what you need to score
What CAST is
CAST stands for Contract Agents Selection Tool. It is how the EU institutions, agencies and bodies hire contract agents.
It is not a competition with a timetable. It is permanently open. You put your profile in the EPSO database, and you sit the tests when a department searching that database shortlists you.
Because the invitation usually arrives at short notice, it is worth starting to prepare as soon as you create your EPSO profile rather than when the email lands.
You register under a function group, from FG I to FG IV, which is what sets the level of the work and the calibrated difficulty of the questions.
Who can apply
CAST is the only one of the four procedures where the entry rule is a real decision tree rather than a single condition, because each function group has its own education and experience requirement and you may qualify for more than one.
| Function group | The work | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| FG I | Manual and basic administrative support. | Compulsory education. |
| FG II | Clerical and secretarial tasks. | Post-secondary education, or qualifying secondary education plus three years of appropriate experience. |
| FG III | Executive and technical tasks. | Post-secondary education, or qualifying secondary education plus three years of appropriate experience. |
| FG IV | Administrative, advisory, linguistic and equivalent technical tasks. | A completed university degree of at least three years. |
- Citizenship of an EU Member State, for every function group.
- One official EU language at C1 and a second at B2.
- The Call for Expressions of Interest and the recruiting service decide final eligibility and may set extra profile requirements.
The three tests
There is nothing to revise. CAST has no EU knowledge test, no situational judgement test and no essay. It is three reasoning tests, sat in your first language.
These are the same three tests, at the same question counts and the same timings, that open the AD5 graduate competition, the specialist AD competitions and the assistant competitions. What CAST changes is the calibrated difficulty, which follows your function group, and the fact that here they are the whole psychometric stage.
| Test | Questions | Time | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbal reasoning | 20 | 35 minutes | A short passage and one question about what it supports. |
| Numerical reasoning | 10 | 20 minutes | A table or a chart, and one calculation over it. |
| Abstract reasoning | 10 | 10 minutes | Five figures in a series, with the sixth missing. |
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The two pass marks
CAST gives you two separate scores and you need to pass both. Verbal reasoning is scored out of 20 and needs at least 10 on its own. Numerical and abstract are added together into a single score out of 20, and that combined total needs at least 10.
A high score on one cannot make up for a low score on the other, which is why a single overall percentage is misleading: it hides whether you passed both parts.
Nothing here is ranked. All three tests are pass or fail, so a mark above the gate buys you margin for error on the day and nothing more.
- Verbal reasoning: one score out of 20, pass mark 10.
- Numerical and abstract reasoning combined: one score out of 20, pass mark 10.
What else you sit
The reasoning tests are the psychometric stage and, unlike the other three procedures, they are most of what CAST asks of you centrally.
After them, the recruiting service sets a competency or field test appropriate to the post and the function group, and some services test your second language separately. That part is decided by the department hiring you rather than by EPSO, so there is no single format to describe and no syllabus published in advance.
Passing the reasoning tests puts you in the pool. What follows is the service that shortlisted you deciding whether you fit the post.
Where CAST sits among the other procedures
CAST is one door of several, and it is the one that is always open. It leads to contract agent posts rather than to official posts, and the tests are valid for ten years, so clearing them once is worth a great deal.
AD5 is the graduate competition for officials, no experience required, and the only procedure where a reasoning mark is ranked. The specialist AD competitions want a degree plus years in a named field. AST and AST-SC are the assistant competitions and rank on professional-skills tests.
If you are weighing them up, or preparing for two at once, the reasoning practice is shared. Nothing you do for CAST is wasted on an AD5 application, and nothing you do for AD5 is wasted here.
What practice changes, and what this site does not cover
You cannot study for these tests. There is nothing to learn by heart. Practice helps you spot each question type fast, avoid the usual wrong answers, and waste less time. That matters most in abstract reasoning, where one minute per question means the winners are the ones who see the question type fastest.
Laureo practises the three reasoning tests and nothing else. There is no material here for the competency or field test a recruiting service may set, and none for a separate second-language test.
What is here is unlimited, free, and scored the way the real tests are scored: both gates, the real timings, and no daily cap.
CAST exam questions, answered
- What does CAST stand for?
- Contract Agents Selection Tool. It is the selection procedure the European Personnel Selection Office runs for contract agent posts in the EU institutions, agencies and bodies.
- Is CAST the same as an EPSO competition?
- No. An open competition selects officials, runs to a published timetable and adds knowledge or professional tests on top of the reasoning stage. CAST selects contract agents, is permanently open, and its central stage is the reasoning tests alone.
- Which function group should I register for?
- The one your education and experience qualify you for, and you may qualify for more than one. FG IV needs a completed degree of at least three years. FG II and III need post-secondary education, or qualifying secondary education plus three years of appropriate experience. The eligibility calculator on this site walks the baseline rules.
- Is there an EU-knowledge test in CAST?
- Not since the procedure was revised. Current CAST is purely psychometric: verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning. There is no EU-knowledge test, no situational judgement test and no essay.
- What language are the tests in?
- The reasoning tests are sat in your first language. Some recruiting departments additionally test your second language separately.
- Do the tests differ between function groups?
- Not in format. Same three tests, same question counts, same timings and the same two gates in every function group. What changes is the calibrated difficulty of the items, which is why this site asks which function group you are targeting and serves the matching band.
- How long is a CAST pass valid?
- Ten years. That is the strongest argument for preparing properly once: clearing the tests puts you in the searchable pool for a decade rather than for one recruitment round.
Test counts, timings, pass marks and eligibility rules are taken from the CAST Permanent Call for Expressions of Interest and the published EU Careers requirements, checked in September 2026. Your Call and the recruiting service are the authoritative source and they override anything on this page.