Government Jobs in North Coastal Andhra: Srikakulam to Visakhapatnam Recruitment Guide

A candidate in Srikakulam, Parvathipuram or Anakapalli asks a practical question that no single notification answers: which recruiters actually hire people from my part of the state, which of them give a local advantage, and where do I look first when a new vacancy appears? The honest answer has several layers. The State recruits through the Public Service Commission, the Police Recruitment Board, the teacher selection process and a long list of district-level offices. The Centre and its companies recruit through their own channels and give no local quota at all, even though some of them have large establishments in Visakhapatnam. And the rules that decide whether you count as "local" changed in December 2025, which means older advice about zones and the 70:30 split is out of date.

This guide maps North Coastal Andhra for a job seeker. It covers the six districts that people usually mean by the region, the recruiters that matter in each layer, the way local status and zones work for candidates from here, the places where district notices are published, the examination centres used in recent notifications, the institutions in the region and a preparation approach that fits the geography. Every time-sensitive statement is labelled with the month it was checked and the source. Where something could not be verified it says so instead of guessing. The reservation rules are explained in detail in our guide to reservation, roster and local status, and the district map is in the 28-district fact sheet. A Telugu version of this guide is available at ఉత్తర కోస్తా ఆంధ్ర ప్రభుత్వ ఉద్యోగాలు.

As on October 2026: the notifications read for this guide are the APPSC Group-I notification 07/2026 dated 06.10.2026, the SLPRB notifications of 16.09.2026, the Mega DSC 2025 notification dated 20.04.2025 and the district portals and careers pages named in the sources. Recruitment pages change daily, so confirm every date on the official site.

1. Which districts make up the region in October 2026

North Coastal Andhra is a geographic habit, not a legal unit. Older books use it for the northern three districts of the pre-2022 map, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. After the district reorganisation of April 2022 and the formation of two more districts effective 31 December 2025, the same area carries more names. The Government of Andhra Pradesh now has 28 districts, and the area people call North Coastal Andhra contains the following six, each with its own portal on ap.gov.in.

District	Headquarters	Portal	Portal glance as on 7 October 2026
Srikakulam	Srikakulam	srikakulam.ap.gov.in	Area 5,837 sq km, population 27,03,114 shown
Vizianagaram	Vizianagaram	vizianagaram.ap.gov.in	3 revenue divisions, 27 mandals, 4,124 sq km
Parvathipuram Manyam	Parvathipuram	parvathipurammanyam.ap.gov.in	2 divisions, 15 mandals, 3,659 sq km
Visakhapatnam	Visakhapatnam	visakhapatnam.ap.gov.in	2 divisions, 11 mandals, 1,048 sq km
Anakapalli	Anakapalli	anakapalli.ap.gov.in	2 divisions, 24 mandals, 4,292 sq km
Alluri Sitharama Raju	Paderu	allurisitharamaraju.ap.gov.in	1 division, 11 mandals, 5,821 sq km

Two cautions follow from the table. First, the portals are not synchronised with each other. Srikakulam's home page still shows a census-year population figure and no mandal count, and the Anakapalli recruitment page was last updated in March 2022 according to its own footer, so treat the numbers as the portal's own display and not as a definitive statistic. Second, and more important for job seekers, geography and recruitment geography do not match. The Alluri Sitharama Raju district is a hill and tribal district that people naturally place in the north, but the Presidential Order zones used in the 2026 notifications place it in a different zone from the other five. That is explained in section 7.

Polavaram district, formed with effect from 31 December 2025 and headquartered at Rampachodavaram, was reported to have been carved out of the Alluri Sitharama Raju district. It borders this region on the hill side, but it is treated as part of the Godavari region in our companion guide to government jobs in the Godavari region. The Polavaram district portal was reachable on 7 October 2026, but its home page still carried placeholder text from another template, including a census office reference from another state, so do not use that page as a source for anything.

2. A map of who recruits in the region

It helps to sort the recruiters into four layers before looking at any of them. The layers differ in who sets the rules, whether the 95:5 local reservation applies and where the notice appears.

Layer	Examples	Local reservation	Where notices appear
State commission	APPSC Group-I to Group-IV style posts, engineers, forest, welfare	Yes, 95:5 for cadres under the 2025 Order	psc.ap.gov.in
State boards and teacher selection	SLPRB (police, fire, prisons), DSC, medical boards	Yes for district and zonal cadres	slprb.ap.gov.in, school education portals
District-level offices	District Health Society, Women and Child Welfare, KGBV, district hospitals	Usually district-local, read each notice	District portals under Notices, Recruitment
Central and PSU	Port authority, steel plant, shipyard, navy establishments, railways, SSC and IBPS posts	No AP local reservation	The organisation's own careers page

The most common mistake is to treat these as one market. A candidate who qualifies for a Group-I Deputy Collector post competes in a multi-zone with a 95 percent local share. The same candidate applying to the port authority competes nationally, and a naval dockyard apprenticeship has its own eligibility rules. Plan your year around the layer that fits your qualification and your local status, and use the others as additional options rather than as substitutes.

3. APPSC and the north coastal districts

The Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission is the main route to gazetted and many non-gazetted state posts. As on October 2026 the Commission's recruitment list on its portal shows a cluster of notifications dated 15.09.2026 and 06.10.2026. The headline is Notification 07/2026 dated 06.10.2026 for Group-I Services. According to its text, applications are accepted online at psc.ap.gov.in from 06.10.2026 to 27.10.2026 up to 11:59 pm. The vacancy table at the top of the notification totals 166 across thirteen post codes, including Deputy Collectors, Assistant Commissioners of State Tax, Deputy Superintendents of Police, District Educational Officers, Regional Transport Officers, Deputy Registrars, Municipal Commissioners Grade-II and Divisional Development Officers. Pay scales and age limits are printed against each post, and the Annexure-I break-up gives the community-wise and zone-wise vacancies.

For a north coastal candidate the important structural point is the multi-zone arrangement. The notification organises post codes 01 to 03, 05 to 11 and 13 into two multi-zones. Multi-Zone-I covers Zones I to III, which means the five districts of Zone I (Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli), the four districts of Zone II (Alluri Sitarama Raju, East Godavari, Kakinada and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Konaseema) and the four of Zone III (West Godavari, Eluru, NTR and Krishna). That is thirteen districts. Multi-Zone-II covers Zones IV to VI, the remaining thirteen. The 95 percent local benefit goes to local candidates of each multi-zone, and the notification says it does not apply to the one state-cadre post, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Communications). For most posts Annexure-I prints a small open line and a larger local line for each multi-zone, so read the row for MZ-I against your community.

The notification also fixes the examination centres. The screening test is to be held in all district centres, including newly organised districts, and the printed list has 26 names. The ones in this region are Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Alluri Sita Rama Raju, Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli, with the Godavari centres in the adjoining part of the list. Polavaram and Markapuram, the two districts formed in December 2025, are not in the printed list, although the text speaks of newly organised districts, so the Commission can add centres. Candidates give three preferences and the Commission may allot any centre. The Main written examination is to be held at four centres only: Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Ananthapuramu. Visakhapatnam is therefore the one Mains centre in the north. The notification says the centre once chosen is final and that the Commission may allot a different centre on administrative grounds.

Other APPSC notifications in the same list matter to specific groups. The recruitment list shows notices of September 2026 for forest posts (Forest Range Officer, Forest Section Officer, Forest Beat Officer and Draughtsman Grade-II in the forest subordinate service), for welfare departments (Assistant Director in Tribal Welfare, Assistant Social Welfare Officer and Assistant Tribal Welfare Officer, Hostel Welfare Officer Grade-II), for pollution control (Assistant Environmental Engineer, Analyst Grade-II), for the factories service, the economics and statistics service, the forensic science laboratory and the endowments service. Tribal welfare and forest departments are large employers in the hill districts, so those lists are worth reading even if the vacancy table does not name your district, because many cadres are state-level or zonal. Each notice has its own last date; the list on the portal shows the notification date, not the closing date, so open each PDF. Our posts on the Group-I 2026 notification, the Forest Beat Officer and the OTPR update explain the individual steps.

4. Police, fire and prisons: SLPRB notifications of September 2026

The State Level Police Recruitment Board issued a set of notifications dated 16.09.2026 and one dated 17.09.2026. As on 7 October 2026 the Board's recruitment page lists them with the column for the period of Stage 1 online application left blank, and the notifications themselves say that the application and preliminary test dates will be announced separately in a press release. This means the posts are announced, but the application window had not opened on the day this guide was checked. Candidates should watch slprb.ap.gov.in and the Board's press page.

Three notifications are the most relevant to the region. Notification Rc.91/SLPRB/Rect.2/2026 covers Stipendiary Cadet Trainee Police Constables (Civil), Police Constables (AR), Firemen in the State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department and Warders. Notification Rc.81/SLPRB/Rect.1/2026 covers Sub Inspectors of Civil, Reserve (AR) and SPF. The district-wise table in Rc.91 is the best illustration of how local and district cadres work in practice. For the five districts of Zone I, the table shows the following direct recruitment (DR) numbers, with the limited recruitment backlog (LR) vacancies in brackets. The backlog vacancies are filled only by local candidates of the respective revenue district.

District	Civil Constable DR (LR)	AR Constable DR (LR)	Fireman DR (LR)
Srikakulam	8 (10)	6 (0)	0 (2)
Vizianagaram	10 (1)	5 (0)	5 (1)
Parvathipuram Manyam	11 (0)	5 (0)	5 (1)
Visakhapatnam City	23 (6)	14 (0)	18 (1)
Anakapalli	29 (9)	15 (5)	1 (1)
Alluri Sitharama Raju	11 (4)	4 (3)	0 (0)

Adding the first five rows gives 81 direct recruitment Civil Constable vacancies, 45 AR vacancies and 29 Fireman vacancies for Zone I districts, with 26, 5 and 6 backlog vacancies respectively. The sixth row, Alluri Sitharama Raju, belongs to Zone II in the Board's own zone table, and it is shown here only because candidates think of it as a northern district. These numbers are labelled provisional in the notification, which says the vacancies are liable to change without notice. Two naming details can trip a careless applicant: the notification calls the district "Visakhapatnam City" and shows East Godavari as "East Godavari (RJY)", so use the names printed in the notification when you fill in the form.

For Sub Inspectors the notification uses zones. The Civil SI (Post Code 11) distribution is 42 for Zone I, 39 for Zone II, 39 for Zone III, 48 for Zone IV, 43 for Zone V and 42 for Zone VI, a total of 253. The Reserve SI (AR) distribution is 20, 11, 10, 38, 18 and 19, a total of 116. The SPF Sub Inspector posts (Post Code 31) are in a contiguous zonal cadre with 4 posts in Zone II and 5 in Zone V. Zone I in the SLPRB table consists of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli, exactly as in the Group-I notification. For preparation and eligibility detail, see our posts on the 2026 police recruitment update, the Sub Inspector post and the Fireman posts.

A feature specific to this region is the scheduled-area provision. The Constable notification says that 75 percent of the direct recruitment vacancies in scheduled areas for Civil Constables (men) are filled with Scheduled Tribe candidates domiciled in the Scheduled Areas of Vizianagaram, Anakapalli, Polavaram, Alluri Sitharamaraju, Eluru and Parvathipuram Manyam districts. The physical standards also differ for Aboriginal Scheduled Tribe candidates in the agency areas of those districts. For the Sub Inspector post, a man of this category needs a height of not less than 160 centimetres and a chest of at least 80 centimetres with 3 centimetres expansion, while the general standard is 167.6 centimetres and 86.3 centimetres with 5 centimetres expansion. For women the relaxed height is 150 centimetres and weight 38 kilograms against 152.5 centimetres and 40 kilograms. Srikakulam is not in that list of six districts. A residence certificate from the competent authority in the agency area is among the documents the notification lists for this claim.

5. Teachers: how DSC cadres worked in 2025 and what to expect

Teacher recruitment is the largest single employer category in most districts, and the Mega DSC 2025 notification dated 20.04.2025 shows how the district cadres look on paper. The district-wise tables list thirteen districts by their pre-2022 names, which means the Srikakulam row covers the old Srikakulam district including the area now in Parvathipuram Manyam, and the Visakhapatnam row covers the area now in Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju. Read the tables with that map in mind.

Old district name	Govt, ZP and MP schools	Municipal schools	Tribal welfare ashram schools	Sum of these three
Srikakulam	407	51	85	543
Vizianagaram	373	73	137	583
Visakhapatnam	625	109	400	1,134

These three rows total 2,260 posts, of which the tribal welfare ashram school component is 622. Within Visakhapatnam, the ashram school figure of 400 includes 335 Secondary Grade Teacher posts, the largest ashram school number in the notification. The juvenile welfare table also shows posts for Visakhapatnam, four SGT and one PET. The notification set the application fee at Rs. 750 per post, an upper age limit of 44 years as on 1 July 2024 with relaxation to 49 for SC, ST, BC and EWS candidates and 54 for persons with benchmark disabilities, and the application period at 20.04.2025 to 15.05.2025.

As on October 2026, our DSC guide reports that no DSC 2026 notification had been found on the official portals and that press reports expected one in mid-October without an official date. The portal's application loads through a script, so treat the absence as a finding of that guide and check yourself. The practical lessons from 2025 are therefore the following. The posts are advertised district by district, and tribal welfare posts in the hill districts are a distinct pool. Under the Presidential Order 2025, as summarised in our local status guide, teacher posts in the school education subordinate service are district cadres, so a new notification may use the present district names and not the thirteen old ones. That change has not been confirmed in a DSC notification, so do not assume the cadre map before the next bulletin. See our guides to DSC 2026 status, the SGT post and School Assistant post, and the TET guide.

6. Health, child welfare and other district-level notifications

Many jobs that people in smaller towns actually get are advertised only on a district portal. They are usually contract or honorarium engagements and local-area posts in the District Medical and Health Office, the Women and Child Welfare office, the District Health Society and similar units. They are real recruitments, but they do not follow the Commission's process, and each notice defines its own eligibility, local area and selection method.

On 7 October 2026 the Recruitment pages of the district portals showed the following. The Parvathipuram Manyam portal listed a notification for filling 42 ASHA worker posts under the DM and HO office, with a start date of 01.10.2026 and an end date of 09.10.2026. The Vizianagaram portal listed Notification No. 05/APSAHPC/Admissions/AY 2026-2027, dated 05.10.2026 to 14.10.2026, which is an admission notification for allied healthcare diploma courses and not a job notice. The Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam and Alluri Sitharama Raju recruitment categories said that no notice matched, and the Anakapalli page was a stub last updated in 2022. The Visakhapatnam portal also has a Notification section under Documents with older entries such as anganwadi helper recruitment, contract posts at a one-stop centre and posts under the IDSP programme. The lesson is that the recruitment category and the notification category are different places on the same site, so check both.

The value of this layer is that the vacancies are small, local and frequent. Its weakness is that the portals are inconsistent: some post notices as PDFs under Recruitment, others under Announcements or Documents, and the same notice may be copied across districts. When a Telugu newspaper reports a recruitment, find the notice on the portal and read the last date, the age limit and the instructions on where to submit the application before acting. Our posts on Anganwadi worker and supervisor, the Staff Nurse post, paramedical posts and the Sachivalayam post cover the usual qualifications. For doctor and nurse posts, the notification itself tells you whether a state board or a district selection committee is the recruiter; I did not open the medical board's own site for this guide.

7. Local status, the 95:5 rule and the zones

Local status exists because of Article 371-D of the Constitution. Since the Presidential Order of 15.12.2025, republished by the State through G.O.Ms.No.45 dated 20.04.2026, direct recruitment to district, zonal and multi-zonal cadres reserves 95 percent of the posts for local candidates, and the remaining 5 percent are filled on open merit among local and non-local candidates together. The SLPRB notification states it as "the first 05% of posts" on merit in open competition and "the remaining 95%" by locals only, citing G.O.Ms.No.172 of 02.09.2026. This replaced the 70:30 pattern of the 1975 order, which our local status guide explains in full.

The map of zones, as printed in both the APPSC Group-I notification and the SLPRB notifications, is the following. The two sources agree.

Unit	Districts
Zone I	Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli
Zone II	Alluri Sitarama Raju, East Godavari, Kakinada, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Konaseema
Zone III	West Godavari, Eluru, NTR, Krishna
Zones IV, V, VI	Remaining districts from Guntur to Kurnool and Sri Sathya Sai
Multi-Zone-I	Zones I, II and III together, 13 districts
Multi-Zone-II	Zones IV, V and VI together

For a candidate from this region four points follow. First, the district where you studied decides your unit, and the cadre of the post decides which unit counts. For a district cadre post such as a Constable in Visakhapatnam City, you compete as a local only if you are local to that district. For a zonal post, such as an SI in Zone I, being local to any of the five Zone I districts is enough. For a multi-zonal post such as Deputy Collector, being local to any district in Zones I to III makes you local to Multi-Zone-I. Second, the Alluri Sitharama Raju district counts in Zone II and in Multi-Zone-I, which is why a hill-district candidate competes for zonal posts with East Godavari, Kakinada and Konaseema rather than with Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam. Third, the Polavaram district is not printed as a separate row in the notifications read for this guide. Its mandals were reported to be carved from Alluri Sitharama Raju district, which would suggest Zone II, but none of the documents opened states this, and a reported Finance Department order of 6 July 2026 is said to have temporarily permitted allocation of posts to Polavaram and Markapuram while restructuring continues. Read the specific notification before assuming. Fourth, the proof is paperwork. The notifications ask for study certificates from Class I to Class VII, or a residence certificate from the Tahsildar of the Mandal for any period not spent in a recognised school, and a single certificate is enough to apply as local.

Here is a worked example. A candidate studied Classes I to VII at schools in Vizianagaram district and now lives in Visakhapatnam. For a Constable post notified district by district, the candidate competes for Vizianagaram posts as a local, because the study district decides. For an SI post in Zone I, the same certificates make the candidate local to Zone I. For a Group-I post in Multi-Zone-I, the candidate is local to the multi-zone. A second candidate who studied in Parvathipuram Manyam but wants a Constable post in Anakapalli is a non-local for that district cadre, competing only in the 5 percent open share. These examples describe how the units nest; they are not legal advice, and the definition in each notification governs. Candidates who migrated from Telangana between 2 June 2014 and 1 June 2024 need a Local Status Certificate as the notification instructs; see the OTPR update for how the Commission records schooling.

8. Central and public-sector employers in the region

The Visakhapatnam area has the largest concentration of central establishments on the east coast of the State, and they matter to job seekers because they recruit by their own rules and have no AP local reservation. The entries below were checked on official or ministry pages where noted, and anything not checked is flagged.

Visakhapatnam Port Authority. The port is the one major port in the State. The authority's careers page, opened on 7 October 2026, lists recruitment notices from August and September 2026. They include single-post direct recruitment for a Deputy Chief Law Officer (Class I), a Welfare Officer (Class I) and a Junior Hindi Officer (Class II), a contract engagement of a Fire Officer, and an absorption notice for Senior Deputy Manager (Traffic). The last dates shown for these run from 26 to 28 October 2026. A trade apprentice notice shows a last date of 23 September 2026, which had passed. The page links the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways online application portal and the National Career Service, and carries a warning against fake recruitment websites. The page names vizagport.com as the authority's official website, while the site I opened was vpt.shipping.gov.in; use whichever address the warning on the page itself names and avoid look-alike domains.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. RINL is a Government of India company. The company's site has a Careers section, and the notices change over time; I could not read the current notices because the page did not load its list in my tool. Posts at management and executive level commonly come through central channels and graduate or technician apprenticeships through the Apprentices Act, but check the Careers page and avoid relying on forwarded messages.

Hindustan Shipyard Limited and the naval establishments. The shipyard is a Government of India undertaking under the Ministry of Defence at Visakhapatnam. The naval dockyard and the Eastern Naval Command are in the city. The Indian Navy's recruitment site lists centrally run civilian recruitment and apprenticeship entries, and the page I opened was last updated on 28.09.2026. I could not open the shipyard's own careers page, which returned only an application shell. Treat both as periodic recruiters that advertise on their own sites.

Railways. The South Coast Railway zone, with its headquarters at Visakhapatnam, began operations on 1 June 2026, reported to follow a gazette notification of 4 or 5 May 2026. A PIB release of 7 February 2025 describes the arrangement: the truncated Waltair division, about 410 km including Palasa to Visakhapatnam to Duvvada, Kuneru to Vizianagaram, Naupada to Paralakhemundi and Bobbili to Salur, is retained as the Visakhapatnam division, and the rest, about 680 km, becomes a new division at Rayagada under East Coast Railway. The zone's own site, opened on 7 October 2026, shows Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions in its menu, with Personnel, Notifications and Selections links. Group C and D railway posts are filled through the Railway Recruitment Boards, so the establishment's location does not give a local advantage; I did not open an RRB site for this guide.

Other bodies. The DRDO's Naval Science and Technological Laboratory and the AP MedTech Zone are institutions in Visakhapatnam, described in our science and technology post; the HPCL refinery and port-based industries are covered in the minerals and industries notes. The Staff Selection Commission's CHSL 2025 notice dated 23.06.2025 lists the Southern Region centres in Andhra Pradesh as Chirala, Guntur, Kakinada, Kurnool, Nellore, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Vizianagaram, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Eluru, so a northern candidate can usually take a central examination within the region. Public sector banks and the regional rural bank recruit through a national process and state-wise vacancy lists; I did not verify the 2026 lists for this guide.

9. Examination centres used in recent notifications

Centre lists tell you how far you may need to travel and which exam day to plan for. The official documents show the following.

Recruiter	Stage	Centres in or near the region
APPSC Group-I 07/2026	Screening test	District centres, 26 listed, six in this region
APPSC Group-I 07/2026	Mains	Visakhapatnam, among four centres
SLPRB, previous Constable cycle	Preliminary test, 22.01.2023	35 locations and 997 centres across the State
SLPRB, previous Constable cycle	PMT and PET, 30.12.2024 to 01.02.2025	All 13 erstwhile district headquarters
SLPRB, previous Constable cycle	Final written test, 01.06.2025	Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, Kurnool, Tirupati
SSC CHSL 2025	CBT	Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam among AP centres

The SLPRB press note of 24.04.2025 states these facts, and a press note of 05.01.2025 shows the PMT and PET programme for Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam being rescheduled from 08.01.2025 to 11.01.2025 because of a festival and law and order issues. It is a reminder that physical test dates can move and that candidates should keep the call letter and the board's helpline in view. The 2026 SLPRB notifications, in the text I read, do not list written test centres, and for the physical tests they say the venue, date and time will be on the intimation letter. Do not book travel on an assumption about the centre.

10. Institutions and universities in the region

Institutions matter for two reasons: they are employers, and examiners like them. The ones in this region that our existing posts have covered are IIM Visakhapatnam at Gambheeram (first classes on 21 September 2015), IIPE Visakhapatnam at Sabbavaram in Anakapalli district (established 2016), the Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh in Vizianagaram district (established 2019, transit campus at Kondakarakam), the DRDO's Naval Science and Technological Laboratory and the AP MedTech Zone in Visakhapatnam. State universities in the region include Andhra University at Visakhapatnam, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University at Etcherla in Srikakulam district and the JNTU campus at Vizianagaram; I did not open those universities' own pages for this guide, so check their recruitment pages directly for teaching and non-teaching notices. Medical colleges and teaching hospitals at Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram are state institutions whose staff are recruited through the Health Department or the Directorate of Medical Education notices, and their notices are published on the department sites and sometimes the district portal.

University and institute posts are mostly faculty and non-teaching staff, and they are advertised by the institution. They are a good fit for postgraduates and research candidates but are not a general entry route like the Commission. Keep a short list of five institution websites and check them monthly rather than waiting for news.

11. A single page to watch: where each notice appears

What you want	Where to look first
Group-I to Group-IV style state posts	psc.ap.gov.in, Notifications and Recruitment list
Police, fire, prisons	slprb.ap.gov.in, Recruitments and Press Release
Teacher posts	School education recruitment portals, cse.ap.gov.in
Village and ward secretariat posts	The Grama Ward Sachivalayam portal
District health, ICDS, KGBV	Your district portal, Notices then Recruitment and Documents
Port, steel plant, shipyard, navy	The organisation's own careers page
SSC, IBPS, RRB	The commission or board portal for the exam

The point of the table is discipline. If a notice is not on the page in the right-hand column, it is not an official notice yet. Messaging groups often repeat last year's circular, and an old Srikakulam notice can circulate with a new date on top.

12. Preparation approach for this region

Preparation should follow the same layers as recruitment, and the geography gives you some free material.

Step 1: choose a layer. If you hold a degree and want a gazetted post, plan around the Commission. If you are 18 to 25 and fit, the police, fire and warder notifications are the likeliest path. If you hold a B.Ed and TET, plan around the DSC. If you hold a diploma or ITI, look at apprenticeship and the central establishments in Visakhapatnam. Do not try all four at once; the common core of General Studies, Mental Ability and AP GK is shared, but the question style differs.

Step 2: certificate hygiene before notification day. Collect study certificates from Class I to Class VII, community, EWS or non-creamy layer certificates in the format the notification asks for, a residence certificate where a gap exists, and the OTPR profile for APPSC. For hill-district candidates, find out whether the agency-area residence certificate applies to you. The cost of a missing certificate is a rejected application, which no amount of study repairs.

Step 3: use the home districts as syllabus. The region is a gift for the AP GK part of the syllabus. The Eastern Ghats and the Araku area, the rivers Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Sarada and Champavathi, the Visakhapatnam port, steel plant and shipyard, the coastal industries of Anakapalli, the tribal communities and the festivals all appear in AP exams. Read them from the state notes, not from travel blogs: the geography notes, the rivers and projects notes, the population and tribes notes and the tourism and heritage notes. A good rule is to prepare one page for each district with the headquarters, one river, one industry, one temple or heritage site and one tribal or cultural fact.

Step 4: physical preparation, for those who need it. The previous Constable cycle ran PMT and PET at district headquarters over about five weeks, and the 2026 notifications keep the standards described above. Start running and jump practice months ahead, and read our guide to PMT and PET preparation. Candidates in hill districts should carry the agency-area certificate if they claim the relaxed standard.

Step 5: a twelve-week rhythm. Weeks 1 to 4: static GS and AP history and geography, one hour of mental ability daily. Weeks 5 to 8: polity, economy, science and the current affairs of the last twelve months, with a weekly sectional test. Weeks 9 to 11: full-length tests under exam conditions and an error log. Week 12: revision of the log and logistics, including your centre. Our guides on study hours without coaching, mock strategy and negative marking and current affairs fill in the method.

Step 6: choose the centre with care. Where the notification lets you give preferences, pick the nearest centre with an adequate rail or road link and book accommodation early if you must travel; the Mains for Group-I is at Visakhapatnam only, so candidates from Srikakulam and Parvathipuram Manyam should plan a night's stay.

13. Exam traps in this topic

• Treating Alluri Sitharama Raju as Zone I. The Presidential Order zones in the notifications place it in Zone II.
• Treating the 95:5 rule as a 95 percent reservation for locals of a single district. It is applied per cadre unit: district, zone or multi-zone.
• Using the 70:30 rule from older notes. It belonged to the 1975 order.
• Reading old district names in a DSC table as current districts. The Mega DSC 2025 tables used thirteen old names.
• Assuming a central employer in Visakhapatnam offers a local quota. Port, steel plant, shipyard and railway posts follow their own rules.
• Confusing a notification with an application window. SLPRB notifications of 16.09.2026 announced posts; the Stage 1 application period was blank on the Board's page on 7 October 2026.
• Confusing the dates of the railway zone. Operations began on 1 June 2026, after the gazette notification of early May 2026.

Key facts for exams

• The region has six districts in popular usage: Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (headquarters Paderu).
• Zone I under the Presidential Order 2025: Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli. Zone II includes Alluri Sitarama Raju with East Godavari, Kakinada and Konaseema.
• Multi-Zone-I is Zones I to III, 13 districts; Multi-Zone-II is Zones IV to VI.
• Local reservation is 95 percent of direct recruitment in district, zonal and multi-zonal cadres, with 5 percent on open merit.
• APPSC Notification 07/2026 dated 06.10.2026: applications 06.10.2026 to 27.10.2026; Mains at four centres including Visakhapatnam.
• SLPRB notifications are dated 16.09.2026 and 17.09.2026; application dates are to come by press release.
• South Coast Railway zone began operations on 1 June 2026 with headquarters at Visakhapatnam; the truncated Waltair division is renamed the Visakhapatnam division.
• Mega DSC 2025 was notified on 20.04.2025 with district tables by thirteen old district names.

Ten practice questions

1. Under the zones printed in the 2026 APPSC and SLPRB notifications, which district belongs to Zone II? a) Visakhapatnam b) Anakapalli c) Alluri Sitarama Raju d) Srikakulam Answer: c) Alluri Sitarama Raju.

2. How many districts make up Multi-Zone-I in the APPSC Group-I notification 07/2026? a) 5 b) 9 c) 13 d) 26 Answer: c) 13 (Zones I, II and III).

3. What share of direct recruitment posts in local cadres is reserved for local candidates under the Presidential Order 2025? a) 70 percent b) 80 percent c) 90 percent d) 95 percent Answer: d) 95 percent.

4. At which of these cities is the Group-I Main written examination under Notification 07/2026 held? a) Srikakulam b) Visakhapatnam c) Kakinada d) Nellore Answer: b) Visakhapatnam, one of four Main centres.

5. From which date did the South Coast Railway zone begin operating, with headquarters at Visakhapatnam? a) 1 January 2026 b) 7 February 2025 c) 1 June 2026 d) 28 February 2019 Answer: c) 1 June 2026.

6. According to the 2025 Cabinet decision described by PIB, the truncated Waltair division is renamed what? a) Rayagada division b) Visakhapatnam division c) Palasa division d) Vizianagaram division Answer: b) Visakhapatnam division; the rest becomes the Rayagada division under East Coast Railway.

7. In the Mega DSC 2025 notification, which old district has the largest number of tribal welfare ashram school posts? a) Srikakulam b) Vizianagaram c) Visakhapatnam d) East Godavari Answer: c) Visakhapatnam, with 400.

8. Which district has the highest direct recruitment figure for Civil Constables among the five Zone I districts in SLPRB notification Rc.91 of 16.09.2026? a) Srikakulam b) Visakhapatnam City c) Parvathipuram Manyam d) Anakapalli Answer: d) Anakapalli, with 29.

9. Which district is not named for the 75 percent scheduled-area vacancies of Civil Constables (men) in the 2026 notification? a) Parvathipuram Manyam b) Anakapalli c) Alluri Sitharamaraju d) Srikakulam Answer: d) Srikakulam.

10. Where was the final written test of the previous SLPRB Constable cycle held on 1 June 2025? a) Only Guntur b) Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, Kurnool and Tirupati c) All 13 district headquarters d) Vizianagaram only Answer: b) Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, Kurnool and Tirupati.

Frequently asked questions

Is Alluri Sitharama Raju part of North Coastal Andhra for recruitment? Geographically people treat it as northern, but the zone tables in the 2026 notifications place it in Zone II, so it shares a zone with East Godavari, Kakinada and Konaseema.

Do central jobs in Visakhapatnam give me a local advantage? No. The 95:5 rule applies to State cadres under the Presidential Order. Port, steel plant, shipyard, naval and railway recruitments follow their own rules.

Can I apply for a Constable post in another district? Where the notification allows it, you compete as a non-local for the 5 percent open share. The notification states the position for each post.

Where should I look for ASHA, anganwadi and contract health posts? On your district portal, under Recruitment, Notices and Documents. Read the last date and the area of the post.

Has the DSC 2026 notification been issued? Our DSC guide found none on the official portals as on October 2026. Check cse.ap.gov.in and the TET and DSC portal.

Is the Polavaram district part of Zone II? The notifications read for this guide do not print Polavaram as a separate row. Read the zone table and certificate instructions in the notification you apply to.

Which centre should I choose for Group-I Mains? Visakhapatnam is the only Mains centre in the north. The notification says the choice is final, subject to the Commission's right to change it.

Are the numbers in this guide final? No. Vacancy figures are provisional in the notifications. Confirm on the official site before you rely on a single-vacancy post.

Related reading

• Government jobs in the Godavari region
• AP reservation, roster and local status
• AP 28 districts fact sheet
• APPSC Group-I 2026 notification
• AP police recruitment 2026 update
• AP DSC 2026 notification status
• APPSC OTPR update on local status
• Andhra Pradesh government exams 2026
• Telugu version: ఉత్తర కోస్తా ఆంధ్ర ప్రభుత్వ ఉద్యోగాలు

Practise on Pareeksha

When you have chosen a layer, test yourself under timed conditions. Pareeksha.in offers 10 Lakh+ MCQs, 100+ Exams and 5,000+ Full-Length Mocks, including Andhra Pradesh state exam practice. Start with a sectional test on AP GK and a full mock for your chosen exam on Pareeksha.in.

Sources and verification

Pages opened for this guide, as on 7 October 2026, official ones first:

• APPSC Notification No. 07/2026 dated 06.10.2026 (Group-I Services), psc.ap.gov.in, including the local reservation paragraphs, the centre list and Annexure-I
• APPSC recruitment notifications list (portal-psc.ap.gov.in), for the dated list of 2026 notifications
• SLPRB notifications Rc.91/SLPRB/Rect.2/2026 and Rc.81/SLPRB/Rect.1/2026 dated 16.09.2026, the Recruitments page and the Press Release page (slprb.ap.gov.in), and SLPRB press notes dated 24.04.2025 and 05.01.2025
• Mega DSC 2025 notification dated 20.04.2025 (tet2dsc.apcfss.in)
• District portals on ap.gov.in: Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, Alluri Sitharamaraju and Polavaram, home pages and Recruitment categories
• Visakhapatnam Port Authority careers page (vpt.shipping.gov.in)
• RINL website (vizagsteel.com), Careers entry point only
• Join Indian Navy, Civilian page (joinindiannavy.gov.in)
• PIB release of 7 February 2025 on the South Coast Railway zone divisions; South Coast Railway site (scor.indianrailways.gov.in)
• SSC CHSL 2025 notice dated 23.06.2025 (ssc.gov.in)
• ETV Bharat report on the zone's operations and Deccan Chronicle report on the local cadre restructuring order (news, cross-check only); Wikipedia page on Polavaram district (cross-check only)

Not verified: the full text of the Presidential Order and G.O.Ms.No.172 (the zone map was read from the APPSC and SLPRB notifications, which agree); the placement of Polavaram district in a zone; the current notices on the RINL and shipyard sites; the Navy dockyard apprenticeship notices for 2026; the university and medical college sites; the medical recruitment board's site; the existence of a DSC 2026 notification (reported by our sibling guide, not confirmed by me because the portal loads by script); the 2026 IBPS and RRB vacancy lists. Vacancy numbers are provisional in the notifications. Check the latest notification before you apply.