A specialist competition, not a generic AD track

COM/AD/106/2026 is a Commission internal competition for AD6 case handlers and policy officers. It is not the usual AD5 graduate profile, and it is not the generalist AD7 internal competition. The notice creates two separate specialist fields, with different reserve lists and different knowledge bases.

The application deadline in the notice was 8 June 2026 at 12:00 Brussels time. Candidates chose one field only, and the choice could not be changed after the deadline. The practical consequence for training is simple: a candidate in Field 1 should not spend most of the final preparation window on generic digital literacy, and a candidate in Field 2 should not train as if this were a classic competition law exam.

The test structure

The first substantive filter is a specialist multiple choice test in the selected field. It has 40 questions in 60 minutes, with a pass mark of 25 out of 40. The score decides access to the next stage, but it is not added to the oral score for final ranking.

The oral stage is online. It combines a 15-minute presentation with follow-up questions and a 30-minute structured interview. The oral pass mark is 25 out of 50, and the reserve list ranking is based on the oral result.

Language 2 must be English, French or German and is used for all tests. The notice also contains internal eligibility rules for Commission staff, including service in the Commission and specific rules for officials, temporary agents and contract agents. These rules matter because this is an internal competition, not a public EPSO open competition.

Database 1: competition field

The competition field is built around Commission enforcement work. Candidates need the legal base, but also the case-handler way of thinking: evidence, market definition, effects analysis, procedural safeguards, remedies, confidentiality and a defensible file note.

Core legal map

• Articles 101 and 102 TFEU: agreements, concerted practices, cartels, abuse of dominance, foreclosure, exploitative abuse, object and effect restrictions.
• Articles 107 to 109 TFEU: State aid definition, selectivity, advantage, State resources, compatibility, recovery and notification logic.
• EU Merger Regulation: jurisdiction, concentration, control, relevant markets, significant impediment to effective competition, commitments and remedies.
• Foreign Subsidies Regulation: distortive foreign financial contributions, notification tools, ex officio review and redressive measures.
• Digital Markets Act touchpoints: where competition logic overlaps with gatekeeper regulation without replacing sector-specific obligations.

Strong candidates can move between legal provisions and a short factual scenario. If a question describes parallel pricing, exclusivity, a grant, a merger remedy or a foreign contribution, the task is to identify the correct legal tool and reject the tempting but wrong one.

What the MCQ traps look like

• Confusing market power with dominance.
• Using State aid recovery as if it were a fine.
• Treating every cooperation agreement as a cartel by object.
• Applying merger-control remedies to an antitrust infringement without checking the procedure.
• Mixing FSR notification duties with ordinary State aid notification duties.

The new EPSOHQ competition database therefore does not only ask "what is Article 101?" It asks which instrument fits a case, what condition is missing, and which explanation would survive review by a legal service or case team.

Database 2: digital policies field

The digital policies field is not a basic IT skills test. It is a regulatory supervision profile. The notice points to work under the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, with practical knowledge of how large digital services actually operate.

Core regulatory map

• DSA: intermediary services, hosting, online platforms, very large online platforms, very large online search engines, systemic risk, notice-and-action, recommender transparency, ad transparency and audits.
• DMA: gatekeepers, core platform services, self-preferencing, anti-steering, data combination, interoperability, access to business-user data and compliance reporting.
• Platform architecture: operating systems, app stores, ranking systems, contractual terms, cloud services, messaging interoperability and data access safeguards.
• Rights and safeguards: data protection, freedom of expression, non-discrimination, due process for users, transparency and auditability.
• Supervision practice: evidence gathering, technical expert input, stakeholder engagement, monitoring, confidentiality and enforceable compliance measures.

This field rewards candidates who can translate a technical fact into a regulatory issue. An app-store steering clause, a recommender-system change, a messaging interoperability refusal or a dark-pattern interface all point to different obligations and different evidence needs.

What the MCQ traps look like

• Calling every large platform a gatekeeper without checking designation.
• Applying DSA systemic-risk duties to a service that is not a VLOP or VLOSE.
• Confusing content moderation duties with competition remedies.
• Treating GDPR consent as the whole answer when the DMA or DSA adds separate obligations.
• Ignoring technical feasibility, security and proportionality in interoperability scenarios.

The digital-policy database therefore trains law, systems and supervision together. The goal is not to memorise acronyms. The goal is to know which fact matters and which institutional action follows.

Where existing EPSOHQ databases overlap

Some of the knowledge was already present on EPSOHQ, but not in a competition-specific form. The overlap map is useful because it shows what can be reused and what had to be built separately.

The result is a new category: Specialist Competition Training. It keeps COM/AD/106/2026 separate from normal AD5, AD7, EU knowledge, digital skills and Frontex practice.

Marketing statement: EPSOHQ is the only platform built to train specialist competitions by exact competition code, field and knowledge map. You do not just choose "EU knowledge" or "digital skills"; you choose COM/AD/106/2026, then Field 1 competition or Field 2 digital policies, and the simulator pulls only from that mapped database.

The new EPSOHQ specialist database

EPSOHQ now has a dedicated COM/AD/106/2026 database with 1,200 specialist MCQs:

• 450 English questions for Field 1: competition.
• 450 English questions for Field 2: digital policies.
• 300 Italian questions across both fields: 150 for competition and 150 for digital policies.
• Nine English question styles per topic, including definition, case application, evidence focus, oral bridge and trap rejection.
• Italian question styles for inquadramento, applicazione and trappola.
• Separate filtering, so these questions do not leak into generic AD5 or AD7 practice.

The exam creation page now includes a specialist database selector. Choose COM/AD/106/2026 - all fields for mixed revision, COM/AD/106/2026 - competition field for Field 1, or COM/AD/106/2026 - digital policies field for Field 2. When a database is selected, the exam is generated only from that database.

You can start directly from the study page or use the exam page with a prefilled specialist database:

• Study the COM/AD/106/2026 database
• Train Field 1 competition questions
• Train Field 2 digital-policy questions

How to train for the 40-question MCQ

Use the actual timing: 40 questions, 60 minutes. That is 90 seconds per question. The extra time compared with many EPSO reasoning tests does not mean the test is easy. It means questions can be denser, with a legal or technical condition hidden in the wording.

Week 1: build the map

Read the field overview chapters first. For competition, map each legal tool to its trigger: Article 101, Article 102, State aid, merger control, FSR and DMA. For digital policies, map each platform problem to the DSA, the DMA, GDPR or technical supervision. Do not start by memorising everything. Start by knowing which drawer the problem belongs in.

Week 2: train distinctions

Run short 20-question blocks from your selected database. After each mistake, label the reason: wrong instrument, missing condition, overbroad assumption, procedural confusion or vocabulary gap. These labels matter more than the raw score because they tell you what to repair.

Week 3: full timed blocks

Move to 40-question blocks. Aim to finish with five minutes left, then review flagged items. Do not chase perfection by spending four minutes on one question. In a 40-question MCQ, stable accuracy beats heroic over-analysis.

Final days: oral bridge

Turn your strongest topics into short oral explanations. A good oral answer starts with the issue, identifies the legal or regulatory hook, states the evidence needed, and ends with a proportionate next step. That pattern works in both fields.

Sources to keep open

The notice is the binding source for eligibility, deadlines and test rules. For substantive study, keep official sources close: the Commission's competition policy pages, the Commission's Foreign Subsidies Regulation page, the official DMA portal, the Commission's DSA page, and the EUR-Lex texts for Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 and Regulation (EU) 2022/2560.

One platform for every EU selection test

COM/AD/106/2026 is a reminder that "preparing for an EU job" is not one test — it is a family of very different ones. A generalist sits reasoning, EU knowledge, digital skills and a written test. A specialist sits a field-mapped MCQ like this one. A border-management candidate sits something else entirely. And a growing number of EU bodies, agencies and contractors now use SHL G+ ability assessments. Most platforms cover one of these. EPSOHQ covers all of them.

EPSOHQ is complete training across the three tracks that matter:

• EPSO competitions — verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning, EU knowledge, digital skills (DigComp), the written tests (EUFTE and FRWT), plus this specialist competition database for COM/AD/106/2026.
• Frontex Standing Corps — a dedicated Frontex study database, flashcards and exam simulator for the European Border and Coast Guard selection, kept entirely separate from the EPSO pools.
• SHL G+ — a dedicated SHL G+ preparation guide and a SHL G+ practice simulator for the deductive, inductive and numerical ability assessment used in many EU and external recruitment processes.

It is the same engine throughout — timed simulation, per-question explanations, performance analytics and weak-spot detection — pointed at whichever test you actually face. SHL G+ and Frontex are included in the Candidate and Lifetime plans, or available as standalone modules. You prepare once, in one place, for the exact selection ahead of you.

The bottom line

COM/AD/106/2026 is a narrow, specialist AD6 competition. Treating it like a generic EPSO profile wastes time. Field 1 needs competition enforcement judgement. Field 2 needs digital-regulation supervision judgement. The new specialist training category and 1,200-question database are built for that exact split — and they sit inside a single platform that also trains you for EPSO generalist competitions, Frontex and SHL G+. Whichever EU selection test comes next, you train it here.