What Administrativo del Estado is
The Cuerpo General Administrativo de la Administracion del Estado, classified in subgrupo C1 of the Estatuto Basico del Empleado Publico, is the middle administrative grade of the Spanish central government. Administrativos take on qualified clerical, procedural and management support work above the auxiliar level: drafting resolutions, managing files, running procurement paperwork, coordinating citizen attention and supporting technical grades in every ministry of the Administracion General del Estado.
Access is by oposicion libre and by promocion interna. The libre stream is open to any citizen who meets the requirements, which is what this page documents. The process is conducted by the Comision Permanente de Seleccion under the Secretaria de Estado de Funcion Publica, with the Instituto Nacional de Administracion Publica (INAP) publishing guides and past exams.
The convocatoria, bases and plazas cycle
Spanish public employment follows a yearly Oferta de Empleo Publico (OPE), approved by Real Decreto and published in the Boletin Oficial del Estado. The OPE fixes how many plazas each cuerpo will offer that year. Each cuerpo is then convoked separately: a BOE resolution publishes the bases, meaning the exact plazas, requirements, exam structure, temario, calendar and tasa de derechos de examen. Applying to an opposition means reading the bases in the BOE, paying the tasa through Modelo 790, and submitting electronically through the Punto de Acceso General.
For the 2025 cycle, the convocatoria for the Cuerpo General Administrativo was published together with several other central government processes in BOE-A-2025-26262 on 22 December 2025, offering 2,512 plazas by ingreso libre including reserved plazas for persons with disability, in addition to plazas by promocion interna.
The three phases
A Spanish oposicion is structurally three phases. First the oposicion, one or more written exercises that decide who passes. Second the concurso, a valuation of merits such as public service and languages, added to the oposicion score. Third, for several cuerpos, a curso selectivo delivered by INAP that a candidate must pass before being appointed funcionario de carrera.
For Administrativo del Estado the oposicion is a single 100 minute ejercicio in two eliminatory parts. The first part contains 70 questions, 40 on the temario teorico and 30 on ofimatica covering Windows 11 and the Microsoft 365 office suite. The second part is a supuesto practico chosen from two options, split into 20 questions and reflecting real administrative work an Administrativo would face. A fase de concurso then valuates prior service before the final list is published.
The temario
The C1 temario is more technical than the C2 and covers three blocks. The first, on the organisation of the state, runs the Constitucion Espanola, the state powers, the European Union and the Administracion General del Estado. The second, on the legal activity of the administration, runs common administrative procedure (Ley 39/2015), the legal regime of the public sector (Ley 40/2015), contracts, subsidies, transparency and data protection. The third, on ofimatica and citizen attention, covers electronic administration, digital signatures, and use of Windows 11 and the Microsoft 365 suite. The exact temario for each cycle is annexed to the convocatoria in the BOE and cited from there in this page.
Preparation and calendar
Candidates typically prepare through a private academia (ADAMS, CEF, MAD and similar) or a preparador particular over 12 to 24 months. The step up from C2 to C1 is real: the supuesto practico penalises rote memorisation, and the ofimatica part demands hands on familiarity with the current office suite, not just theory. INAP publishes past exams and provisional answer keys once each ejercicio is held, along with definitive lists of approved candidates. The official links block above points to those sources.