APPSC Group 1 (Group-I Services) Guide: Notification 07/2026, Scheme, Syllabus and Preparation

Group-I Services is the top direct-recruitment route run by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC). It fills the senior executive and administrative posts of the state: Deputy Collector, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Assistant Commissioner of State Tax and several other gazetted services. Because the posts are few and the applicant pool is large, the exam rewards candidates who understand its exact structure, not candidates who simply read more.

This guide is built from the Commission's own documents: Brief Notification No. 07/2026 dated 15 September 2026, its annexure of scheme and syllabus, the Commission's web note of 6 October 2026, and the General Administration Department orders on age relaxation issued in September 2026. Where a detail sits only in the Detailed Notification, which I could not open in full, the guide says so instead of guessing. Time-sensitive items carry an "As on October 2026" label. For the wider map of state exams, read the Andhra Pradesh government exams 2026 guide, and for a second view of the same recruitment see the APPSC Group 1 2026 syllabus, pattern and eligibility guide. This post goes further on the scheme arithmetic, the paper-by-paper syllabus and the preparation method.

1. What Notification 07/2026 says

As on October 2026, the Commission has issued Brief Notification No. 07/2026, dated 15 September 2026, for Direct Recruitment to Group-I Services (General Recruitment). The brief notification lists 13 categories of posts and a total of 163 provisional vacancies, which the Commission states are subject to variation after the departments confirm them. Online applications were invited through psc.ap.gov.in from 6 October 2026 to 27 October 2026, up to 11:59 PM. A web note of 6 October 2026 confirms that the Detailed Notification, with the break-up of vacancies, scale of pay, age limit, community-wise vacancies and educational qualifications, was hosted on the Commission's website on the day applications opened.

Two lines of the brief notification matter more than most candidates notice. First, the date of the Detailed Notification is reckoned as the crucial date in all respects, so eligibility questions are decided as on that date, not on the date you press the submit button. Second, the Screening Test is stated to be offline, objective type and OMR based, with its date to be announced in the Detailed Notification. Anyone preparing for a computer-based test should adjust practice to OMR habits: shading discipline, no changing answers after the fact and a paper-based time plan.

The posts and pay scales listed in the brief notification are summarised below. Pay is quoted exactly as the notification prints it.

Post code	Post	Vacancies	Scale of pay (Rs)
01	Deputy Collector, A.P. Civil Service (Executive Branch)	11	61,960 - 1,51,370
02	Assistant Commissioner of State Tax	14	61,960 - 1,51,370
03	DSP (Civil) Category-II, A.P. Police Service	36	61,960 - 1,51,370
04	DSP (Communications), A.P. Police Service	3	61,960 - 1,51,370
05	District Educational Officer	14	61,960 - 1,51,370
06	Regional Transport Officer	3	57,100 - 1,47,760
07	District Tribal Welfare Officer	1	57,100 - 1,47,760
08	Deputy Registrar, A.P. Co-operative Service	15	57,100 - 1,47,760
09	Municipal Commissioner Grade-II	12	54,060 - 1,40,540
10	Assistant Treasury Officer / Assistant Accounts Officer	2	54,060 - 1,40,540
11	District Employment Officer	3	54,060 - 1,40,540
12	Assistant Audit Officer, A.P. State Audit Service	14	54,060 - 1,40,540
13	Divisional Development Officer, A.P. Panchayat Raj Service	35	65,360 - 1,54,980

Read the table with a few points in mind. The largest single category is DSP (Civil) Category-II with 36 posts, closely followed by Divisional Development Officer with 35. Deputy Collector, the post many aspirants name first, has only 11. The pay scale of the Divisional Development Officer post is printed higher than that of the Deputy Collector in this notification, which surprises people who rank posts by prestige. Pay, however, is only one input to your service preference; the nature of work, the career ladder and the posting pattern differ sharply between a police service and a revenue service.

2. Qualification and the two post-specific rules

For post codes 01 to 03 and 05 to 13, the brief notification asks for a Bachelor's Degree from a recognised university in India (established under a Central, State or provincial Act), from an institution recognised by the UGC, or an equivalent qualification. The qualification must be held as on the date of the Detailed Notification. That wording leaves little room for final-year candidates who expect to finish later; if you are in that situation, read the Detailed Notification's clause on qualification dates before paying any fee.

Post code 04, DSP (Communications), is different. It requires a B.E. or B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, or Radio Engineering. A general graduate cannot apply for this one post even though the other twelve accept any degree. Post codes 03 and 04 also carry physical requirements that are described only in the Detailed Notification, so a candidate eyeing the police posts should read that clause on the first day.

3. Age: the standing rule and the September 2026 orders

The upper age limit for direct recruitment to non-uniform state services has been raised by repeated time-bound orders over the years. As on October 2026, two General Administration (Ser.A) Department orders dated 14 September 2026 are relevant.

G.O.Ms.No.187 relaxes the upper age limit from 34 to 44 years for posts in all non-uniform services, for recruitments notified by the APPSC and other recruiting agencies up to 30 September 2027. The order states that this is in addition to the concessions under Rule 12 of the A.P. State and Subordinate Service Rules, 1996. G.O.Ms.No.188 extends the existing relaxation of two years for uniformed services up to the same date, again in addition to Rule 12 concessions. The order for non-uniform services carries a proviso that the relaxation does not apply to uniformed posts such as Police, Excise, Fire, Prisons, Forest and Transport where physical standards are prescribed.

What does this mean for Group-I? The brief notification does not print an age limit. Most Group-I posts are non-uniform executive posts, but DSP (Civil) and DSP (Communications) are police posts with physical standards, and the Regional Transport Officer post belongs to the transport department. Each category therefore has its own age ceiling, its own base limit under the Special Rules and its own treatment under the two orders. Do not assume that "44" applies to every post. Open the Detailed Notification, find your post code, and confirm the upper limit, the lower limit and the cut-off date on which age is reckoned. Then add the category concession you are entitled to under Rule 12, if any.

A practical habit: write your date of birth, your post code and the cut-off date on a sheet and calculate the age in years, months and days. A candidate who is two days over the limit has no appeal.

4. The scheme in one view

The scheme and syllabus annexed to the brief notification follow G.O.Ms.No.158, General Administration (Ser-A) Department, dated 26 December 2018. The recruitment has three stages: the Screening Test (preliminary, objective), the Mains (written, descriptive) and the interview.

Stage	Component	Questions	Duration	Marks
Screening	Paper-I General Studies	120	120 min	120
Screening	Paper-II General Aptitude	120	120 min	120
Mains	Paper in Telugu (qualifying)	descriptive	180 min	150
Mains	Paper in English (qualifying)	descriptive	180 min	150
Mains	Paper-I General Essay	descriptive	180 min	150
Mains	Paper-II History, Culture and Geography of India and AP	descriptive	180 min	150
Mains	Paper-III Polity, Constitution, Governance, Law and Ethics	descriptive	180 min	150
Mains	Paper-IV Economy and Development of India and AP	descriptive	180 min	150
Mains	Paper-V Science, Technology and Environmental Issues	descriptive	180 min	150
Final	Interview	oral	not stated	75

The Mains total printed in the annexure is 825 marks. You can reproduce that figure: five scored papers of 150 marks give 750, and the interview adds 75. The Telugu and English papers are of qualifying nature, so their marks are not added to the 825. The wrong-answer penalty for objective papers is one third of the marks for the question, under G.O.Ms.No.235, Finance (HR-I, Plg and Policy) Department, dated 6 December 2016.

The Screening Test marks do not feature in the 825. The test exists to shortlist candidates for the Mains, so its marks are a gate, not a head start. I could not confirm the shortlisting ratio for this cycle from the documents I opened, so check the Detailed Notification for the number of candidates to be admitted to the Mains.

5. Screening Test: how to think about 240 marks

The Screening Test has two papers of 120 marks each. Paper-I, General Studies, has four parts of 30 marks each: History and Culture; Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations; Indian and Andhra Pradesh Economy and Planning; and Geography. Paper-II, General Aptitude, has two parts: Part A with 60 marks on General Mental Ability, Administrative and Psychological Abilities, and Part B with 60 marks split as 30 for Science and Technology and 30 for Current Events of regional, national and international importance.

Add the weights up by theme. History and Culture, Polity, Economy and Geography account for 120 marks in Paper-I. In Paper-II, aptitude carries 60 marks, science and technology 30 and current events 30. That means roughly half the screening paper is static syllabus that you can finish and revise, and a quarter is aptitude that rewards daily practice. Candidates who spend 80 percent of their time on current affairs, which is 30 of 240 marks, are mis-allocating effort.

The negative marking deserves a worked example. A question carries one mark and a wrong answer costs one third of a mark. If you can eliminate two of four options and guess between the remaining two, the expected value is one half of a mark times one, minus one half of one third, which is about 0.33 marks per such question. That is positive. If you have no basis at all and guess among four options, the expected value is one quarter minus three quarters of one third, which is exactly zero. So blind guessing is neutral and informed guessing pays, which means the habit to build is elimination, not abstention and not gambling. Track in every mock how many questions you attempted after eliminating at least one option, and how many you answered with no basis.

Note on the aptitude syllabus. Part A of Paper-II lists seventeen topics. The first fifteen are the familiar quantitative and reasoning items: number series, coding-decoding, relations, Venn diagrams, clocks, calendars and age, number system, ratio and variation, central tendencies including weighted mean, powers and roots with HCF and LCM, percentage and interest, time and work, mensuration, geometry, algebra and BODMAS, and data interpretation with sufficiency and probability. Topics sixteen and seventeen are different: emotional intelligence and social intelligence, including empathy, coping with stress, decision making, critical thinking and assessment of personality. These two topics are easy to ignore and easy to score on if you read a short, structured note on them.

Part B (i) of the same paper covers science and technology in a policy-oriented style: national policy on science, technology and innovation, ICT and cyber security, space and defence programmes, energy requirements and efficiency, and environmental science including biodiversity, climate change, forest and wildlife law, biotechnology and genetic engineering. This is not a school-physics list. It is an informed-citizen list, and questions follow institutions, policies and recent events.

6. Paper-I General Studies, part by part

Part A, History and Culture, runs from the Indus Valley and Vedic age through the Mauryas, Satavahanas, Sangam age and Guptas, the post-Gupta regional dynasties of the south (Badami and Eastern Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Kalyani Chalukyas, Cholas, Hoysalas, Yadavas, Kakatiyas and Reddis), the Delhi Sultanate, Vijayanagara and Mughal empires, European trading companies, the 1857 revolt, nineteenth-century reform movements, the freedom movement, Gandhi, Patel, Bose and Ambedkar, and finally the reorganisation of states after independence. Note the Andhra emphasis built into a national list: the Satavahanas, the Eastern Chalukyas, the Kakatiyas, the Reddis and the Vijayanagara empire all appear by name. The AP side is developed in our notes on Satavahanas to Eastern Chalukyas, Kakatiyas to Vijayanagara and the Qutb Shahis and freedom struggle and social reform in Andhra.

Part B, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations, has six units: evolution, features, Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, Directive Principles, amendments and basic structure; functions of Union and States, Parliament and State Legislatures, and issues of devolution up to local levels; constitutional authorities, Panchayati Raj, public policy and governance; the effect of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation on governance, with statutory, regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies; rights issues covering human, women, SC/ST and child rights; and foreign policy with international institutions and fora. The Panchayati Raj line is covered in our AP polity and Panchayati Raj notes.

Part C, Indian and Andhra Pradesh Economy and Planning, has five units. The first four are national: developing-economy features, planning, NITI Aayog, HDI, national income, poverty and unemployment, agriculture and irrigation, industry, SEZs and corridors, energy, reforms, trade, WTO, RBI and monetary policy, banking, markets, SEBI, taxation including GST, Centre-State finance and the Finance Commissions, public debt, fiscal policy and the budget. The fifth unit is entirely Andhra Pradesh: the characteristics of the AP economy after bifurcation in 2014, the effect on natural resources and revenue, river-water disputes, infrastructure, IT and e-governance, urbanisation and smart cities, skill development and welfare programmes; and the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 with its economic issues, central assistance for a new capital, backward-district development, the Visakhapatnam railway zone, the Kadapa steel factory, the Dugarajapatnam airport, expressways and industrial corridors, and special status and special assistance. Our AP Reorganisation Act 2014 explained and AP economy and budget notes cover this block.

Part D, Geography, goes from the solar system, the motions of the earth, internal structure, landforms, atmosphere, climate and oceans, to physical geography of the world, India and the state, social geography of population, density, sex ratio, literacy and migration, and economic geography of agriculture, industry, transport and trade. See AP geography: rivers, districts and ports for the state-specific layer.

7. Mains: what each paper really asks

The Mains papers are descriptive and carry 150 marks each in 180 minutes. The annexure does not print the number of questions per paper in the pages I read, so do not rely on a number from a coaching chart; check the Detailed Notification and previous papers.

Paper-I, General Essay, is unusual. Candidates attempt three essays, one from each of three sections, of about 800 words each. Section I is current affairs. Section II covers socio-political, socio-economic and socio-environmental issues. Section III covers cultural and historical aspects, civic awareness and reflective topics. The annexure says credit is given for observing the accepted essay format, grammatical correctness, and originality of thought and expression. Three essays of 800 words in 180 minutes leave about 60 minutes per essay including planning, so a ten-minute outline and a fifty-minute draft is a workable split. Practise this timing in full, because 2,400 handwritten words is a physical task.

Paper-II, History, Culture and Geography of India and Andhra Pradesh, has three blocks: history and culture of India, history and culture of Andhra Pradesh, and geography of India and Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra block is detailed and chronological: Satavahanas, Ikshvakus, Salankayanas, Pallavas and Vishnukundins; Eastern Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Renati Cholas; social, cultural and religious conditions from 1000 to 1565 A.D., the Kavitraya and Ashtadiggajas, the Kakatiyas, Reddis, Gajapatis and Vijayanagara rulers; the Qutb Shahis; European establishments, the Company rule, C.P. Brown, Thomas Munro and Mackenzie, zamindari and polegar systems; social reformers such as Gurajada Apparao, Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu and Gidugu Ramamurthy; the library movement; Andhra leaders in the nationalist movement; the Andhra movement, the formation of Andhra State in 1953 and Andhra Pradesh in 1956; and the causes and impact of bifurcation on 2 June 2014. See our notes on the formation of Andhra Pradesh and personalities of Andhra.

Paper-III, Polity, Constitution, Governance, Law and Ethics, is three subjects in one: polity and constitution, public administration and governance, and ethics with basic knowledge of law. The governance block includes Kautilya, the Mughal administration, the British legacy, civil society and NGOs, regulatory and quasi-judicial authorities, good governance, e-governance, citizen's charter, RTI, public service act and social audit. The ethics block covers ethics in public service, human values, attitude, emotional intelligence, codes of conduct and the role of Lokpal and Lokayukta. The law block covers constitutional law, civil and criminal laws and the court hierarchy, labour law, cyber law and tax law. Candidates from science and engineering backgrounds often find this paper the least familiar and therefore the most rewarding to prepare early.

Paper-IV, Economy and Development of India and Andhra Pradesh, has twelve units that alternate between India and the state: challenges of the Indian economy, resource mobilisation, resource mobilisation in AP, government budgeting, budgeting in AP, inclusive growth, agricultural development, agriculture in AP, industrial development and policy, industrial policy of the AP government, infrastructure in India, and infrastructure in AP. The pairing is the pattern to notice. For every national theme there is a state counterpart, so a note-making format with two columns, one national and one for Andhra Pradesh, matches the paper.

Paper-V, Science, Technology and Environmental Issues, is policy-heavy: integration of science, technology and innovation, ICT and e-governance, the space programme and DRDO, energy needs and nuclear policy, development versus environment, pollution and solid-waste management, environmental legislation and treaties, biotechnology and nanotechnology, human diseases and vaccines, and intellectual property rights. Mining in AP, major scientific institutes in AP, and Andhra Pradesh examples recur throughout.

8. The two qualifying language papers

The Telugu and English papers are each 150 marks and are of qualifying nature. They are pitched at S.S.C. standard. The English paper includes an essay of 200 to 250 words chosen from five topics, a formal letter, a press release or appeal, a report, writing on visual information, a formal speech, a precis, reading comprehension, grammar through multiple-choice items (tenses, voice, narration, articles, prepositions, phrasal verbs, idioms, administrative glossary and more) and translation from the regional language into English. The Telugu paper includes an essay from a list of three, explaining the meaning of verses from Vemana and Sumathi Satakam, a precis, comprehension, a formal speech, a press note, letter and application writing, report writing, translations in both directions, word meanings and synonyms and antonyms.

I did not find the qualifying cut-off marks in the pages I read, so check the Detailed Notification. The preparation advice does not depend on the exact number. A qualifying paper that you treat casually can end a good Mains, and it costs only a few weeks of regular writing to clear. Write one letter, one report and one precis every week from the day you start the Mains cycle. Telugu-medium candidates should keep the English paper under steady practice, and English-medium candidates should do the same for the Telugu verse questions.

9. Selection steps from application to appointment

The steps run in a fixed order. You apply online through the Commission's portal after creating or updating the One Time Profile Registration. The Screening Test is held offline on OMR sheets, followed by the preliminary key, objections and the result listing the candidates admitted to the Mains. The Mains are written; the Commission publishes keys or results as per its schedule, then shortlists candidates for the interview of 75 marks. The final merit list is prepared on the Mains and interview marks, followed by document verification, service allocation according to rank, preference and roster, and appointment.

Allocation matters for planning. Thirteen post categories mean a candidate with a good rank is not guaranteed the post he or she wants; the rank, the roster position, the community and local reservations, and the order of preferences given in the application all interact. Decide your order of preference before applying, and do not leave it to the last screen of the form. Ask three questions of each category: does it need field and enforcement work, is it office and finance based, and what does the first posting look like?

The history of the previous cycle is a reminder to follow only the official page. A Commission web note dated 9 January 2026 states that the final results for the earlier Group-I recruitment (Notification No. 12/2023) were pending because of court cases in the High Court. As on October 2026 I did not confirm a later status, so check the Commission's website for the current position of that recruitment.

10. A preparation plan that follows the marks

Begin with the structure, not the books. Group-I has a screening round of 240 marks and a Mains of 750 scored marks plus 75 for the interview. Your plan has to clear the first gate without damaging the second. A sensible way to split a year is in four blocks.

Block one, months one to three, is for the static core. Read one standard source per subject for history, polity, economy and geography, and for each unit of the official syllabus write one page of notes in your own words. Keep a separate Andhra Pradesh notebook from day one, because the state layer is where Group-I differs from a general civil-services syllabus.

Block two, months four to six, adds science and technology, environment, ethics and law, and starts the writing habit. Write two answers a week at first, review them against the syllabus line they answer, and move to one full paper a month. In this block also begin a daily practice of aptitude questions and one short note on emotional and social intelligence.

Block three, months seven to nine, is for the Screening Test. Take a timed OMR-style mock every week, split the 240 marks into the parts described above, and log the marks per part. The log is more useful than the score. If History and Culture is consistently 18 of 30 and Geography is 12 of 30, the gap tells you exactly where an extra week belongs.

Block four, from the Screening Test onwards, is the Mains. Move to full-length writing and revise the notes you made in block one. If the Screening Test is near, do not let the Mains reading stop; the gap between the two stages is usually short.

A worked example of one study day shows how this looks. Take a 6-hour weekday: two hours of a new unit from Paper-IV (for instance, resource mobilisation), one hour of its Andhra counterpart, one hour of aptitude practice, one hour of a written answer with self-review, and one hour of revision from the previous days. The Andhra counterpart on the same day keeps the two-column habit alive. On Sunday, take a timed section test and update the error log.

For the 90 days before the Screening Test, shift the balance: half the day on timed mocks and error review, a quarter on rapid revision of one-page notes, and a quarter on current events from the last twelve months. For the Mains, a similar 90-day shift moves half the time to answer writing.

11. Mains answer-writing method

A Mains answer is judged on structure and relevance more than length. Start with a one- or two-line definition or context, develop three to five points under short headings, include one fact, one example or one data point per point, and end with a way forward or a balanced conclusion. In the Andhra papers, anchor at least one point in a state example: a river project, a district, a scheme, a committee or a dated event. A diagram or a flowchart helps where the question is about a process, such as how a bill becomes law, or how a river basin is organised.

Use the syllabus wording to check relevance. If the Paper-III syllabus says "Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial authorities", a question on a regulatory body expects you to name its legal basis, its powers and its limits. If the Paper-IV syllabus says "Government budgeting in Andhra Pradesh: management of deficits", a question on state finances expects a discussion of deficit management, not a list of welfare schemes.

For the essay paper, choose the topic on the basis of the facts you can supply, not on the basis of the title that sounds most attractive. A reflective topic with no facts produces a vague essay; a socio-economic topic with data from the state budget and the Economic Survey produces a convincing one. Keep a bank of ten examples from AP that can be reused across essays: one on agriculture, one on water, one on welfare delivery, one on urbanisation, one on climate or cyclones, one on technology in governance, and so on.

12. Common mistakes

Treating the Screening Test as a general-knowledge quiz is the first mistake. The two papers are tightly mapped to the annexure, and a list of syllabus lines is a better guide than a thick book. The second is ignoring the Andhra units because national books are easier to find. In Paper-II and Paper-IV, nearly half the syllabus lines name Andhra Pradesh. The third is leaving the two qualifying language papers to the end. The fourth is relying on forwarded post lists or age tables; the only list that counts is the Detailed Notification. The fifth is postponing writing practice until the Screening Test result arrives. The sixth is crowding the application window: the portal can be slow on the last days, and a single wrong entry in the profile can cost hours.

Another quiet mistake is confusing screening-test marks with merit. They do not enter the final 825. A candidate who treats a high Screening Test score as a head start may reduce his or her Mains effort and pay for it later.

13. Key facts for exams

• Notification: Brief Notification No. 07/2026, dated 15 September 2026; Group-I Services (General Recruitment); 13 categories, 163 provisional vacancies.
• Applications: 6 October 2026 to 27 October 2026 (11:59 PM) through the Commission's website; date of the Detailed Notification is the crucial date.
• Screening Test: offline, objective, OMR; Paper-I General Studies and Paper-II General Aptitude, each 120 questions, 120 marks and 120 minutes; wrong answer costs one third (G.O.Ms.No.235, Finance, 6 December 2016).
• Paper-I parts A to D carry 30 marks each: History and Culture; Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations; Indian and AP Economy and Planning; Geography.
• Paper-II: Part A 60 marks (mental ability, administrative and psychological abilities); Part B 30 marks science and technology and 30 marks current events.
• Mains: Telugu and English (qualifying, 150 each); Papers I to V (150 each, 180 minutes); interview 75; total 825.
• Scheme source: G.O.Ms.No.158, General Administration (Ser-A) Department, 26 December 2018.
• Age: G.O.Ms.No.187 (non-uniform services, 34 to 44, up to 30 September 2027) and G.O.Ms.No.188 (uniformed services, two years, up to 30 September 2027), both dated 14 September 2026; check your post code in the Detailed Notification.
• DSP (Communications) needs a B.E. or B.Tech in Electronics and Communication, Electronics and Telecommunication or Radio Engineering; the other twelve categories need a degree.
• Largest categories: DSP (Civil) Category-II (36) and Divisional Development Officer (35).

14. Ten practice MCQs

1. How many provisional vacancies are listed in Brief Notification No. 07/2026 for Group-I Services? A. 136 B. 163 C. 166 D. 183 Answer: B. The brief notification lists 163 provisional vacancies across 13 categories.

2. In the Group-I Screening Test, what is the penalty for a wrong answer? A. No penalty B. One fourth of the marks C. One third of the marks D. One half of the marks Answer: C. The annexure applies G.O.Ms.No.235, Finance (HR-I, Plg and Policy) Department, dated 6 December 2016.

3. Which Group-I Mains papers are of qualifying nature only? A. General Essay and Paper-II B. Telugu and English C. Paper-IV and Paper-V D. Only the interview Answer: B. The Telugu and English papers (150 marks each) are qualifying and are not added to the 825 total.

4. Which subject is NOT one of the four parts of Screening Test Paper-I General Studies? A. History and Culture B. Geography C. General Mental Ability D. Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations Answer: C. General Mental Ability belongs to Paper-II General Aptitude, Part A.

5. Up to which date does the 44-year upper age limit order for non-uniform services apply to recruitments, as per G.O.Ms.No.187 of 14 September 2026? A. 31 March 2027 B. 30 June 2027 C. 30 September 2027 D. 31 December 2027 Answer: C. The order extends the relaxation up to 30 September 2027.

6. Which Mains paper carries the syllabus on Ethics and basic knowledge of law? A. Paper-I B. Paper-II C. Paper-III D. Paper-V Answer: C. Paper-III is Polity, Constitution, Governance, Law and Ethics.

7. In the Group-I General Essay paper, how many essays must a candidate write? A. One of 2,400 words B. Two of 1,200 words C. Three, one from each section, of about 800 words D. Five of 500 words Answer: C. One essay is chosen from each of the three sections.

8. How many marks does the Group-I interview carry? A. 50 B. 75 C. 100 D. 150 Answer: B. The interview is of 75 marks, taking the Mains and interview total to 825.

9. Which category has the highest number of provisional vacancies under Notification 07/2026? A. Deputy Collector B. District Educational Officer C. DSP (Civil) Category-II D. Assistant Audit Officer Answer: C. DSP (Civil) Category-II has 36 vacancies, the highest in the notification.

10. Which educational qualification is specified only for DSP (Communications)? A. Any bachelor's degree B. B.E. or B.Tech in Electronics and Communication, Electronics and Telecommunication or Radio Engineering C. Law degree D. Post-graduate degree in Science Answer: B. The other twelve categories require a bachelor's degree from a recognised university or an equivalent qualification.

15. Frequently asked questions

Is there negative marking in Group-I? Yes, in the objective Screening Test. A wrong answer is penalised by one third of the marks for the question, under G.O.Ms.No.235 of 6 December 2016.

Do the Screening Test marks count in the final merit? No. The final merit is built from the Mains (825 marks including the interview). The Screening Test is a shortlisting step. Check the Detailed Notification for the shortlisting ratio.

Is the interview compulsory? The scheme lists an interview of 75 marks as part of the final stage. If the Detailed Notification adds any condition, follow it.

Can I apply to more than one category? The Detailed Notification and the application form decide how preferences are recorded. Read that section carefully before submitting, and keep a copy of the preferences you entered.

What is the age limit? It differs by post code and category. Use the Detailed Notification for the base limit and cut-off date, and add the Rule 12 concessions and the relaxation under G.O.Ms.No.187 or G.O.Ms.No.188 where they apply to your post. I could not open the age table of the Detailed Notification when writing this guide, so no single number is given here.

Is the Group-I exam held in Telugu as well as English? The Mains papers I read are marked "English/Telugu" for the General Essay and Papers II to V, and the two language papers test each language separately. Confirm the medium rules for the Screening Test in the Detailed Notification.

Where do I get official updates? The Commission's website is the only authority for dates, keys and results. Treat any message that is not on that site as unverified.

16. Related reading

• Andhra Pradesh government exams 2026
• List of state government exams in Andhra Pradesh
• APPSC Group 1 2026 syllabus, pattern and eligibility guide
• APPSC CCE complete guide 2026
• APPSC Group 2 guide, Group 3 guide and Group 4 guide
• AP polity and Panchayati Raj notes, AP economy and budget notes, AP government schemes notes
• Andhra Pradesh police exam guide, useful if you are weighing the DSP posts against the police recruitment route

17. Practise on pareeksha.in

When you have finished a unit, test it under time. Pareeksha has 10 Lakh+ MCQs, 100+ Exams and 5,000+ Full-Length Mocks, so you can take a timed practice paper for the Screening Test pattern and review your errors by topic. Use it after you have read the official syllabus, not instead of it.

Sources and verification

Pages and documents actually opened for this guide:

• Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission, Brief Notification No. 07/2026 (Group-I Services) dated 15 September 2026, with the annexure of scheme and syllabus (psc.ap.gov.in).
• APPSC Web Note dated 15 September 2026 listing Notification Nos. 07/2026 to 26/2026 (psc.ap.gov.in).
• APPSC Web Note dated 6 October 2026 on Detailed Notifications and application dates (psc.ap.gov.in).
• APPSC Web Note dated 9 January 2026 on the status of Group-I Notification No. 12/2023 (psc.ap.gov.in).
• APPSC portal pages for Syllabus and for Group-I Services syllabus (portal-psc.ap.gov.in) and the Commission's application links page.
• Government of Andhra Pradesh, G.O.Ms.No.187 and G.O.Ms.No.188, General Administration (Ser.A) Department, both dated 14 September 2026 (read as copies of the orders; the orders state they are available at goir.ap.gov.in).

Not verified: the age limit by post code, the application fee, the Screening Test date, the shortlisting ratio for the Mains and the qualifying cut-off marks of the Telugu and English papers, because the Detailed Notification could not be opened in full. Check the latest Detailed Notification for all of these.