If you have been searching for "UP Vidhan Sabha Review Officer vacancy" every other week, you already know how confusing this exam space is. There are three different bodies that hire for RO/ARO-type posts in UP: the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat (the Assembly), the UP Vidhan Parishad Secretariat (the Legislative Council), and UPPSC (which hires RO/ARO for the UP Secretariat, a completely separate department). People mix them up all the time, and honestly, most content online mixes them up too.
This post is specifically about the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat's Review Officer and Assistant Review Officer posts. It's a small cadre, the vacancies are limited, and a fresh notification isn't out right now. But the post is worth understanding because it's one of the better desk jobs in UP government, and when a notification does drop, you won't have much time to prepare. Read this now, keep it bookmarked, and start your prep with free mock tests so you're not scrambling later.
Latest notification and important dates
As of August 2026, there is no fresh UP Vidhan Sabha RO/ARO notification live. The Assembly Secretariat runs this recruitment rarely, sometimes with a gap of four to five years between cycles, because the sanctioned strength of these posts is small. The last confirmed hiring activity in this space came from the sister body, UP Vidhan Parishad Secretariat, which released 23 Assistant Review Officer posts in September 2020, and an earlier combined Sachivalaya drive with Review Officer, APS, and other posts around 2015-16.
Below is what we know for the last completed cycle, used here only as a reference point. Do not treat any date below as current.
| Event | Last known cycle (reference only) |
|---|---|
| Notification released | September 2020 (Vidhan Parishad ARO) |
| Application window | 27 September 2020 to 29 October 2020 |
| Prelims exam | Held in 2021 (exact date varied by re-scheduling) |
| Mains exam | Conducted later in 2021 |
| Result / DV | Rolled out through 2022 |
| 2026 notification | Not yet released, status tentative |
Since there's no live form, your best move is to set a routine check on the official site and on pareeksha.in exam news so you catch the notification the day it drops. For UPPSC's separate RO/ARO drive (a much bigger recruitment with hundreds of vacancies), check uppsc.up.nic.in directly, since that is a different exam with a different syllabus weightage even though the post names look identical.
What the job actually is
A Review Officer in the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat works inside the administrative machinery that keeps the state Assembly running. You're not making laws, you're supporting the people who do. Day to day, RO's handle drafting of official notes, checking and reviewing files before they go up the chain, maintaining records of Assembly proceedings, question papers tabled by MLAs, committee reports, and correspondence between departments and the Secretariat.
An Assistant Review Officer sits one step below the RO in the hierarchy and does similar but more junior-level work: verifying drafts, maintaining registers, assisting in compiling proceedings, and handling routine secretarial tasks. Over time, an ARO gets promoted to RO and then further up into Section Officer and above.
The posting is in Lucknow, at the Vidhan Sabha building itself, so unlike many UP government jobs there's no district-to-district transfer drama. You work regular office hours, though during Assembly sessions the workload and hours can spike since proceedings need same-day processing.
Vacancy details
Vacancy numbers for this specific cadre are small and irregular. In the last Vidhan Parishad ARO drive, 23 posts were released, split as Unreserved 11, OBC 6, SC 4, and EWS 2. Earlier combined drives for the Sachivalaya (covering RO, APS, Editor, Research Assistant, Security Assistant and other posts together) touched 70-90 positions across all categories combined. When the Vidhan Sabha releases its own RO/ARO notification, expect a similarly modest number, likely somewhere between 20 and 60 posts depending on how many vacancies have accumulated. This is not a mass-recruitment exam like SSC CGL or UP Police constable, so competition per seat is intense even though the paper itself isn't the hardest.
Eligibility
Age limit: Generally 21 to 40 years as on the cut-off date specified in the notification. Age relaxation follows the usual UP government pattern.
| Category | Relaxation |
|---|---|
| OBC | 3 years |
| SC/ST | 5 years |
| PwD | 10 years (15 for SC/ST PwD) |
| UP government employees | As per service rules |
Education: A graduate degree from a recognised university in any discipline. No specific subject requirement. Knowledge of Hindi typing and computer basics helps, since drafting work involves both.
Domicile: Preference and reservation benefits generally apply to UP domicile candidates, as with most state-level UP recruitments. Confirm the exact clause when the fresh notification comes, since domicile rules do get revised.
Physical standards: Not applicable. This is a desk job, no PET or PST involved.
Application process and fee
Applications for these posts go through the official portal of the respective Secretariat: uplegisassembly.gov.in for Vidhan Sabha, or upvidhanparishad.nic.in for Vidhan Parishad. The process is fully online.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Register with basic details (name, DOB, mobile, email) |
| 2 | Fill the application form with education and category details |
| 3 | Upload photo, signature, and certificates |
| 4 | Pay the fee online |
| 5 | Submit and save the printout |
Fee, based on the last comparable cycle, was in this range. Confirm against the new notification when it comes.
| Category | Fee (last cycle reference) |
|---|---|
| General/OBC/EWS | Rs. 100-150 |
| SC/ST | Rs. 50-75 |
| PwD | Nil or nominal |
Exam pattern
The selection process runs in three stages: Preliminary exam, Main exam, and Interview/document verification. Both prelims and mains are objective plus some subjective components in the Hindi paper. This is roughly how the last cycle's pattern looked.
Preliminary exam
| Paper | Subject | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | General Studies | 50 | 50 | 2 hours (combined) |
| II | General Hindi | 50 | 50 | 2 hours (combined) |
Main exam
| Paper | Subject | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | General Studies | 120-140 | 2 hours |
| II | General Hindi (essay, drafting, précis) | 60-80 | 1 hour |
Prelims is a screening test, its marks don't count towards the final merit. Mains marks decide your rank, and for RO, there's usually an interview stage on top. Negative marking details vary by cycle, so always check the notification's fine print rather than assuming.
If you want to practice this exact pattern with timed sets, use pareeksha.in's online test series, it's built to simulate real exam pressure rather than just give you random questions.
Detailed syllabus
General Studies covers a wide sweep: Indian history and the freedom movement, Indian polity and the Constitution (with extra focus on the legislature, since this is a legislative body job), Indian and world geography, Indian economy, general science, current affairs, and UP-specific topics like the state's culture, education system, agriculture, industry and trade. Expect a good chunk of questions on how the Vidhan Sabha itself functions, since that's directly relevant to the job. Build your base with pareeksha.in's General Awareness guide and top it up daily with current affairs.
General Hindi is scored heavily and often decides your final rank because everyone does reasonably on GS but Hindi separates candidates. Topics include:
- Vilom (antonyms) and paryayvachi (synonyms)
- Tatsam-tadbhav words
- Sentence and spelling correction
- Muhavare (idioms) and lokoktiyan (proverbs)
- Vishesh and visheshan (noun-adjective transformation)
- One-word substitutions
- Précis writing and government letter drafting
- Essay writing on social, economic, political, agricultural and scientific themes, including natural disasters like floods, drought, cyclones and earthquakes
The drafting and précis component is unique to this exam. Most competitive exams don't test you on writing an official government letter or condensing a long note into a short summary, but this one does, because that's literally the job. Practice this separately, it's not something you can wing on exam day.
There's no separate reasoning or quant paper in the core Vidhan Sabha RO/ARO pattern the way SSC exams have it, but a basic reasoning and aptitude foundation from pareeksha.in's Reasoning guide and Quantitative Aptitude guide still helps if the notification adds a mental ability section, which some cycles have done.
Salary, pay scale and career growth
| Post | Pay Level | Pay Scale (7th CPC) |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant Review Officer | Level 7 | Rs. 44,900 - Rs. 1,42,400 |
| Review Officer | Level 8 | Rs. 47,600 - Rs. 1,51,100 |
In-hand salary for an ARO, after standard deductions and with UP's DA and HRA rates, usually comes to around Rs. 45,000 to Rs. 52,000 a month for a fresher, and it climbs as DA revisions kick in. RO in-hand starts a notch higher, roughly Rs. 48,000 to Rs. 55,000.
Career growth here is steady, not fast. An ARO gets promoted to RO after a few years of service, then to Section Officer, and further up the Secretariat hierarchy over a full career. It's not a job you take for rapid promotions, you take it for the stability, the pension benefits, and the working environment of a legislative body, which many people find more prestigious than a routine clerical post.
Previous cut-off
Official cut-off data specific to the Vidhan Sabha RO/ARO cycle is not widely published since the recruitment size is small and irregular. From the comparable Vidhan Parishad ARO 2020-21 cycle, prelims cut-offs (released February 2021) were reported in the range of 55-65% for General category and lower for reserved categories, but treat this as an approximate reference, not a guarantee for the next cycle. Cut-offs shift with vacancy count, paper difficulty and number of applicants each time.
Best books and preparation strategy
Since this exam mixes GS with a strong Hindi language and drafting component, split your prep time roughly 50-50 between the two.
Months 1-2: Build GS basics — polity (with special focus on the legislature chapter), history, geography, economy. Read from NCERT-level material first, then move to UP-specific facts. Start reading current affairs daily from pareeksha.in current affairs so it becomes a habit, not a last-minute cram.
Months 2-3: Hindi grammar deep dive — vilom, paryayvachi, muhavare, tatsam-tadbhav, one-word substitutions. This section rewards rote memory and daily revision more than understanding, so make flashcards and revise them on the metro or between classes.
Month 3-4: Start practicing précis writing and government letter formats. Pick up old model papers, write a précis every alternate day, and get someone to check your grammar and structure. This is the section most candidates skip, and it's exactly why they lose marks.
Last month: Full-length timed mocks using pareeksha.in's practice sets and mock series, sectional revision of weak areas, and daily current affairs review.
For books, standard UP-level GS compilations (Lucent's GK, Arihant's UP GK) cover the general studies portion well. For Hindi, any solid UP-board-level Hindi vyakaran book with a focus on essay and letter writing does the job. Don't overload on ten different books, pick two or three and revise them multiple times instead.
Common mistakes and honest advice
The biggest mistake candidates make is treating this like a pure GK exam and ignoring the drafting and précis part until the last week. That section carries real weight and needs practice, not talent. Second mistake: people wait for the "official" notification date to start studying. Given how irregular this recruitment is, you could be looking at a multi-year gap, and starting cold when the form finally opens means you're competing against people who've been preparing quietly for months.
Also, don't confuse this with the UPPSC RO/ARO exam. The syllabus overlaps but the recruiting body, vacancy scale, and exact paper structure differ. If you're applying to both, keep separate prep notes for what's specific to each.
FAQ
Is there a 2026 UP Vidhan Sabha RO/ARO notification out? Not as of August 2026. Watch the official site and pareeksha.in exam news for updates.
Is UP Vidhan Sabha RO/ARO the same as UPPSC RO/ARO? No. UPPSC RO/ARO is for the UP Secretariat and is a much larger, separate recruitment. Vidhan Sabha RO/ARO is hired directly by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat.
What's the minimum qualification? A graduate degree in any stream from a recognised university.
What's the age limit? Generally 21 to 40 years, with standard category-wise relaxation.
Is there an interview? Yes, typically for the Review Officer post after mains. ARO selection has historically relied more heavily on the written stages.
How many stages does the exam have? Three: Preliminary, Main, and Interview/document verification.
Is the Hindi paper subjective or objective? A mix. Grammar-based questions are objective, while essay and letter drafting are subjective.
What's the posting location? Lucknow, at the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat.
Is there negative marking? Check the specific notification each cycle, this has varied across past drives.
How competitive is this exam? Very, given the small number of seats. But the applicant pool is smaller than mass exams like SSC CGL since fewer people know about it.
Related reads on Pareeksha
If you're preparing for UP-level government exams broadly, these guides on Pareeksha will help you build a shared foundation:
- UP Lekhpal exam guide
- UP Police Constable exam guide
- SSC CGL guide for a similar-level central exam with a bigger GS and reasoning overlap
- RRB NTPC guide if you're also eyeing railway clerical posts
Final word
This isn't a job you can prep for in a rush once the form opens. The vacancies are few, the competition per seat is sharp, and the Hindi drafting section trips up people who assume GS alone will carry them through. Start now with a steady routine: GS reading, daily current affairs, and regular Hindi practice. Build your plan on pareeksha.in's study plan tool, take mocks regularly on the test series, and you'll be ready the day the notification actually lands.
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