FAQ
CAST exam questions, answered
What the exam involves, how it is scored, and how this free preparation works.
The exam
- What is the CAST exam?
- CAST is the Contract Agents Selection Tool, the procedure the European Personnel Selection Office runs to select contract agents for the EU institutions, agencies and bodies. It is permanently open: you register in the EPSO database and are invited to sit the tests when a recruiting department shortlists your profile.
- What is in the CAST exam?
- Three reasoning tests: verbal (20 questions in 35 minutes), numerical (10 questions in 20 minutes) and abstract (10 questions in 10 minutes). Since the procedure was revised there is no EU-knowledge test, no situational judgement test and no essay.
- What is the CAST pass mark?
- There are two independent gates and you must clear both: at least 10 out of 20 on verbal reasoning, and at least 10 out of 20 on numerical and abstract reasoning combined. A strong score on one does not compensate for a weak score on the other.
- Is there negative marking?
- No. A wrong answer and an unanswered question score the same, so there is never a reason to leave a question blank when time is running out.
- What language do I sit the tests in?
- The reasoning tests are sat in your first language. Some recruiting departments assess your second language separately as part of their own process.
- How is CAST different from an EPSO open competition?
- An open competition selects officials and runs through several stages, typically including an assessment centre. CAST selects contract agents, is permanently open rather than run to a timetable, and consists of the reasoning tests alone.
- What is the difference between function group III and function group IV?
- They are different grades of contract agent post, with different qualification and experience requirements. The reasoning test formats are the same; what differs is the profile you register under and the posts you can be shortlisted for.
- How much notice do I get before the tests?
- Usually not much. The invitation arrives once a department searching the EPSO database shortlists your profile, and there is no published timetable to plan backwards from. This is the main practical argument for preparing before you are invited rather than after.
This practice
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Every practice question, every explanation and the full timed mock are free and unlimited. There is no paywall, no trial period and no card required.
- Do I need to create an account?
- Yes, a free account — sign in with Google or an email and password. That is what keeps your progress, streak and history attached to you rather than to a browser.
- How many practice questions are there?
- The numerical and abstract banks are procedurally generated, so they do not run out and a second sitting is a genuinely different paper. The verbal bank is a written collection of several hundred passages; practice tracks what you have already seen and serves every unseen item before repeating any.
- Are these real CAST questions?
- No, and deliberately so. Every item is originally written or procedurally generated. Nothing is reproduced or derived from a real EPSO paper. What is reproduced is the format, the timing and the scoring.
- Do the practice questions come with explanations?
- Yes. Every question reveals a written explanation the moment you answer it, saying why the correct answer is correct rather than just marking you right or wrong. Explanations are currently in English.
- Does the mock test simulate real conditions?
- It runs all three tests back to back with a separate absolute clock per part, allows free navigation and flagging within a part, withholds every mark until the whole thing ends, and reports both CAST gates separately with the raw score behind each.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes. The layouts, the figure grids and the numerical tables are all built to be readable on a phone, and there is an on-screen calculator for the numerical questions.
- Is this site affiliated with EPSO?
- No. Laureo is an independent study tool with no affiliation to, endorsement from, or connection with EPSO, the European Personnel Selection Office, or any institution of the European Union.
Still unclear on the format? The CAST exam explained goes through it test by test.