The four essay questions, and what the rules actually say

If you have applied for a federal job recently, you will have met four questions that did not used to be there. They appear after the résumé, they each allow 200 words, and they ask about the Constitution, government efficiency, the President’s policy priorities and your work ethic.

They have caused a great deal of confusion, and a fair amount of anxiety. Much of what is written about them online is wrong in ways that could cost you a job — either by frightening people away from applying, or by encouraging them to break a rule they did not know existed.

This guide sets out what the Office of Personnel Management’s own documents say: the exact wording of all four questions, whether you have to answer them, whether they are marked, and the one rule that carries a real penalty.

Where the questions come from

The questions were introduced by the Merit Hiring Plan, an OPM policy set out in a memorandum dated 29 May 2025. The Plan states that all federal job vacancy announcements graded at GS-05 or above will include four short, free-response essay questions.

Some announcements are excepted — teaching posts, wage grade positions and seasonal work — and agencies may except others. Below GS-05 you should not expect to see them at all.

The four questions, in full

These are quoted exactly as they appear in the Merit Hiring Plan. Note that the fourth question is usually reported with only its first sentence; the full version asks for examples too.

Are they marked? No.

This is the part most commentary gets wrong, and it matters more than anything else in this guide. OPM’s own frequently asked questions state plainly that answers to these questions are not scored or rated, and that agencies should treat responses in the same way they would treat the submission of a cover letter.

The same document says that if an applicant does not answer the questions along with their application, they are not disqualified or screened out. OPM’s applicant-facing wording puts it this way: while your responses are not mandatory and will not be scored, you are encouraged to address each question thoughtfully.

OPM also states that the questions must not be used to impose an ideological litmus test on candidates. Responses are seen by the hiring manager and agency leadership, or a designee, as part of the application packet.

So should you answer them? On balance, yes. An unscored document that the hiring manager reads is still a document the hiring manager reads, and a thoughtful answer is a chance to sound like a person rather than a list of duties. But you should answer them knowing they are not a test you can fail.

The rule that does carry a penalty

There is one hard rule, and it is the one to take seriously. The Merit Hiring Plan states that applicants will be required to certify that they are using their own words, and did not use a consultant or AI, such as a large language model. OPM’s applicant-facing wording names products directly, referring to tools like ChatGPT or Copilot.

This is a certification. You are attesting to something, and a false certification on a federal application is a different order of problem from a weak answer. Whatever your view of the rule, it is not one to treat casually — and it applies to a paid résumé writer just as much as it applies to a chatbot.

The word limit is part of the same sentence in the Plan: responses cannot exceed 200 words per question, expressly to reduce the burden on candidates. Two hundred words is short. It is about four tight paragraphs, and it rewards a single concrete example over a broad statement of belief.

How to write an answer that reads well

Because the questions are not scored, there is no marking scheme to satisfy. What you are doing is giving a hiring manager a reason to remember you. A few things help.

• Answer with one story, not a survey. At 200 words, a single specific example beats three vague ones every time.
• Use the announcement’s own language where it fits honestly. If the posting emphasises a skill you used in your example, name that skill.
• Be concrete about what you did and what changed. "I rewrote the intake form and cut processing time by a third" is worth more than a paragraph about valuing efficiency.
• Write in your own voice, plainly. You have certified these are your words; they should sound like them.
• Do not restate your résumé. The hiring manager has already read it.

Question three is the one people find hardest, because it asks you to name Executive Orders or policy initiatives. Take it at face value: it asks you to identify one or two that are significant to you and to explain how you would help implement them. Choose something genuinely relevant to the work of the role and the agency, and explain the connection to the job you are applying for. A specific, practical answer about the work is more credible than a general statement of enthusiasm.

Common mistakes

• Treating them as a scored exam and agonising for days. They are not scored.
• Skipping them on the assumption they are compulsory ideology tests. OPM says they must not be used that way, and skipping them is not a disqualification.
• Going over 200 words. The limit is stated in the Plan.
• Using a chatbot or a paid writer to draft them, then certifying you did not.
• Writing four answers that could belong to any job. The hiring manager is reading them against one specific role.

Where this sits in the wider process

The essays arrived alongside the two-page résumé cap and a push towards assessing demonstrated skills rather than self-rated questionnaires. Read together, the direction is clear: less written material, assessed more directly. Your résumé is doing the heavy lifting on eligibility, an assessment may test the skills, and the essays are the part where a human forms an impression.

Spend your effort accordingly. A tight two-page résumé that proves you meet the specialised experience is worth more than four beautifully written essays attached to a résumé that gets screened out.

How hiring managers actually use them

Because the answers are not scored, they do not sit with the human resources specialist who rates your application. They travel with the packet to the hiring manager and agency leadership, which changes what they are for. A rated questionnaire is a filter. An unrated cover letter is an impression.

That is worth understanding, because it tells you who you are writing for. The person reading your essays is likely to be the person who would manage you. They are reading to work out whether you understand the job, whether you would be straightforward to work with, and whether your example sounds like something that actually happened. They are not reading to score you against a rubric.

It also explains why a generic answer is such poor value. A specialist rating a questionnaire has to be consistent across hundreds of applications. A hiring manager reading twenty sets of essays is forming a human impression, and a specific story about a real problem is far more memorable than a paragraph of principle.

A structure that fits in 200 words

Two hundred words does not leave room for an introduction and a conclusion. The answers that work tend to do four things quickly and then stop.

• One sentence that answers the question directly, so the reader knows where you are going.
• Two or three sentences of specific example: the situation, what you did, and what changed as a result.
• One sentence connecting that example to the job you are applying for.
• Stop. An answer that uses 150 words well reads better than one padded out to exactly 200.

Write the first draft without counting, then cut. Almost every first attempt runs to 350 words, and the cut is where the answer gets good — the same editing discipline the two-page résumé demands.

Last reviewed Sep 1, 2026. First published Sep 1, 2026. Federal hiring rules change — confirm anything you act on against the agency's own announcement or OPM guidance.