Overview
The Polícia Federal (PF) fills its police posts through a national public contest run with the exam board Cebraspe. This page covers the 2025 opening notice (Edital nº 1), which offered 1,000 places across five careers: Delegado de Polícia Federal (120), Perito Criminal Federal (69), Escrivão de Polícia Federal (160), Agente de Polícia Federal (630) and Papiloscopista Policial Federal (21).
Each career has different duties and a different exam. This page gives most detail for the three roles that share one exam (Escrivão, Agente and Papiloscopista), then summarises Delegado and Perito.
Who can apply
Basic requirements for taking office, as listed in the notice:
Brazilian nationality (or Portuguese, with the equality-of-rights status);
full political rights, and up to date with electoral and (for men) military duties;
civil identity card and a driving licence, category B at least;
at least 18 years old on the date of enrolment in the training course;
physical and mental fitness for the work.
Education: Escrivão, Agente and Papiloscopista need a registered degree in any field from a Ministry of Education recognised institution. Delegado needs a bachelor's degree in Law and three years of legal or police activity, shown at the time of taking office. The Perito Criminal roles ask for degrees in specific fields depending on the area.
Selection process
The first stage, run by Cebraspe, leads to enrolment in the Curso de Formação Profissional. It runs through the objective exam, a written essay or discursive exam, a physical fitness test, a medical evaluation, the first part of the psychological evaluation, and a social investigation, which is run by the PF. Delegado also has an oral exam and a title evaluation; Perito has a title evaluation.
The second stage is the Curso de Formação Profissional at the Academia Nacional de Polícia in the Federal District. It is eliminatory, and a second part of the psychological evaluation takes place during it.
Exam pattern
Escrivão, Agente and Papiloscopista
| Part | Content | Items | Nature |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 objective | Basic knowledge, Block I | 60 | Eliminatory and classificatory |
| P1 objective | Basic knowledge, Block II | 36 | Eliminatory and classificatory |
| P1 objective | Specific knowledge, Block III | 24 | Eliminatory and classificatory |
| P2 discursive | One essay of up to 30 lines | 1 | Eliminatory and classificatory |
The objective and discursive papers are sat together, in the afternoon, within 4 hours 30 minutes.
Delegado: P1 objective of 120 items on specific knowledge (3 hours 30 minutes, morning); P2 discursive of three written questions of up to 30 lines each plus one professional document of up to 90 lines (5 hours, afternoon); then physical test, medical evaluation, oral exam, title evaluation and social investigation.
Perito Criminal Federal: P1 with 50 basic items and 70 specific items, and a discursive essay of up to 30 lines on topics from the candidate's area. Same 4 hours 30 minutes.
Syllabus
For Agente, Escrivão and Papiloscopista, Block I covers Portuguese, administrative and constitutional law, criminal law and criminal procedure, human rights, special legislation and statistics. Block II covers computing. Block III is the specific block and depends on the career (for example accounting or archive science). The full syllabus per career is in the annexes to the notice.
Marking and results
The objective test is worth 120 points in total. For Escrivão, Agente and Papiloscopista a candidate is eliminated with fewer than 6 points in Block I, fewer than 3 in Block II, fewer than 2 in Block III, or fewer than 48 points overall. For Perito, the floors are 10 points in basic items, 21 in specific items and 48 overall; for Delegado, 48 overall. Only the best-ranked candidates, up to the numbers in the notice, have their discursive paper marked.
The discursive essay for Escrivão, Agente and Papiloscopista is worth 20 points and a candidate needs at least 10 to pass. For Delegado, the discursive paper is worth 24 points and 12 is the pass mark.
Important dates
For the 2025 contest, with the dates the notice gave as probable:
Fee exemption requests: 26 May to 2 June 2025.
Registration: 26 May to 13 June 2025.
Last day to pay the fee: 20 June 2025.
Objective and discursive exam: 27 July 2025.
Fees
For 2025 the fee was R 180.00 for Escrivão, Agente and Papiloscopista. Total exemption was available only to those the notice names, such as people in the CadÚnico.
How to apply
Register online on the Cebraspe site for the contest during the registration window, upload the photo, and pay the fee by the federal payment slip (GRU). Candidates who need special conditions for the exam or want to compete in reserved places must request and document them within the registration period.
After the exam
Candidates who pass the written stage go to the fitness test, medical evaluation, psychological evaluation and social investigation. The notice says candidates must also take a toxicology test during the medical evaluation, and that refusing an anti-drug test eliminates them. Those who pass enrol in the training course. Starting pay in the 2025 notice was R 26,800.00 for Delegado and Perito, on a 40-hour week.
Preparation tips
Study from the syllabus annex for your own career, because the specific block differs.
The per-block minimums mean you cannot neglect any one block even if your total is high.
Practise the 30-line essay under time, as it is a separate pass requirement.
Start fitness training early for the physical test.
Does the objective test have negative marking?
Yes. Each item is a true-or-false judgement (Certo or Errado). A correct answer scores +1, a wrong answer scores -1, and a blank or double marking scores 0, so a wrong guess cancels a right one.
Is a degree in law required for Agente or Escrivão?
No. These roles accept a degree in any field from a recognised institution.