Insurance · Government Exams

LIC AAO Exam Pattern

LIC AAO has no negative marking, individually timed sections, a qualifying English paper at both stages and an interview that counts one sixth of the final merit.

Take a Free LIC AAO Mock LIC AAO Syllabus

LIC AAO · checked 19 September 2026

The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.

Free LIC AAO mock test LIC AAO syllabus Today’s current affairs

19September 2026

Checked 19 September 2026

LIC AAO: the facts that matter now

01
Notification 16 August 2025; applications 16 August – 8 September 2025; prelims 3 and 7 October 2025; mains 8 November 2025; cut-offs and…
2025 cycle
02
Life Insurance Corporation of India, through an online test agency; the recruitment page is licindia.in → Careers
Conducted by
03
Assistant Administrative Officer (Generalist), and Specialist AAOs in Actuarial, CA, CS, Legal and Insurance Specialist streams, plus Assistant…
Posts
04
Online prelims (qualifying) → online mains, 300 objective marks plus a 25-mark descriptive English paper → interview of 60 marks → pre-recruitment…
Stages

Pattern

LIC AAO — How the paper is structured

The pattern below is the one in the 16 August 2025 notification, identical to 2023. LIC states the minimum qualifying marks per section in the notification itself, which most recruiters do not, and the 2025 cut-off sheet confirms those minimums were applied as printed.

LIC AAO exam pattern — the 2025 notification, unchanged since 2023.
Stage and section	Questions	Marks	Time	Minimum (others / reserved)
Prelims — Reasoning Ability	35	35	20 min	18 / 16
Prelims — Quantitative Aptitude	35	35	20 min	18 / 16
Prelims — English Language (qualifying)	30	30*	20 min	10 / 9
Mains — Reasoning Ability	30	90	40 min	45 / 40
Mains — General Knowledge and Current Affairs	30	60	20 min	30 / 27
Mains — Data Analysis and Interpretation	30	90	40 min	45 / 40
Mains — Insurance and Financial Market Awareness	30	60	20 min	30 / 27
Mains — English descriptive (e-mail, report, situation analysis, précis)	2	25*	30 min	10 / 9
Interview	—	60	—	30 / 27

How the marks work

There is no negative marking in either stage. Prelims marks are for shortlisting only; the English prelims paper and the descriptive paper are qualifying and not counted. Final merit is the 300 objective mains marks plus the 60 interview marks. Sections are individually timed, so an unfinished section cannot borrow minutes from another. Specialist mains replace the fourth section with a professional-knowledge paper of the stream.

Two features decide strategy. First, no negative marking: every question in both stages should carry an answer, and time saved by guessing hard questions should go to the questions that can be solved. Second, the section timers: the prelims allots 20 minutes to each of three sections and the mains 40, 20, 40 and 20 minutes to its four, so a candidate cannot compensate for a weak section by racing through a strong one. The descriptive paper is typed immediately after the objective mains and is evaluated only for candidates who clear the objective part; it must be passed but its marks are not added.

What counts where.
Stage	Counts towards	Note
Prelims (70 ranking marks)	Shortlisting only	English is qualifying; about 20 times the vacancies advance
Mains objective (300)	Interview shortlist and final merit	About three times the vacancies called for interview
Descriptive English (25)	Qualifying only	Evaluated only if the objective mains is cleared
Interview (60)	Final merit	Minimum 30, or 27 for SC, ST and PwBD