Can You Cheat EPSO Tests? Recorded and Reviewed
Finishing an EPSO test without being stopped proves nothing, because the decision on whether you broke the rules is taken afterwards, from the recording.
Proctorio records all audio, video and screen activity, and EPSO evaluates that data after you submit. A breach found then can remove you at any later stage of the competition.
The test ends when you submit. The decision does not.
Most shortcuts people describe for an online test rest on one assumption: if nobody stops you during the test, you got away with it. EPSO's process is built the other way round. Its March 2026 instructions for the TAO platform say that Proctorio records all audio, video and screen activity, and that once your exam is submitted, EPSO evaluates the Proctorio data before deciding whether a breach has occurred.
So a sitting that felt unremarkable can still end in disqualification weeks later, and the notice lets EPSO disqualify a candidate at any stage of the competition for cheating during the tests, recording them, or trying to manipulate their fair conduct. In the AD5 graduate competition, where Part 2 follows months after Part 1, that could mean losing a place you thought you had already secured.
Even the ordinary things are on the list
EPSO's desk rules are strict enough that candidates break them by accident. The desk may hold the computer and its charger, a mouse and keyboard, one external display, your ID, a mousepad, a label-free drink and two plain tissues. Writing materials and paper are not on that list, and taking handwritten notes is forbidden. A physical calculator counts as a breach. Some events end the session on the spot: revoking camera permission, a second screen, closing or reloading the tab, leaving full screen.
The practical point is that the only tools you will have are TAO's own: the on-screen calculator on the numerical test, a scratchpad where it is enabled, a highlighter, a line reader and answer elimination. Practise with those, not with a pen and paper you will not be allowed.
There is no single paper to find the answers to
EPSO's complaint rules say that when a question is neutralised, the change affects only the candidates who received it. That only makes sense if candidates receive different questions. A list of answers from someone who sat last week would be answers to a different paper, and EPSO forbids recording the tests in the first place.
What working on it actually looks like
The reasoning tests reward a small set of habits that can genuinely be practised: judging a statement on the passage alone, taking percentage change against the right base, following one element through a series of five figures. Our EPSO practice tests run the real counts and clocks (verbal 20 questions in 35 minutes, numerical 10 in 20, abstract 10 in 10) with TAO's free navigation, bookmarks, answer elimination and submit warnings, and a calculator that ignores Enter the way EPSO tells you to.
The cost is the competition, not the test
An EPSO reserve list is the route into a permanent post at the EU institutions, and the AD5 2026 competition drew 174,727 applications for 1,490 places. A candidate disqualified for a breach loses the competition, not a mark, and the next generalist competition may be years away. The legitimate route, practice on the real format, is cheaper by any measure.