Karnataka · Government Exams

Karnataka Departmental Examinations

Departmental examinations are the qualifying tests Karnataka government servants must pass under the Karnataka Civil Services (Service and Kannada Language Examinations) Rules of 1974 — for probation to be declared, for promotion, and for the career events their department’s schedule makes conditional on them. The commission conducts them in two sessions a year and publishes the results, with marks, on its website and in the gazette.

Three things distinguish the Karnataka series. It is closed: only serving government servants and the permanent employees of state corporations, boards, local bodies and universities may sit, and only for the subjects their own department’s schedule prescribes. The Kannada language examination that non-Kannada-medium employees must pass is a paper inside it, not a separate test. And its pass rule buys time — sixty per cent in one paper of a multi-paper examination exempts that paper for two years while the rest are passed at thirty-five.

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Karnataka Departmental Examinations · 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.

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19September 2026

Checked 19 September 2026

Karnataka Departmental Examinations: the facts that matter now

01
Karnataka Public Service Commission
Conducted by
02
Two a year — the first between January and June, the second between July and December, in principle; in practice the 2026 first session was…
Sessions
03
First session 2026, notified 18 February; examined 17 July to 8 August 2026; no second-session notification at 11 September
Latest
04
State government servants and permanent employees of state corporations, boards, local bodies and universities — not Group D, not the public
Who may sit

Notification

Karnataka Departmental Examinations notification and key dates

Checked 11 September 2026. The first session of 2026, notified on 18 February 2026, took applications to 21 March and was extended twice — to 23 March and then to 13 April — before being examined from 17 July to 8 August 2026, two months later than the schedule in the notification. No second-session notification for 2026 had been published at the date checked; the second session of 2024 was notified on 21 December 2024 and examined in May 2025, with its results published in February 2026.

Recent sessions, as the commission’s own documents record them. Every notification and result is in Kannada.
Session	Notified	Applications	Examined	Result
2026 — first	18 February 2026	21 February to 13 April 2026, after two extensions	17 July to 8 August 2026, in three stages	Not yet published
2024 — second	21 December 2024	To late January 2025, extended	May 2025	7 February 2026; IAS, IPS and IFS results separately on 30 December 2025
2024 — first	29 February 2024	As notified	June 2024	2 December 2024

The session names and the examination months have drifted apart

The commission describes the first session as falling between January and June and the second between July and December. In practice the 2026 first session was examined in July and August after its May dates were revised, and the 2024 second session was examined in May 2025. Plan by the dates in the notification and the revised timetable, not by the session’s name.

Check the commission directly

KPSC notifications KPSC results KPSC time-tables Seva Sindhu — application, payment and certificates

Overview

What Karnataka Departmental Examinations is, and who it suits

The tests exist because the 1974 rules make career events conditional on demonstrated knowledge of the rules an officer works under, and Schedule II of those rules names, department by department, which examinations each cadre must pass. A revenue officer must pass the Revenue examination at the lower or higher level; an accounts officer the Accounts examination and then the Subordinate Accounts Service papers; a police officer the Police Manual; a forest guard the two forest papers. The commission sets the papers and publishes the results; the department decides who must sit which.

The 2026 first-session notification lists 99 objective papers and 19 descriptive ones across some seventy subject codes. The objective papers may be held on OMR sheets or as computer-based tests at the commission’s discretion; the descriptive papers are written in question-cum-answer booklets, wholly in English or wholly in Kannada. Most run two hours, a dozen run three, and the second Kannada language paper runs one. The examinations are held in three stages across the state’s districts, the five divisional headquarters and Bengaluru.

The families of examination

Accounts and treasury — Accounts Lower and Higher, the Subordinate Accounts Service examination in three parts, Treasury Accounts in two parts, and the electricity audit and accounts papers — the largest family, and the one with the most descriptive papers.
Revenue and registration — Revenue Lower, Revenue Higher in two parts, Registration, Commercial Taxes at higher and lower level, Excise, and Municipal and Local Boards.
Departmental papers — the Police Manual, Prisons, Forest and the two forest-guard papers, Cooperation and Cooperative Audit, Sericulture, Marketing, Labour, Factories and Boilers, Mining, Ports, Insurance at three levels, Employment Exchange Procedure, Motor Vehicles, Fire Services, Home Guard Manual, Community Development, the social welfare and youth services manuals, and the Secretariat and KPSC manuals.
Law — General Law in two parts, the Indian Contract Act, Special Laws and Service Rules, the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal examination, and the consumer protection service examination.
Language — the Kannada language examination in two papers for state employees, a separate two-paper version for IAS, IPS and IFS officers, a viva-only version for listed cadres, and the Translation Test.

Apply only for the subjects your department’s schedule prescribes

The notification is explicit: candidates must apply only for the subjects mandated for their department in Schedule II of the 1974 rules, and not for another department’s subjects. Paying the fee confers no right to sit, and the commission’s decision on eligibility is final. Group D employees may not apply at all. The Subordinate Accounts Service examination has its own entry condition — three years’ service as a first division clerk or six as a second, and a pass in Accounts Higher — with a head-of-office certificate to upload.

Eligibility

Who can apply for Karnataka Departmental Examinations

Who may sit, from the 2026 first-session notification. Read from a Kannada-only document.
Candidates	Rule
State government servants	Eligible, for the subjects mandated for their department in Schedule II of the 1974 rules.
Permanent employees of state corporations, boards, local bodies, universities and authorities	Eligible on the same basis.
Group D employees	Not eligible to apply.
Members of the public	Not eligible — no paper is open to non-employees.
Subordinate Accounts Service examination	Only officials required to pass it under Schedule II, with three years’ service as a first division clerk or six as a second and a pass in Accounts Higher or its equivalent, with a head-of-office certificate.
IAS, IPS and IFS officers	Sit the Kannada language examination under its own code, and may sit at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi or the academy at Mussoorie.

Fees, fixed by a government order of August 2010 and applied per subject code. Payment through Seva Sindhu; nothing is refunded or carried to another session.
Charge	Amount	Subjects
Examination fee — lower band	₹50 per subject	Accounts Lower, the community development and employment exchange papers, the forest-guard papers, the manuals, Prisons, Excise, Police Manual, the Contract Act, the KPSC and Secretariat papers, the Translation Test, the electricity papers, the tribunal paper, the viva-only Kannada code and others
Examination fee — higher band	₹100 per subject	Accounts Higher, Commercial Taxes, Forest, Labour, PWD, Registration, Sericulture, Cooperation, General Law Part I, Municipal, Marketing, Revenue, Cooperative Audit, Insurance, the Kannada language papers, the SAS and Treasury papers and the IAS, IPS and IFS Kannada papers
Kannada exemption claims	₹100	A candidate claiming exemption from the Kannada examination must still apply for it and pay the fee.
Exemptions	None stated	The notification carries no fee concession by category.

The Kannada language examination and its exemptions

Two written papers and a viva — Paper 1 of 100 marks in two hours without books, Paper 2 in one hour, then a viva-voce for those who pass the written papers. State employees sit code 47; IAS, IPS and IFS officers code 72.
Exempt, on certificate — employees who passed SSLC or higher with Kannada as a first, second or optional language or answered in Kannada; holders of listed Kannada diploma and certificate courses including the Sahitya Parishath’s and the Central Institute of Indian Languages’; those who passed a Kannada test at recruitment; and allottees under Section 115 aged 45 or over.
Viva only, for listed cadres — home guards, blind employees and those not required to read and write, and the printing and stationery cadres, under code 73 — with a 40 per cent viva requirement for the printing cadres.
The syllabus is a school book — a sixth-standard reader and a short-story collection for state employees; a tenth-standard second-language reader for the all-India officers, which the commission publishes on its site.

Selection process

How Karnataka Departmental Examinations selection works

Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.

Stages change between cycles. Confirm the structure in the notification for the cycle you are sitting.
Stage	Format	What it involves
Notification and online application	Per session, through Seva Sindhu	The commission notifies each session, in Kannada, with an application window of about a month that has been extended more than once. Application and payment run through the Seva Sindhu portal after Aadhaar or DigiLocker registration, with a head-of-office certificate where the subject requires one.
The examination	Objective on OMR or computer; descriptive in booklets	Ninety-nine objective and nineteen descriptive papers in the 2026 first session, held in three stages — first at every district, then at the five divisional headquarters, then at Bengaluru alone — over about three weeks. Admission tickets are downloaded from the commission’s site.
Viva-voce, Kannada language examination	Oral, at Bengaluru and the divisional headquarters	Candidates who pass the written Kannada papers are called to a viva at Bengaluru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Mysuru or Shivamogga, with call letters issued only through Seva Sindhu. A viva-only version exists for home guards, blind employees and listed printing and stationery cadres.
Result	First class and pass class, with marks	Results are published on the commission’s website and in the gazette, with marks alongside — no separate marks statement is issued. Pass certificates are downloaded through Seva Sindhu and DigiLocker with a QR code for verification.

Exam pattern

Karnataka Departmental Examinations exam pattern and marking

How a paper is conducted, from the 2026 first-session notification and revised timetable.
Paper type	Mode	Duration	Answers
Objective — 99 papers	OMR or computer-based, at the commission’s discretion	2 hours; 3 hours for the PWD Higher Part I paper and the SAS and Treasury objective papers listed	Multiple choice
Descriptive — 19 papers	Question-cum-answer booklet	3 hours for most; 2 hours for the first Kannada paper; 1 hour for the second Kannada paper	Wholly in English or wholly in Kannada, except the Translation Test
Kannada viva-voce	Oral	—	At Bengaluru or a divisional headquarters

The pass rule is a paper-exemption rule

The commission quotes Rule 9(3) of its Conduct of Service Examinations Rules of 1965: where an examination has more than one paper and a candidate scores sixty per cent or more in any paper, that paper is deemed passed provided the candidate passes the remaining papers with the required thirty-five per cent within two years of the result. The exemption lapses after two years. Results are published as first class and pass class, and the first-class threshold is not stated in any document found. No general pass-mark rule outside the exemption context was found either — the thirty-five per cent figure is the one the notification uses.

The rules that catch people out

With books means government textbooks — for papers written with books, government-published textbooks may be used, and privately published books only where they do not depart from the government model. Guides from private publishers are prohibited. The Employment Service Manual is permitted for the employment exchange papers.
Without-books papers are marked on the timetable — the Kannada papers, the Translation Test, the SAS and Treasury descriptive papers, the Insurance descriptive papers and the PWD Higher Part I paper among them.
No revaluation — retotalling only, and only for the nineteen descriptive papers — ₹100 a subject, online, within thirty days of the result. Offline requests are not entertained.
No separate marks statement — marks are published with the result on the commission’s site. Certificates are downloaded through Seva Sindhu and DigiLocker; a duplicate needs an affidavit and ₹100 a subject.
Dates move — the 2026 first session was examined two months after the schedule in its notification, after two application extensions and a revised timetable.

No change of the criminal-law syllabus to the new codes was found in the 2026 notification, whose annexure of recent government orders lists only amendments to the tribunal, forest and fire services syllabuses. The General Law papers are set on the Acts the 1974 rules name; a candidate should check the syllabus annexure of the session they sit for any substitution.

Sources

Official notifications and sources

Checked 11 September 2026 against the commission’s notifications, corrigenda, timetables and results. Eligibility, fees, the subject codes, the pass rule, the with-books rule and the retotalling provisions are transcribed from the 2026 first-session notification, which is in Kannada only, and from the commission’s English description of the examination. The commission publishes previous papers for the Kannada language examination only; no other departmental paper was found on its site.

Official notifications, timetables and results

KPSC notifications 2026 first-session notification, 18 February 2026 — Kannada Corrigendum of 18 March 2026 — first extension Corrigendum of 7 April 2026 — second extension Revised timetable, 26 May 2026 Hall-ticket press note, 13 July 2026 2024 second-session notification 2024 second-session results, 7 February 2026 2024 first-session results, 2 December 2024 KPSC description of the departmental examinations — English Kannada language Paper 1 — previous paper Retotalling form

Exam resources

Everything for Karnataka Departmental Examinations

Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.

Karnataka Departmental Examinations SyllabusKPSC departmental examination syllabus — the accounts, revenue, departmental, law and Kannada language papers, as the 1974 rules and the annexures set them.Karnataka Departmental Examinations Exam PatternKPSC departmental examination pattern — objective and descriptive papers, their durations, the with-books rule, the 35% pass and 60% exemption rule.Karnataka Departmental Examinations Previous PapersKPSC departmental examination previous papers — the Kannada language papers the commission publishes, and how to practise the rest from the codes.Karnataka Departmental Examinations Mock TestsKPSC departmental examination mock tests — timed practice in the paper’s mode, with only government textbooks for the with-books papers.Karnataka Departmental Examinations PreparationKPSC departmental examination preparation — reading Schedule II for your cadre, applying through Seva Sindhu in the window, and using the exemption rule.Karnataka Departmental Examinations Study MaterialKPSC departmental examination study material — the government textbooks and codes each paper is set on, and the Kannada readers.

More Karnataka preparation

All Karnataka examsEvery exam in this category Previous-year papersPast papers with solutions Current affairsDaily, weekly and monthly Exam updatesNotifications and results

Questions

Karnataka Departmental Examinations — FAQs

When is the next KPSC departmental examination session?

The commission holds two sessions a year. The 2026 first session, notified on 18 February, was examined from 17 July to 8 August 2026. As at 11 September 2026 no second-session notification for 2026 had been published; the 2024 second session was notified on 21 December 2024. Session names and examination months have drifted — plan by the notification’s dates.

Who can sit KPSC departmental examinations?

Serving state government servants and permanent employees of state corporations, boards, local bodies, universities and authorities, for the subjects their department’s schedule under the 1974 rules prescribes. Group D employees may not apply, and no paper is open to the public. The Subordinate Accounts Service examination needs three years’ service as a first division clerk or six as a second and a pass in Accounts Higher.

What is the fee for KPSC departmental examinations?

₹50 or ₹100 per subject, depending on the subject code, under a 2010 government order — ₹100 for the accounts, revenue, commercial taxes, forest, PWD, Kannada and SAS papers among others, ₹50 for the manuals, the forest-guard papers, prisons, excise, the Contract Act and others. Paid through Seva Sindhu, not refunded, and with no exemption by category stated.

What are the pass marks for KPSC departmental examinations?

Thirty-five per cent in a paper, with a paper-exemption rule under Rule 9(3) of the 1965 conduct rules: a candidate scoring sixty per cent or more in any paper of a multi-paper examination is deemed to have passed it, provided the remaining papers are passed within two years of the result. Results are published as first class and pass class; the first-class threshold is not stated in any document found.

Is the Kannada language examination part of the KPSC departmental examinations?

Yes. State employees sit it under code 47 — two written papers and a viva-voce — and IAS, IPS and IFS officers under code 72. Employees who passed SSLC or higher with Kannada, hold a listed Kannada certificate, passed a Kannada test at recruitment, or are Section 115 allottees aged 45 or over are exempt on certificate, but must still apply and pay for the code. A viva-only version exists for home guards, blind employees and the printing cadres.

Are KPSC departmental examinations online?

The 99 objective papers may be held on OMR sheets or as computer-based tests at the commission’s discretion. The 19 descriptive papers are written in question-cum-answer booklets, wholly in English or wholly in Kannada. Most papers run two hours, a dozen three, and the second Kannada paper one.

Can I get revaluation or a marks statement for a KPSC departmental examination?

No revaluation. Retotalling is available for the descriptive papers only, at ₹100 a subject, online, within thirty days of the result. No separate marks statement is issued; marks are published with the result on the commission’s site, and certificates are downloaded through Seva Sindhu and DigiLocker.

Does KPSC publish previous departmental question papers?

Only the Kannada language papers — Paper 1 and the Paper 2 for all-India officers. No paper for the accounts, revenue, law or departmental subjects was found on the commission’s site.

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