Results from the Assistant Principal Officer 2026 online assessments started landing in publicjobs accounts on 26 August, and within hours the same questions were being asked over and over on boards.ie and Reddit. What is this AP 2026 Order of Merit number? Why do I have two of them? Is 283 good? Does this mean I have an interview?
Fair questions, because the results message tells you where you stand without telling you what happens next. Here is how the process works from this point, based on the 2026 candidate information booklet and how these competitions have run before. One thing before anything else: publicjobs decides how many candidates progress, when, and for which locations, and that varies with every competition. What follows is guidance, not a guarantee. The booklet and your own publicjobs messages are what govern.
What did you actually receive?
A score for each of the online tests you sat in July, and an Order of Merit position. Two points about the scores, because they cause a lot of the confusion.
First, the scores are standardised, not raw marks or percentages. That is why they look like odd numbers rather than anything out of a hundred, and why comparing your score to a friend's without knowing the scale tells you very little.
Second, each test carried a qualifying mark. A candidate who falls below the qualifying mark in any one test does not progress, however strong the other results. Some candidates on the forums have missed out by a single mark on a single test, which is hard to take after weeks of waiting, and I would not pretend otherwise.
If you have seen the coverage of the scoring error publicjobs acknowledged in April, when 12,656 candidates in the Clerical Officer 2026 competition were issued incorrect results and rankings and later corrected ones, note that it concerned scenario questions on that competition's application form, not the online tests used here. If your own numbers look wrong to you, the review procedures described further down exist for exactly that.
What does the Assistant Principal 2026 Order of Merit mean?
Your Order of Merit is your ranking among the candidates who completed and passed the tests, within your stream and your chosen location. It sets the order in which candidates will be considered at the next stage. That is all it does at this point.
It is worth being precise about what it is not. It is not your final position in the competition, and it is not a panel place. The panel that eventually fills AP vacancies is formed in order of merit based on performance at the final stage, the interview and practical exercise. Two candidates ranked 40 and 400 today could finish in the reverse order once interviews are marked. The tests decided who gets considered, and in what sequence; they do not decide who gets appointed.
If you are new to how the 2026 competitions are structured, including the difference between the open and interdepartmental streams, my earlier post on the Assistant Principal Officer 2026 competitions covers the full process from application to panel.
Why do I have two Order of Merit numbers?
Because you were in two competitions. Candidates who applied to both the open and interdepartmental streams sat the assessments once, and the scores carried across both. Each stream then ranks its own field of candidates for each location, so the same scores produce a different position in each. A rank of 66 in the open Cork list and 40 in the interdepartmental Cork list, to borrow an example from the forums, is one person, one set of scores, two separate fields of competitors.
The two streams draw on separate vacancy allocations, so being in both is an advantage: two routes to the same grade from one set of tests.
Does everyone on the Order of Merit get called forward?
No, and this is the part nobody can answer definitively, including me. There is no published cut-off. Candidates are taken from the top of the Order of Merit in batches, and how far down each list the process reaches depends on the vacancies that arise in each stream and each location over the lifetime of the competition.
You will see figures from previous competitions quoted on the forums, including claims about how far down the 2024 lists shortlisting reached. Treat those as what they are: recollections from individual candidates, not published data, and in any case a different competition with a different field and a different number of vacancies. The honest position is that a strong rank in a location with regular vacancies is promising, a strong rank in a location that rarely appoints is less so, and most appointments in recent AP competitions have been in Dublin. Beyond that, nobody outside publicjobs knows, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
What happens next: your application form does the work
The next stage is shortlisting. The assessment board examines the application forms of candidates taken from the Order of Merit against a selection of the Assistant Principal Capability Dimensions, not all four, and the standard of the written content is itself assessed. To progress, a candidate needs a minimum score of 3 under each dimension assessed, with one exception: a 2 under Leading and Empowering is allowed provided every other assessed dimension scores 3.
There is nothing you can do about this stage now. The form you submitted in June is the form the board will read. What you can do is recognise what shortlisting means for the stage after it: the examples on your form are about to become the basis on which you are questioned, because the interview board draws on the application form when constructing questions. Reread your own form now, properly. If you have not looked at it since June, you will be surprised how much of it you have forgotten.
If shortlisting goes your way, interviews are close
The booklet's provisional timeline puts the final stage from mid-September: a structured interview across the full Capability Framework, plus a practical exercise, in person at publicjobs in Dublin. That could mean two or three weeks between an invitation and the interview itself. Candidates who wait for the invitation to start preparing are giving away most of that window.
The preparation itself is not mysterious. Map your experience against all four Capability Dimensions, since the full framework is explored at interview even though shortlisting only assessed a selection. Build an example bank so every dimension has evidence behind it. Structure answers so the board can score them; my post on the STAR method covers how. Say I, not we, because the board is scoring what you did. And practise aloud, ideally with someone who probes the way a board does. My free interview preparation checklist puts all of this in order.
This is also the work I do with AP candidates. My interview and test preparation sessions are mock competency-based interviews against the AP framework, with the structured probing a real board uses and written feedback afterwards; you can read what a session involves before deciding whether it would help. If you would rather prepare on your own, everything linked above is free and it is the same method.
If it did not go your way
If you missed a qualifying mark, the review procedures in the booklet allow an informal review, requested within five working days of notification, with a formal review beyond that. Be clear-eyed about what a review can do: it examines whether the process was properly applied to you, it does not remark the tests. Check the exact procedure and deadlines in your booklet before deciding.
And then look forward, because the practice transfers. The Higher Executive Officer 2026 competition is open now and closes at 3pm on 10 September, and the test formats across civil service competitions are broadly similar, so the hours you put into preparing for these assessments are not wasted. Plenty of people who now hold senior grades did not get there on their first competition. If you want to talk through where your application or your testing came up short before the next one, email me at sarah@dedico.ie.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Order of Merit in the Assistant Principal 2026 competition?
Your ranking among the candidates who completed and passed the online assessments, within your stream and location choice. It sets the order in which candidates are considered at the next stage. It is not your final position; the panel is formed in order of merit based on the final stage, the interview and practical exercise.
Why do I have two different Order of Merit numbers?
Candidates in both the open and interdepartmental streams sat the assessments once and the scores carried across both. Each stream ranks its own candidates for each location, so one set of scores produces two different rankings.
Does everyone on the Order of Merit get called to interview?
No. There is no published cut-off. Candidates are considered in batches from the top of each list, and how far down the process reaches depends on the vacancies arising in each stream and location. The next step is shortlisting, based on your application form.
What happens after the online test results?
Shortlisting, where the assessment board examines application forms against a selection of the Capability Dimensions, with a minimum score of 3 required under each dimension assessed (a 2 is allowed under Leading and Empowering only, if everything else scores 3). Candidates who pass are invited to a structured interview and practical exercise, provisionally from mid-September 2026, in person in Dublin.
Can I ask for a review of my result?
The publicjobs review procedures allow an informal review within five working days of notification of a decision, and a formal review process beyond that. A review checks that the process was properly applied; it does not remark the tests. The exact procedure is in the candidate information booklet.
What does order of merit mean in publicjobs competitions?
In any publicjobs competition, the order of merit is a numbered ranking of candidates by score at a given stage. It decides the order in which candidates are brought forward, in batches, to the next stage, and after the final stage it decides the order in which people on the panel are offered vacancies. Being on an order of merit is not a job offer. publicjobs' own guidance is that panels typically run for 18 to 24 months and that placement on a panel is no guarantee of appointment.