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The French concours office test: fifteen minutes, and no typing speed at all

There is a preparation market in France built around typing speed for this concours, and the epreuve definitions do not support it. The practical test is fifteen minutes, coefficient 1, and its published purpose is to check the candidate's aptitude in word processing, spreadsheets and information technology. No words-per-minute figure appears in it, or in the framework notes, or anywhere else we could find. Meanwhile the written paper and the numerical table carry coefficient 3 each and the interview another 3, so the office test is worth roughly a ninth of the marks. Typing fluency helps here the way it helps anywhere, by not being in the way. It is not what is being scored.

Requirements

Duration
15 min
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At a glance

Duration
15 minutes
Coefficient
1, against 3 each for the written paper, the numerical table and the interview
Typing speed required
None. No words-per-minute figure appears in the epreuve definition
What is tested
Word processing, spreadsheets and information technology, in practice
Share of the marks
About one ninth of the total coefficient
Where the marks are
The two written papers and the interview, at 55 per cent between them
Which concours
Adjoint administratif territorial principal de 2e classe. Read your own avis de concours

Figures checked September 2026. Exam formats are revised between cycles, so confirm against your own notification.

What the epreuve actually says

The published definition is one sentence: a practical office test intended to verify the candidate's aptitude in word processing, spreadsheets and the new information and communication technologies. Fifteen minutes, coefficient 1, sat in the admission phase alongside the interview. Read it again for what is absent. There is no passage to transcribe, no speed, no accuracy floor, and no reference to keystrokes or to words a minute. The candidate is asked to produce something in a word processor and a spreadsheet, and is judged on whether they can drive the software. This matters because the whole shape of preparation follows from it. Fifteen minutes is not long enough to measure sustained typing speed and is exactly long enough to see whether someone knows how to format a table, apply a formula and save a file where they were told to.

Where the marks actually are

On the territorial concours the coefficients are published and they are not close. The written French paper is an hour and a half at coefficient 3. The numerical table is an hour at coefficient 3. The interview is fifteen minutes at coefficient 3. The office test is fifteen minutes at coefficient 1, and the optional test another 1. Out of eleven coefficient points, the office test is one. A candidate who spends a month raising their typing speed and no time on the written paper has optimised nine per cent of the marks and left fifty-five per cent untouched. The numerical table is the one worth noticing here, because it is the epreuve that most rewards being quick and accurate with a keyboard, and it carries three times the weight of the test everyone thinks of as the typing one.

So what is typing speed worth here

It is worth something, but indirectly, and it is worth saying honestly rather than selling it. Fifteen minutes is a short window for a practical task. A candidate who hunts for keys spends part of that window looking at the keyboard instead of at the task, and in a test where the task is the mark, that is a real cost. The same holds much more strongly for the two written papers, which are handwritten in most centres but whose preparation is not. And it holds for the numerical table, where fluency with a keyboard and a spreadsheet is close to the whole exercise. What is not true is that there is a threshold to clear. Nobody will measure your words per minute at this concours. If a preparation course tells you it has the figure, ask which text it comes from.

What to do with that

Prepare for the epreuve that is actually set. That means the software rather than the keyboard: creating and formatting a document, building and formatting a table, writing a simple formula, and doing all of it inside fifteen minutes without hesitating over where a menu lives. Treat typing as maintenance rather than as a project. A few minutes of practice a day in French, with the accents and the AZERTY layout you will actually meet, keeps the keyboard out of the way. A test in French at one or five minutes is enough for that, and the French landing page explains what AZERTY changes. And read your own avis de concours. Epreuves are revised, the state and territorial versions differ, and this page describes what was published for the territorial concours at the date below, not a permanent rule.

Tips that actually help

  • Prepare the software, not the speed

    Fifteen minutes is enough to see whether you can create a document, format a table and write a formula without hunting through menus. That is the skill being marked. Rehearse the tasks in the office suite your centre uses rather than raising a number on a typing site.

  • Give the numerical table the time you were giving typing

    It carries three times the coefficient of the office test and it is the epreuve where keyboard and spreadsheet fluency actually pay. If you are going to train anything keyboard-adjacent, train that.

  • Type in French, on AZERTY, or do not bother

    Practising on a QWERTY layout or on English text trains a different set of movements. Thirteen of the keys differ, four of them letters, and French text needs accents constantly. Practice that does not include them is not maintenance of the right skill.

  • Rehearse under the clock once you know the tasks

    The pressure in this epreuve is the fifteen minutes, not the difficulty. Run the whole task end to end against a timer a few times so the clock stops being a surprise.

  • Read the avis, not a preparation site

    The figures that circulate for this concours are not in the official texts. If a course quotes a speed requirement, ask it which published document that comes from, and check the avis de concours for the session you are sitting.

  • Do not confuse the state and territorial versions

    They are organised separately and their epreuves differ. This page describes the territorial concours. If you are sitting the state one, its own notice is the authority.

What costs candidates marks

  • Buying a typing course for a test that does not measure typing

    This is the expensive one. The epreuve definition contains no speed criterion, so a course sold on hitting a words-per-minute figure is preparing you for something that is not on the paper.

  • Ignoring the coefficients

    The office test is one point of eleven. Candidates routinely spend more preparation time on it than on the written French paper, which is worth three, because it feels more concrete.

  • Practising on English text

    French carries accents, the cedilla and a different punctuation spacing, and AZERTY puts four letters somewhere else. Practice in English builds fluency you will partly have to unlearn.

  • Assuming a published figure exists somewhere

    It is a reasonable assumption and it appears to be wrong. We looked in the epreuve definitions and the framework notes and found none. Treat any quoted threshold as unsourced until someone shows you the text.

  • Preparing on unfamiliar software

    The test is practical. Knowing where a feature lives in the suite you will be sitting in front of is most of the fifteen minutes, and it is the part that is easiest to rehearse.

A four-week plan

  1. Week 1

    Find out what is actually set

    Read the avis de concours for your own session and the framework note if one is published. Write down the epreuves and their coefficients and let that decide how you spend the next month.

  2. Week 2

    Word processing under time

    Practise producing a formatted document to a brief in ten minutes: headings, a table, alignment, saving where you were told. Speed comes from knowing the software, not from the keyboard.

  3. Week 3

    Spreadsheets and the numerical table

    The higher-coefficient epreuve. Work through table construction and simple formulas until the mechanics are automatic, and time yourself against the hour it allows.

  4. Week 4

    Keep the keyboard out of the way

    Short daily French typing practice on AZERTY, with accents. Not to hit a number, but so that no part of the practical test is spent looking down at your hands.

  5. Week 5

    Full rehearsals of the practical

    Run the fifteen minutes end to end with a task you have not seen before, in the office suite you expect on the day, and note what you had to search for rather than knew.

Questions candidates ask

What typing speed is needed for the adjoint administratif concours?
None is published. The practical office test is defined as checking aptitude in word processing, spreadsheets and information technology in fifteen minutes, and no words-per-minute figure appears in the epreuve definition or the framework notes we read.
How long is the epreuve pratique de bureautique?
Fifteen minutes, with coefficient 1, in the admission phase. The written French paper and the numerical table run an hour and a half and an hour respectively, at coefficient 3 each.
Is the bureautique test important?
Less than most candidates assume. At coefficient 1 out of about eleven it is roughly a ninth of the marks, while the two written papers and the interview together are more than half. It is worth preparing, but not at the expense of those.
Do I need to type fast for a French concours?
Fluency helps because a short practical test leaves no time to hunt for keys, and because the numerical table rewards being quick with a keyboard. But there is no threshold to clear, and nobody measures your speed.
Should I practise on AZERTY or QWERTY?
AZERTY, if that is what you will sit in front of. Thirteen keys differ from a US keyboard including four letters, and French needs accents constantly, so practice on QWERTY builds movements you would have to unlearn.
Where do the typing speed figures on other sites come from?
We could not find a published source for any of them. The epreuve definitions and framework notes we read set no speed criterion, so treat a quoted figure as unsourced unless the site can point at the text it came from.
Is the state concours the same as the territorial one?
No. They are organised separately and their epreuves differ. This page describes the territorial concours, whose epreuve list and coefficients we read. For the state version, its own official notice is the authority.

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