Ireland Civil Service Clerical Officer (publicjobs) — Syllabus & notes
Practice test
Clerical Officer practice: 12 scenarios, 39 actions to rate
- 12 original work scenarios in the Part B format
- Rate each action Good, Adequate, Weak or Bad
- The reason behind every rating
- Tied to the Clerical Officer capability framework
- Two practice tests with a clock
Exam overview
publicjobs (the Public Appointments Service) recruits Clerical Officers for the Irish Civil and Public Service through open competitions, and runs separate competitions for Temporary Clerical Officers. In its recent Clerical Officer and Temporary Clerical Officer competitions (Clerical Officer 2023 Dublin, Temporary Clerical Officer 2024B, Temporary Clerical Officer Nationwide 2026 and Clerical Officer in the Civil Service Nationwide 2026), Stage 1 was an online Assessment Questionnaire in two parts. Part A asks biographical questions about the skills and experience relevant to the role; in Clerical Officer Nationwide 2026 it included four written answers of 100 to 200 words. Part B presents fictitious work scenarios, each followed by possible actions that candidates rate, one by one, as a Good, Adequate, Weak or Bad response. The questionnaire score sets the order of merit for the interview stage. For the permanent Clerical Officer in the Civil Service Nationwide 2026 competition, candidates had to be at least 17 years of age and have previous relevant work experience, and the questionnaire was completed within the application window, which closed on 12 March 2026. For Temporary Clerical Officer Nationwide 2026 the minimum age was 16 and the window closed on 18 November 2025. Each competition sets out its own stages and dates in its candidate information booklet on publicjobs.ie.
- Subjects
- Assessment Questionnaire · Situational judgement
- Exam languages
- English