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Andhra Pradesh · Government Exams
APPSC Group 4 fills the junior ministerial posts of the state — Junior Assistant, Junior Assistant cum Computer Assistant, Typist and Junior Stenographer — across departments, district collectorates and directorates. It is a graduate-level recruitment despite the entry-level nature of the posts, and its second paper is set at school standard in English and Telugu precisely because the job is about handling correspondence in both.
Two things about the Andhra Pradesh version are easy to get wrong from material written for other states. It penalises a wrong answer by a third of a mark, under a government order that applies to every APPSC objective paper. And it has not run as one large multi-department recruitment since 2021: the recent notifications have been for a single department, sometimes a single post, each with its own local-cadre rule.
APPSC Group 4 · 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.
Checked 19 September 2026
No open notification as at 11 September 2026; the last was a single-post notification of September 2025
Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission
A bachelor’s degree for every post code; typist and stenographer posts also need government technical certificates
Two objective papers of 150 marks — general studies and mental ability, then general English and general Telugu
Notification
Checked 11 September 2026. The most recent Group 4 notification is No. 22/2025 of 24 September 2025 — a single carried-forward Junior Office Assistant post in the Prisons Department, for which the written examination was held in January 2026 and the ranking list published in May 2026. No Group 4 notification was open at the date checked, and the state’s 2026 job calendar lists no Group 4, Junior Assistant or Typist posts in any of its four phases.
| Notification | Posts | Vacancies | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22/2025, 24 September 2025 | Junior Office Assistant, Prisons and Correctional Services | 1, Guntur district local, reserved for a woman with blindness or low vision | Written examination 27 and 30 January 2026; final key and ranking list 7 May 2026; forwarded to the District Selection Committee |
| 06/2022, 26 September 2022 | Junior Assistant, Junior Assistant cum Typist, Typist and Stenographer posts across six departments | 6 | Computer-based test 3 and 4 October 2023; selection notification 5 February 2024 |
| 23/2021, 28 December 2021 | Junior Assistant cum Computer Assistant, Revenue Department | 670 | Screening test, then main examination; results notified 12 October 2022 |
The 2026 job calendar issued by government order on 22 August 2026 sets out 10,060 posts in four phases — Group 1 and police posts in September, Group 2, engineering and excise posts in October, and teacher posts after that. Group 4 is not among them. Vacancy counts circulating for a "Group 4 2026 notification" are not from the commission or the calendar.
Overview
Group 4 is the commission’s route into the ministerial service — the posts that process files, maintain registers, take dictation and type the correspondence that runs a government office. The recruitment reflects the job: a general studies paper at degree standard, a language paper at school standard because clean English and Telugu are the daily work, and a practical test of office software before appointment.
What has changed since the bifurcation is the cadence. The commission notified 670 Junior Assistant cum Computer Assistant posts for the Revenue Department in December 2021, then six scattered posts in 2022 and one in 2025. A candidate preparing for "Group 4" is preparing for a paper that recurs, attached to a vacancy count that does not. The scheme, marking and fee have held across those cycles; the posts, cadres and local rules have been different each time.
Recent Group 4 notifications have been for district posts open only to candidates local to that district — the 2025 notification was for one post, in one erstwhile district, reserved for a woman with a visual disability. A candidate who reads the scheme and the syllabus but not the cadre clause can prepare for months for a post they were never eligible for. The vacancy table and the local-status rule are the first two things to read in any notification.
Eligibility
| Requirement | What the notifications set |
|---|---|
| Qualification | A bachelor’s degree of a university in India established under a Central, State or Provincial Act, or an institution recognised by the UGC. Every Group 4 post code in every recent cycle has required a degree — Paper II is at SSC standard, but eligibility is not. |
| Typist posts | A pass in the Government Technical Examination in Typewriting, Higher Grade in Telugu on a government standard keyboard, with Lower Grade accepted if Higher Grade candidates are unavailable and English Lower Grade giving preference. A certificate to hold at application, not a test the commission conducts. |
| Stenographer posts | Government Technical Examination certificates in both Typewriting and Shorthand, Higher Grade in the relevant language, with the same Lower Grade fallback. |
| Age | 18 to 42 years — reckoned as on 1 July 2025 in the latest cycle. |
| 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; state government employees up to 5 years by regular service; widowed, divorced or judicially separated women not remarried, up to 48 for SC and ST and 43 for others in Junior Assistant posts. |
| Application processing fee | ₹250, payable by every applicant. |
| Examination fee | ₹80, from which SC, ST, BC, disabled and ex-servicemen candidates, white-card household families of Andhra Pradesh and unemployed youth on declaration are exempt. Candidates of other states get no exemption other than for disability or ex-service status. |
Two smaller charges recur in every notification and are worth knowing before they arise: a correction to a submitted application costs ₹100, and an objection to the preliminary answer key costs ₹100 per question. A memorandum of marks after the result is ₹200.
Selection process
Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.
| Stage | Format | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Screening test, when notified | Objective, offline OMR — only in large cycles | Added when applicants exceed two hundred times the vacancies. In 2021 it was 150 questions across general studies and the two languages, used to shortlist for the main examination and then discarded. |
| Written examination | Objective, two papers | Paper I general studies and mental ability at degree standard; Paper II general English and general Telugu at SSC standard. Both count, and the total across them builds the ranking list. |
| Shortlisting and certificate verification | Documents | The ranking list goes to the District Collector as the unit of appointment. Candidates are shortlisted on written marks and produce originals for verification of qualification, age, category and local status. |
| Computer proficiency test | Practical, qualifying | A timed test of office automation — multiple-choice questions and practical tasks in word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, including a typing-speed component. Qualifying marks apply by category; no candidate is appointed without passing it. |
| Selection and appointment | District Selection Committee | Selection on written merit among candidates who have qualified the proficiency test, within the reservation and local-cadre rules of the notification. |
Exam pattern
| Paper | Subject | Standard | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper I | General Studies and Mental Ability | Degree | 150 | 150 | 150 minutes |
| Paper II | General English (75 marks) and General Telugu (75 marks) | SSC | 150 | 150 | 150 minutes |
Every recent Group 4 notification carries the same clause: as per G.O.Ms.No.235 of the Finance Department dated 6 December 2016, each wrong answer will be penalised with one-third of the marks prescribed for the question. On a one-mark question that is 0.33 lost per wrong answer, which turns a blind guess across the paper from free into expensive. It applies to the screening test where one is held as well as to the main examination.
| Component | Weight | What is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Part A | 20% | Multiple-choice questions on office automation and computer fundamentals |
| Part B — word processing | 25% | Producing a model document, with typing speed evaluated and liable to be made mandatory for qualifying |
| Part B — objects and formatting | 15% | Organising and inserting objects into a document |
| Part B — spreadsheets | 20% | A worked exercise in spreadsheet software |
| Part B — presentations | 20% | A worked exercise in presentation software |
The 2025 test ran for 60 minutes and 100 marks, with qualifying marks of 40 for OC, 35 for BC and 30 for SC, ST and disabled candidates. The 2021 and 2022 cycles used a shorter version — 30 minutes and 50 marks, qualifying at 20, 17.5 and 15. There is no separate typing test: the typing-speed component sits inside this test, and the typewriting certificates required for typist and stenographer posts are qualifications to hold before applying.
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
Sources
Checked 11 September 2026. Eligibility, fees, the scheme of examination, the negative-marking clause and the proficiency test are taken from Notification No. 22/2025 and the two preceding Group 4 notifications, whose provisions on those points are identical. The commission publishes no Group 4 question papers: its official archive holds Group 1 mains papers, a 2016 Group 2 screening paper and assorted technical papers, but none for this examination. Final answer keys for recent cycles are published separately.
APPSC recruitment notifications APPSC scheme and syllabus documents APPSC results APPSC final answer keys APPSC old question papers archive Notification No. 22/2025 — Junior Office Assistant, Prisons Notification No. 06/2022 — Group 4 limited recruitment Notification No. 23/2021 — Junior Assistant cum Computer Assistant, Revenue
Exam resources
Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.
Questions
No. As at 11 September 2026 no Group 4 notification was open. The most recent, No. 22/2025 of September 2025, was for a single Junior Office Assistant post in the Prisons Department and has reached the selection stage. The state’s 2026 job calendar lists no Group 4, Junior Assistant or Typist posts in any phase.
Two objective papers of 150 questions, 150 marks and 150 minutes each — Paper I general studies and mental ability at degree standard, and Paper II general English and general Telugu at SSC standard, 75 marks each — for a total of 300. Each wrong answer is penalised by one-third of a mark. In very large cycles a screening test precedes the written examination and its marks are discarded. A computer proficiency test follows, which is qualifying.
Yes. Under G.O.Ms.No.235 of December 2016, quoted in every recent notification, each wrong answer is penalised with one-third of the marks prescribed for the question. It applies to the screening test where one is held and to the main written examination.
Yes. Every Group 4 post code in the 2021, 2022 and 2025 notifications required a bachelor’s degree of a recognised university. Paper II is set at SSC standard, but eligibility is not. Typist and stenographer posts additionally require Government Technical Examination certificates in typewriting, and for stenographers also shorthand, held at the time of application.
Not as a separate stage. What follows the written examination is a computer proficiency test — a practical, timed test of office software that includes a typing-speed component and may make it mandatory for qualifying. It is pass or fail by category and its marks do not add to the rank. For typist and stenographer posts, typewriting and shorthand certificates are qualifications to hold before applying, not tests the commission conducts.
In the 2025 notification, a 60-minute practical test for 100 marks on proficiency in office automation: multiple-choice questions for 20 per cent, and practical tasks — a formatted document with typing speed evaluated, inserting and arranging objects, a spreadsheet exercise and a presentation — for the rest. Qualifying marks are 40 for OC, 35 for BC and 30 for SC, ST and disabled candidates. Earlier cycles used a 30-minute, 50-mark version.
An application processing fee of ₹250, payable by everyone, and an examination fee of ₹80. SC, ST, BC, disabled and ex-servicemen candidates, white-card household families of Andhra Pradesh and unemployed youth on declaration are exempt from the ₹80 examination fee only. Corrections cost ₹100 each and key objections ₹100 per question.
18 to 42 years, reckoned as on 1 July of the notification year — 1 July 2025 in the latest cycle. Relaxation of five years applies to SC, ST, BC and EWS candidates and ten years to candidates with benchmark disability, with further provisions for ex-servicemen, state employees and widowed or separated women.
No. The commission’s official archive holds Group 1 mains papers, a 2016 Group 2 screening paper, a 2016 Panchayat Secretary screening paper and various technical papers, but no Group 4 paper of any year. It publishes the final answer key after each examination. The nearest official practice material for Paper I is the 2016 Group 2 and Panchayat Secretary screening papers, which are general studies at degree standard by the same commission.
Because since the bifurcation the commission has notified Group 4 posts department by department as vacancies are reported, rather than as one combined recruitment. The 2021 notification was 670 Revenue posts; 2022 was six posts across six departments; 2025 was one post. The scheme, fee and marking have been the same throughout — the vacancy count is whatever the next notification says.
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