publicjobs Online Tests 2026: Every Test Type, Timings, Free Practice

publicjobs online tests are the first stage of the large Irish Civil Service competitions in this guide: Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning and a Situational Judgement Test for the Administrative Officer 2024 graduate competition, the same three for Executive Officer 2022, and an Assessment Questionnaire for Clerical Officer Nationwide 2026. Your score sets your Order of Merit, your ranking against every other candidate, so the tests decide not just whether you go forward but how soon. This guide sets out every test type on publicjobs' published list, the counts and times its booklets gave, how remote proctoring works, how the ranking is built, and how to practise. ProSyllabus is an independent practice site, not part of publicjobs or the Public Appointments Service, and these are not publicjobs test items.

publicjobs, Graduate Opportunities Administrative Officer (General) 2024 Stage 1 Pre-Test Information Booklet.

publicjobs' Our Recruitment Process page lists the assessments it uses most. Not every competition uses all of them, and a competition can add others, so the list is a menu, not a fixed paper.

In the Administrative Officer 2024 test you read passages, each followed by several statements, and marked each statement True (it must be true given the passage), False (it must be false given the passage) or Cannot Say. The booklet says to base answers only on the passage and that each statement has one correct answer. AO 2024 gave 30 minutes for 40 statements; Executive Officer 2022 gave 35 minutes for 59. The AO 2024 booklet warns that most candidates do not complete all questions in the time, and asks you to work as quickly and accurately as possible.

The numerical test gives charts or tables, each followed by a question with five options, one correct. AO 2024 gave 35 minutes for 24 questions; Executive Officer 2022 gave 35 minutes for 36. A handheld calculator or the one built into your computer is allowed; a mobile phone is not (AO 2024 rules). The questions test how well you evaluate the numerical data in the charts or tables.

This is where the grades differ most. Executive Officer 2022 had scenarios followed by several actions, each rated on a five-point scale from Excellent to Bad. Administrative Officer 2024 instead asked for the single best response from three options, across three sections: 5 text scenarios, 5 short video scenarios (5 minutes 19 seconds of video in total, subtitled, re-watchable within the time) and 6 instant-message chats. The whole test had 40 minutes, and the booklet says speed itself is not assessed. Each scenario is independent: carry nothing from one to the next.

Clerical Officer Nationwide 2026 used an Assessment Questionnaire at Stage 1 rather than aptitude tests. It had two parts: Part A asked about your skills and experience, including four written answers of 100 to 200 words each, and Part B asked you to rate responses to work scenarios as Good, Adequate, Weak or Bad. It set the order of merit for interview, and the familiarisation document warns that answers may be checked at interview.

The table puts side by side what publicjobs published for each grade's first stage. For the Administrative Officer stages after the tests, see the Administrative Officer competition guide; for Executive Officer, the Executive Officer online tests guide.

Tests are only the first stage. The later stages can include written work too: at the HEO 2024 final stage, candidates analysed the Civil Service 2030 Renewal Strategy in a written report sent before the interview and opened the interview with a 5-minute oral briefing on it. The Third Secretary 2026 booklet also lists a report-writing exercise among the possible selection methods; the Third Secretary guide in this series covers that competition stage by stage.

publicjobs defines your Order of Merit as your ranking within the successful candidates at a stage: the highest scorer on the Stage 1 tests is placed first. Candidates go forward in batches sized to the vacancies on hand, so a higher score means an earlier invitation, and a lower one may mean waiting for a later batch or never being called.

Two rules in the AO 2024 booklet matter for how you prepare. First, you had to reach the qualifying standard in all three tests to be considered further. Second, the Order of Merit was built from the combined Verbal Reasoning and Situational Judgement scores. So in that competition the numerical test was a hurdle to clear, while verbal and situational judgement set your place in the queue. A later competition can weight things differently, so check your own booklet.

publicjobs says its tests can be unsupervised, or supervised in person or online through remote proctoring. The graduate-grade tests we read were proctored: AO 2024 took intermittent webcam photographs that were recorded and reviewed afterwards, after an ID check with a passport or driving licence, and a room scan before each test.

The AO 2025 booklet adds that a candidate may later be asked to sit tests in a supervised environment, and that responses are checked for duplication, originality and response patterns. Taking a test with someone else's help is a disqualification risk, not a shortcut.

The box below starts the free sample of our Irish Civil Service graduate grades practice test in our test player, with a result page at the end. Every question in it is an original ProSyllabus practice item, not a publicjobs item.

Each example below walks through the thinking the test rewards. Read the method, then use it on the sample above.

Use the per-item pace from your own booklet and practise to it: on the AO 2024 figures, about 45 seconds a verbal statement and under 90 seconds a numerical question. Do the official self-assessment early and again near the test, under time.

Applying for Executive Officer rather than a graduate grade? The Executive Officer practice test covers the three test types publicjobs described for Executive Officer 2022: verbal, numerical and situational judgement.