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Telangana · Government Exams
Departmental tests are not a recruitment. They are qualifying examinations that serving government employees in Telangana must pass for probation to be declared, for promotion, and for the increments and appointments their service rules make conditional on them. TGPSC conducts them in sessions and publishes the results as passes rather than as a merit list.
Because nobody is competing against anybody, the whole difficulty is different from a recruitment exam. There is no cutoff moving with the field and no advantage to answering faster than the next candidate. There is a standard, set in the rules, and the only question is whether you meet it.
Telangana Departmental Tests · 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
Pass or fail against a prescribed standard — not a merit list
Telangana Government Public Service Commission, formerly TSPSC
Serving state government employees, as their service rules require
Declaration of probation, promotion, and increments conditional on passing
Notification
| Departmental Tests | Half Yearly Examinations | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sits them | Serving Telangana government employees, for the tests their own service rules prescribe. | All-India Service and State Service officers — probationary Deputy Collectors, DSPs, Assistant Commandants and equivalents. |
| Sessions a year | Two — May and November. | Two — the March and September terms. |
| Latest notified | No. 02/2026 dated 26 February 2026, for the May 2026 session. Results and response sheets are published. | No. 03/2026 dated 27 July 2026, for the September 2026 term. |
| Where it is held | Centres within the HMDA area — Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri. | The TGPSC office in Hyderabad only. |
An addendum dated 6 August 2026 to the September 2026 Half Yearly notification replaces the Indian Penal Code with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Criminal Procedure Code with the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, and the Indian Evidence Act with the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023. It affects twelve paper codes — AS-2 to AS-5, AS-8, AS-9 and PS-2 to PS-7. Everything else in the original notification stands. Note the scope: this addendum is to the Half Yearly series. The Departmental Tests notification of February 2026 still carries the pre-BNS paper names, so do not assume the same substitution has been made to the PC-numbered criminal judicial papers.
TGPSC departmental tests — notifications, syllabus and sessions TGPSC half yearly examination notifications
Overview
The tests exist because state service rules make certain career events conditional on demonstrated knowledge of the rules an officer works under. A revenue officer is expected to know the district office manual; an officer handling money is expected to know the accounts and treasury code. The departmental test is how that knowledge is certified, and until it is, probation stays undeclared and promotion waits.
TGPSC conducts them in sessions, notified periodically, with candidates registering for the specific papers their service requires. Recent sessions have been computer-based. A distinctive feature is that some papers are conducted with books: candidates are permitted to consult the prescribed code or manual during the examination, which changes what preparation means for those papers entirely.
There is no general list that applies to every employee. The papers you must pass, the time limit within which you must pass them, and the consequence of not doing so are set by the service rules for your post and by your department. Confirm them with your department and against the commission’s notification before registering, because sitting the wrong paper is a wasted session.
Eligibility
Eligibility for a departmental test is not a general rule about graduates and age — it is a question about your post. Only employees working in the relevant department may sit the tests their own service rules prescribe, and Secretariat employees may sit tests where the rules permit it in order to become eligible for appointment by transfer or promotion.
| Charge | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Examination fee | ₹200 per paper | Charged for each paper registered. No fee for the Gujarathi and Marwari language tests. |
| Application processing fee | ₹1,000 per test | Charged in addition to the per-paper examination fee. |
| Late fee, where an extension is granted | ₹1,000 | Applied to the September 2026 Half Yearly extension. An extension is not routine — do not plan on one. |
| Exemptions | None | Fee concessions were withdrawn by government order in August 2002. Payment is online only; postal orders and demand drafts are not accepted. |
Selection process
Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.
| Stage | Format | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Notification and registration | Online, per session | The commission notifies a session and candidates register for the specific papers required by their service, with the fee paid per paper. Registration windows are short and are not usually extended. |
| The examination | Computer-based in recent sessions | Papers are sat at allotted centres on the notified dates. Some papers are conducted with books, in which the prescribed code or manual may be consulted during the examination; others are without books. |
| Result | Pass or fail | Results are published as passes against the prescribed standard rather than as a merit list. A pass in a paper stands on its own record, and papers can be cleared across different sessions. |
Exam pattern
| Paper type | Mode | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Most papers | Objective, computer-based | 2 hours |
| Language and Survey & Settlement papers | Conventional and descriptive, answered in an OMR-attached booklet in blue or black pen with the question paper shown on screen | 3 hours |
| Second Class Language Test (PC 005) | Conventional | 2 hours |
| Proficiency in Office Automation (PC 162) | As notified | 1 hour |
The results bulletin published by the commission is itself the authentic publication for extending service benefits — no individual pass certificate and no confirmation certificate is issued, so do not wait for one. Unsuccessful candidates may buy a memorandum of marks for ₹200 per test within a month of the result. Revaluation and re-verification are never permitted; a recount is allowed only for conventional written papers, within fifteen days, at ₹100 a paper.
One figure this page does not state is the pass mark. The May 2026 notification does not print qualifying marks, and neither the syllabus index nor the results index carries them — they sit in the Telangana Departmental Test Rules 1965 and in the syllabus document for the individual paper. Take the number from your paper’s own syllabus PDF rather than from any general claim about departmental tests.
Sources
Checked 11 September 2026 against the commission’s own notifications and result pages. Session dates, fees, paper modes and the BNS addendum are quoted from the notifications named below; qualifying marks are deliberately absent because no official page consulted stated them.
Exam resources
Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.
Questions
They are qualifying examinations conducted by TGPSC for serving state government employees, required by service rules for the declaration of probation, for promotion, and for increments and appointments that are made conditional on passing them. They are not a recruitment: results are published as passes against a prescribed standard rather than as a merit list.
That is decided by the service rules for your post and by your department, not by a general list. The papers required, the period within which they must be cleared and the consequence of not clearing them all vary by service. Confirm with your department and against the commission’s notification before registering, because sitting the wrong paper costs a whole session.
Some papers permit candidates to consult the prescribed code or manual during the examination. This does not make the paper easy — it makes it a test of how quickly you can find a provision. Preparation for these papers means learning the structure and index of the book and tabbing the provisions past papers keep returning to, rather than memorising content. Only the edition the notification permits may be carried.
The commission conducts them in notified sessions rather than continuously. Registration windows are short and are not usually extended, so tracking the commission’s notifications matters — a missed window means waiting for the next session, with any dependent probation or promotion waiting too.
Yes. Papers are registered for and passed individually, and a pass stands on its own record. That is why registering for two papers you have prepared well is a better strategy than registering for four you have not — there is no advantage to overloading a single session.
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