Gardien de la paix

Overview

Gardien de la paix is the first grade of the Police nationale's corps d'encadrement et d'application and the usual way into police work in France. It is recruited by concours organised by the Ministry of the Interior. This page is based on a guide from a private distance-learning school, because the official police recruitment site was not among the pages read. Confirm conditions and dates on the official police recruitment site before applying.

There are four routes:

• External concours: baccalauréat level.

• First internal concours: for civil servants and state agents, no diploma condition.

• Second internal concours: for cadets de la République, policiers adjoints and gendarmes adjoints volontaires, no diploma condition.

• Concours of the emplois réservés, for war victims, certain former soldiers and others in the categories the guide lists.

Who can apply

External concours: French nationality, aged at least 17 and under 45 on 1 January of the concours year, a baccalauréat or equivalent (level 4), a criminal record extract (bulletin no. 2) with no entries incompatible with police work, completion of the JDC (Journée Défense et Citoyenneté), and a medical finding of fitness by a police doctor. Exceptions to the age and diploma conditions exist; the guide refers candidates to the recruitment office of their SGAMI.

First internal concours: civil servants or agents of the state, local authorities or their public bodies, at most 45 on 1 January of the concours year, with at least 4 years of public service.

Second internal concours: cadets de la République with one year of seniority, and serving policiers adjoints and gendarmes adjoints volontaires with at least one year of effective service (the latter holding the gendarme adjoint diploma). Maximum age is 37 on 1 January of the concours year.

Posting choice: when registering you choose a national-posting concours or a regional one for Île-de-France. The tests are the same. Under the national choice you stay at least 5 years in your first posting, and under the Île-de-France choice at least 8 years there. A separate concours in overseas territories (Guyane, Mayotte, Nouvelle-Calédonie, Polynésie française) posts winners there.

Exam pattern

Each graded test is marked out of 20 and multiplied by its coefficient. Total coefficient is 16 for the external and the internal concours alike.

Psychotechnical tests (2 hours) are also taken but are not marked; the results go to the interview jury.

Elimination marks: below 5/20 in the case study, below 5/20 in the interview, and below 7/20 in either the obstacle course or the endurance test.

Case study: a workplace scenario answered using a document file of up to 15 pages.

Sports test: one mark out of 20, the average of two parts.

• Obstacle course (PHM): ten timed stations, including carrying a weighted bag (25 kg for women, 40 kg for men) over 20 m, push-ups (3 for women, 5 for men), hurdles, a beam, a horizontal ladder and slalom. Missed or incomplete stations carry penalties of 5 to 30 seconds.

• Cardio-respiratory endurance test (TECR): a 20 m shuttle run to sound signals that speed up each minute.

Interview: based on a CV (external), a RAEP file (first internal) or a professional file (second internal), and on the psychotechnical results.

Important dates

For the second session of 2026, the guide gives: registration from 4 May to 27 July 2026 (18:00), written tests on 22 September 2026 (23 September for Nouvelle-Calédonie and Wallis-et-Futuna), sports and oral tests from 12 October to 11 December 2026, and final results on 15 January 2027. The guide says these dates are provisional.

How to apply

Register online on the Police nationale's official recruitment site during the registration period, choosing the concours. You can fill in the file online, or download it and post it to the SGAMI before the deadline (postmark counts). Supporting documents are checked only after admission, so a candidate can be eliminated later if the information given is false.

Preparation tips

Practise case studies from a document file, revise current affairs and French institutions for the multiple-choice test, and train for the obstacle course and the shuttle run, since failing either under 7/20 eliminates you.