On July 15, 2025, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine began a qualification evaluation for 8,432 candidates for the position of local court judge and for serving judges seeking transfer to another local court.
Today, 1,000 candidates are taking a test on the history of Ukrainian statehood, conducted for the first time as part of the selection procedure for local court judges announced by the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine on December 11, 2024. During the examination, approximately 80 employees of the Commission’s Secretariat will be involved at two locations.
Eligible Participants in the Qualification Examination
The examination will be taken by candidates who are citizens of Ukraine, have a higher legal education, are at least 30 years old, and have at least five years of professional experience in the field of law. They have also confirmed their proficiency in the state language at the C1 or C2 proficiency level.
In March–April 2025, candidates who intended to participate in the selection procedure and judges who expressed their intention to be transferred to another local court submitted the necessary documents to the High Qualification Commission of Judges. A total of 9,339 people submitted documents. Based on the results of the admission stage of the qualification examination, the Commission admitted 8,432 candidates, of whom 7,870 were individuals wishing to become judges and 562 were judges who intended to be transferred to another local court.
Next Steps for Candidates
The first stage of the qualification examination is a test of knowledge of the history of Ukrainian statehood. Candidates from all regions of Ukraine will take this stage from July 15 to 24, 2025. Four groups, averaging 1,000 people per day, will take the examination on computers at two venues.
Within 40 minutes, candidates must answer 40 examination questions, each of which has four answer options, only one of which is correct. They will find out their results immediately after completing the examination. The passing score for the first stage of the qualification examination is set considering that participants who have scored no less than 65 percent of the maximum possible score will be admitted to the second stage, with no more than 7,200 applicants for judicial positions and serving judges. Candidates who achieve the passing score will continue to participate in the competition and will be admitted to the next stage, i.e. testing of general legal knowledge and knowledge of the relevant court specialisation.
Assistance to candidates in preparing for the examination
As part of the preparation of candidates for the qualification examination, the Commission: at the end of January, approved the programme and taxonomic characteristics of anonymous examination questions; in mid-May, published on its official website a list of examination questions on the history of Ukrainian statehood with references to specific sources; and 10 days later, published a list of correct answers to the examination questions on the history of Ukrainian statehood.
Historical overview
This year, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine is conducting its fifth selection of candidates for local court judges since the Commission was established in 2010. Previous selections took place in 2011, twice in 2012, and most recently in 2017. Each of them played an important role in forming a new corps of judges, but the 2025 selection is the largest in the Commission’s history, with approximately 1,800 projected vacancies. This scale is due to the urgent need to renew and strengthen the judicial branch’s human resources, especially given the long-standing staff shortages in first-instance courts, which significantly affect citizens’ access to justice.
