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Andhra Pradesh · Government Exams
APPSC Group 1 is the senior recruitment in Andhra Pradesh: Deputy Collector, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, Regional Transport Officer, Municipal Commissioner and the other state-cadre posts that run a district between them. It is built like the civil services examination and, unlike its Telangana counterpart, it still ends the way that examination does — with an interview that carries marks.
Three stages, and the first is discarded. A two-paper objective screening test shortlists; seven descriptive papers written by hand over a week build the merit list, two of them qualifying only; and a 75-mark personality test is added to the 750 mains marks for a total of 825. A candidate arriving from Telangana material — where the interview was abolished — is preparing for a different examination.
APPSC Group 1 · 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.
Next deadline
Brief Notification No. 07/2026 of 15 September 2026 — 163 provisional vacancies in Group-I Services, online applications tentatively 6 to 27…
Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission
A bachelor’s degree; Fire Officer prefers fire engineering, and uniformed posts carry physical standards
Objective screening test → seven descriptive mains papers → interview
Notification
Checked 18 September 2026. The commission issued Brief Notification No. 07/2026 for Group-I Services on 15 September 2026 — 163 provisional vacancies, with online applications tentatively from 6 to 27 October 2026 — as one of twenty brief notifications (07/2026 to 26/2026, 892 posts in all) released together under the state’s 2026 job calendar; the detailed notification with the scheme, eligibility and reckoning date is to be issued on or before the application window opens, and everything below on eligibility and the scheme is from the 2023 notification until it is. The previous Group 1 cycle is Notification No. 12/2023 of 8 December 2023. Its provisional selection of 87 candidates was published on 30 January 2026 and remains subject to pending writ petitions. No new Group 1 notification had been issued at the date checked, though the state’s 2026 job calendar names 15 September 2026 as the notification date for a Group 1 round of 149 posts.
| Stage | When |
|---|---|
| Notification issued | 8 December 2023, with the detailed notification on 27 December |
| Applications | 1 to 21 January 2024 |
| Addendum | 16 March 2024 — eight carried-forward vacancies added, including a new post code for Mandal Parishad Development Officer, taking the total from 81 to 89 |
| Screening test | 17 March 2024; qualified list published 12 April 2024 |
| Main examination | First announced for September 2024; held 3 to 9 May 2025, with the question paper displayed on tablets |
| Mains results | June 2025, with a revised result and a supplementary sports-quota result on 2 January 2026 |
| Interview | 23 June to 15 July 2025, and 7 January 2026 |
| Provisional selection | 30 January 2026 — 87 candidates against 89 vacancies |
The selection notification states that the list is subject to the outcome of three writ petitions pending before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. One Assistant Commissioner of State Tax vacancy is kept reserved under an interim order of 7 January 2026, one Deputy Superintendent of Police vacancy is kept vacant under an interim order of 6 January 2026, and one Mandal Parishad Development Officer selection is marked subject to a pending petition. The subject matter of the petitions is not stated in any commission document. A place on the provisional list is not an appointment.
The state’s job calendar for 2026, issued by government order on 22 August 2026, sets 15 September 2026 as the notification date for a second phase that includes 149 Group 1 posts — the calendar lists Deputy Superintendents of Police, Divisional Development Officers, Assistant Commissioners of State Tax, Assistant Audit Officers, Municipal Commissioners, Deputy Collectors, Deputy Registrars and others. The calendar was read from a copy rather than from the government orders portal, and a calendar date is not a notification: the age rule, the fee and the scheme for the new cycle will be set by the notification when it appears on the commission’s list.
APPSC recruitment notifications Group 1 Notification No. 12/2023 — landing page APPSC selection lists
Overview
Group 1 fills the posts the state recruits directly into its senior executive and uniformed cadres. The 2023 notification listed fourteen post codes — from nine Deputy Collectors and twenty-six Deputy Superintendents of Police down to a single Fire Officer and a single Excise Superintendent — and an addendum added a fifteenth for Mandal Parishad Development Officers. Each post code carries its own age band and, for the uniformed posts, its own physical standard.
The examination has three properties worth understanding before committing to it. It is slow — the 2023 cycle took twenty-six months from notification to provisional selection, and the mains was postponed by eight months along the way. It is written in the literal sense: seven papers of three hours each, five of them marked, at a desk with a pen. And it is decided across three different tests — an objective screening that must be survived, a descriptive mains that is most of the result, and a board interview that is enough of it to move a rank.
The screening test decides who writes the mains and nothing else — the notification states that selection is on the merit of the main written examination and the interview. Candidates routinely over-invest in objective practice and arrive at the mains having never written a timed answer. Prepare for the mains from the first month, and treat the screening as a filter to pass rather than a paper to top.
Eligibility
Group 1 does not have one eligibility rule — it has fifteen, one per post code. The degree requirement is nearly uniform; the age bands and the physical standards are not. Figures below are from Notification No. 12/2023, with age reckoned as on 1 July 2023 and including the one-off relaxation granted by government orders of October 2023.
| Requirement | What the notification set |
|---|---|
| Qualification | A bachelor’s degree of a recognised university for every post, held as on the notification date of 8 December 2023. The Fire Officer post asks for a degree in fire engineering, falling back to any degree if none are available; the District Social Welfare Officer post prefers sociology or social work. |
| Age — most posts | 18 to 42 years: Deputy Collector, Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, RTO, the welfare officer posts, Deputy Registrar, Municipal Commissioner, the accounts and audit posts, District Employment Officer and MPDO. |
| Age — uniformed posts | Deputy Superintendent of Police 21 to 30; Deputy Superintendent of Jails 18 to 30; Fire Officer 21 to 28; Assistant Excise Superintendent 18 to 28. |
| Age relaxation | SC, ST, BC and EWS candidates 5 years; persons with benchmark disability 10 years; ex-servicemen and NCC instructors 3 years plus service, not exceeding the post’s ceiling after deduction; state government employees up to 5 years by regular service; retrenched census employees 3 years. |
| Physical standards | DSP, Jails and Fire: height 167.6 cm and chest 86.3 cm with 5 cm expansion, relaxed to 164 cm and 83.8 cm for ST candidates; women DSP candidates 152.5 cm and 45.5 kg. Excise: 165 cm and chest 81 cm with 5 cm expansion. Vision standards apply to DSP and Fire. |
| Application processing fee | ₹250, payable by every applicant. |
| Examination fee | ₹120, from which SC, ST, BC, disabled and ex-servicemen candidates, white-card household families and unemployed youth on declaration were exempt. Candidates of other states get no exemption except for disability or ex-service status. |
Selection process
Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.
| Stage | Format | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Screening test | Objective, OMR — screening only | Two papers of 120 questions and 120 marks in 120 minutes: general studies in four parts, then general aptitude covering mental ability, science and technology and current events. One-third negative marking. Shortlists for the mains in a ratio the commission fixes, with relaxed standards permitted for reserved categories, and the marks are then discarded. |
| Main examination | Descriptive, written by hand | Seven papers of three hours each. Telugu and English are qualifying only. Papers I to V — general essay; history, culture and geography of India and Andhra Pradesh; polity, constitution, governance, law and ethics; economy and development of India and Andhra Pradesh; science, technology and environment — carry 150 marks each and build the merit list. |
| Interview | Personality test, 75 marks | Candidates are called in a ratio of two per vacancy on mains merit. The 75 marks are added to the 750 mains marks for a total of 825. In the 2023 cycle interviews ran from June to July 2025 with a further sitting in January 2026. |
| Verification, medical and selection | Documents, physical standards, provisional list | Certificate verification, physical and medical standards for the uniformed posts, and a provisional selection list by post code and zone. There is no waiting list. |
Exam pattern
| Stage or paper | Subject | Type | Duration | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screening — Paper I | General Studies: history and culture; constitution, polity, social justice and international relations; Indian and Andhra Pradesh economy and planning; geography — 30 marks each | Objective, 120 questions | 120 minutes | 120, not counted |
| Screening — Paper II | General Aptitude: mental ability, administrative and psychological abilities 60; science and technology 30; current events 30 | Objective, 120 questions | 120 minutes | 120, not counted |
| Mains — Telugu | Qualifying language paper | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150, not counted |
| Mains — English | Qualifying language paper | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150, not counted |
| Mains — Paper I | General Essay | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150 |
| Mains — Paper II | History, Culture and Geography of India and Andhra Pradesh | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150 |
| Mains — Paper III | Polity, Constitution, Governance, Law and Ethics | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150 |
| Mains — Paper IV | Economy and Development of India and Andhra Pradesh | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150 |
| Mains — Paper V | Science, Technology and Environmental Issues | Descriptive | 3 hours | 150 |
| Interview | Personality test | Oral | — | 75 |
The scheme table in the 2023 notification lists the interview at 75 marks and the total at 825, and the detailed notification provides for candidates to be called at a ratio of two per vacancy. Interviews were held in the 2023 cycle. This is the reverse of the position in Telangana, whose Group 1 scheme has no interview, and it is the single most consequential difference between the two commissions’ senior examinations. Confirm it in the notification for your own cycle before planning around either answer.
APPSC revises paper structure, marks, syllabus detail and eligibility between recruitment cycles, and has done so more than once in recent years. Everything here describes the shape the recruitment has held; the notification for the cycle you are sitting is the document that decides it. Read it end to end before you plan around any figure.
Study plan
In the 2023 cycle the screening was held three months after the notification, the mains fourteen months after that — eight months later than first announced — and the provisional selection twenty-six months from the start. Plan preparation as a long project and use the interval after the screening for mains writing practice, because that is the gap in which the result is actually decided.
Sources
Checked 11 September 2026. Vacancies, eligibility, fees, the scheme of examination, the negative-marking clause and the interview provision are taken from Notification No. 12/2023, its detailed notification and the addendum of March 2024; the chronology and the litigation caveat from the commission’s selection notification of January 2026. Unlike most APPSC recruitments, Group 1 has a real archive: the commission publishes the mains question papers, and the 2011, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023 cycles are all there. The screening papers are available as final keys in question-paper format.
APPSC recruitment notifications Notification No. 12/2023 with scheme and syllabus Detailed notification, 27 December 2023 Addendum, 16 March 2024 Provisional selection notification, 30 January 2026 APPSC old question papers archive — Group 1 mains papers APPSC final answer keys — screening papers
Exam resources
Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.
Questions
Yes. Under the 2023 scheme the interview — a personality test — carries 75 marks, added to the 750 marks of the five marked mains papers for a total of 825. Candidates are called at a ratio of two per vacancy on mains merit, and interviews were held in the 2023 cycle in June and July 2025 and January 2026. This is the reverse of the position in Telangana, whose Group 1 has no interview.
Yes — a brief one. On 15 September 2026 the commission published Brief Notification No. 07/2026 for Group-I Services with 163 provisional vacancies and a tentative online application window of 6 to 27 October 2026, as one of twenty brief notifications (892 posts) issued together under the state’s 2026 job calendar; the detailed notification with the scheme of examination, post-wise eligibility and the age reckoning date is to follow on psc.ap.gov.in on or before the window opens. Before it, the most recent notification was No. 12/2023, whose provisional selection was published in January 2026 — the commission’s own list is the only source that is.
Three stages. A screening test of two objective papers — general studies and general aptitude — of 120 questions and 120 marks each, with one-third negative marking, which shortlists and is then discarded. A descriptive mains of seven three-hour papers: Telugu and English qualifying only, then general essay, history-culture-geography, polity-governance-law-ethics, economy-development and science-technology-environment at 150 marks each. Then a 75-mark interview. Selection is on the 825 marks of the five papers and the interview.
In the screening test, yes — one-third of the marks for the question for each wrong answer, under G.O.Ms.No.235 of December 2016 quoted in the notification. The mains is descriptive and carries no such rule.
In the 2023 cycle, reckoned as on 1 July 2023: 18 to 42 for most posts, but 21 to 30 for Deputy Superintendent of Police, 18 to 30 for Deputy Superintendent of Jails, 21 to 28 for Fire Officer and 18 to 28 for Assistant Excise Superintendent. Relaxation of five years applies to SC, ST, BC and EWS candidates and ten to candidates with benchmark disability. The 2023 figures include a one-off relaxation; a new notification will set its own.
An application processing fee of ₹250, payable by everyone, and an examination fee of ₹120, from which SC, ST, BC, disabled and ex-servicemen candidates, white-card household families of Andhra Pradesh and unemployed youth on declaration were exempt.
Yes — Group 1 has the best archive of any APPSC recruitment. The old question papers page holds the mains papers for the 2011, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023 cycles, and the 2016 screening test. The 2023 screening papers are published on the keys page as final keys in question-paper format.
The 2023 cycle took twenty-six months: notification in December 2023, screening in March 2024, mains in May 2025 after an eight-month postponement, interviews from June 2025, and provisional selection in January 2026 — a list still subject to pending writ petitions. Plan preparation as a long project.
In the 2023 cycle, fifteen post codes: Deputy Collector, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Assistant Commissioner of State Tax, Deputy Superintendent of Jails, Fire Officer, Regional Transport Officer, the district welfare officer posts, Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Municipal Commissioner Grade-II, Assistant Excise Superintendent, the treasury and audit officer posts, District Employment Officer and — by addendum — Mandal Parishad Development Officer. The exact list and the vacancies in each are set by the notification.
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