In Brazil, public examinations are the most commonly used form of hiring public servants, including teachers, bureaucrats, diplomats, prosecutors, judges, etc. The Constitution of Brazil of 1988 demands that public servants be hired by public examinations.

The large majority of examinations are composed of multiple choice

Multiple choice

Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections-- when a person chooses between multiple...

 tests, but other types in conjunction with those are common, such as writing tests and oral tests.

All trial court

Trial court

A trial court or court of first instance is a court in which trials take place. Such courts are said to have original jurisdiction.- In the United States :...

 judges, both in the state and federal level, are hired by public examination. Judges of the Justice Courts and of the Regional Federal Courts

Regional Federal Courts

The Regional Federal Courts are Brazilian appellate courts of the Brazil federal court system. There currently are five of these courts, geographically defined. They are commonly called TRFs....

, which are state and federal appellate courts, are chosen among trial court judges, with a reservation of 10% of the seats for lawyers and 10% for prosecutors.

All trial court prosecutors are also chosen by public contest, and prosecutors that work in cases of the appellate courts are chosen among trial court prosecutors.

Only 6.3% of school principals in Brazilian public schools are hired by public contest, 43% of them are elected, and 45% of them are nominated by politicians. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/cotidian/ff1010200701.htm