IRA Externe, Interne, Troisième Concours: Which Track Fits You

The IRA concours has three separate entry tracks, externe, interne and troisieme concours, and each has its own eligibility rule, but all three lead to the identical grade of attache d’administration de l’Etat after training. Picking the right one is mostly a matter of what you have already done, not a matter of difficulty.

The concours externe

The externe track is open to candidates holding at least a licence (bac+3), or another title or diploma classified at niveau 6 of the Repertoire national des certifications professionnelles, or an equivalent qualification recognised under the opening notice. It is the natural route for someone coming straight from higher education with no prior public service. See what the IRA concours is for how the written and oral tests work for every track, since the test content itself does not change between them.

The concours interne

The interne track is reserved for candidates who already have at least four years of public service, either as a fonctionnaire or as a contractual (non-titulaire) agent, as set out in the opening notice. It exists to let people already inside the administration move up into cadre A without starting their career over, recognising time already spent in the system. The oral stage gives interne candidates a formal recognition of prior professional experience, reconnaissance des acquis de l’experience professionnelle, which does not apply to externe candidates.

The troisieme concours

The troisieme concours is for candidates with at least five years of professional activity in the private sector, or as an elected local official, or in a position of responsibility within an association. It is built on the idea that experience gained outside the public sector, whether in business, in elected office or in associative leadership, is itself relevant preparation for a generalist management role in government. Like the interne track, troisieme concours candidates also benefit from recognition of prior experience during the oral stage.

Do the written tests differ between tracks?

The structure of the epreuve ecrite d’admissibilite, the cas pratique, the sixty-question QCM on general knowledge, and the two short answer questions, is common across tracks, since the concours is designed to test the same core competencies regardless of entry point. What differs is the candidate pool and, informally, the kind of prior knowledge each group brings to a public-policy case study.

Does one track have better odds?

Odds depend on how many candidates register against how many places are opened for that track in a given session, which the yearly arrete sets and which changes from one year to the next. There is no structural reason to expect one track to be systematically easier than another; the honest comparison is places offered against candidates registered for that specific session, published alongside the opening notice on the central IRA portal.

Can I register for more than one track?

No. Each session’s opening notice sets which track you register under based on the eligibility conditions you meet at the reference date, and a candidate registers for one track per session, not several in parallel.

What happens after any of the three tracks?

All three lead to the same outcome on success: a place in one of the five Instituts Regionaux d’Administration, then a period as eleve-attache followed by attache-stagiaire before confirmation in the grade. The formation itself is described in from concours to post: what IRA training actually looks like, and the pay progression that follows is in attache d’administration salary. Passing also places you inside the broader category-A structure described in categories A, B and C in the French civil service.

Frequently asked questions

Is the troisieme concours easier because it does not require a degree? Not necessarily easier, differently gated. It replaces the degree requirement with a substantial experience requirement, and candidates still sit the same written and oral tests as everyone else.

Can a contractual agent register for the concours interne? Yes, the interne track explicitly includes contractual (non-titulaire) agents alongside tenured fonctionnaires, provided the four-year service condition is met.

Does prior experience get scored directly, or only discussed at interview? For interne and troisieme concours candidates, prior experience is formally recognised through the reconnaissance des acquis de l’experience professionnelle mechanism built into the oral stage, not simply mentioned informally.

Do all three tracks lead to the same starting grade? Yes, all three lead to the grade of attache d’administration de l’Etat once training is completed; the track chosen does not create a different starting grade.

Where do I check which track I am eligible for this year? In the opening notice (arrete) for that session’s concours, published on the central IRA registration portal and on Legifrance, since eligibility wording can be refined from one session to the next.