State Civil Services · Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC)
BPSC — Bihar Combined Competitive Examination
The complete BPSC blueprint: tier-wise pattern, topic weightage from previous-year analyses, and free chapter-by-chapter study material.
3 stages — Prelims, Mains (4 papers), Interview1,020 final-merit marks (Mains 900 + Interview 120)Single-paper Prelims — no separate CSAT, unlike UPSC CSE or UPPSC Free · tutor-verified
BPSC at a glance
Conducted byBihar Public Service Commission (BPSC)
CycleNominally annual by CCE (Combined Competitive Examination) number, but the cadence has run compressed and overlapping in recent cycles — the 70th CCE's Prelims (Dec 2024) and Mains (Apr 2025) had its final result declared only in Dec 2025, while the 71st CCE's Prelims followed just months later (Sep 2025). Always confirm BPSC's live exam calendar rather than assuming a clean annual rhythm.
ModePrelims: OMR-based objective, single General Studies paper (150 Qs, 150 marks, 2 hours). Mains: pen-and-paper descriptive, in Hindi or English (General Hindi paper is Hindi-only). Interview: in-person personality test board.
EligibilityA bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university. Age (reckoned as on 1 August of the exam year, per recent cycles): general male 20-37; general female (any domicile) and Bihar-domicile backward classes 20-40; OBC (Bihar domicile) up to 40; SC/ST up to 42; PwD up to 47. There is no cap on the number of attempts — candidates may appear repeatedly within the age window. Confirm the exact reference date and bracket against the specific CCE notification, since these shift slightly cycle to cycle.
LanguagesHindi and English for Mains GS/Essay papers; General Hindi is examined only in Hindi
Selection intoThe DSP/SDM tier (Bihar Administrative Service, Bihar Police Service) starts at Pay Level 9 of the 7th CPC matrix; sources vary on the precise starting basic figure (roughly ₹53,100 at the matrix minimum, with some sources citing a higher in-hand range once allowances are added) — confirm the exact current figure against BPSC's own notification. The Block Development Officer tier sits a level below DSP/SDM, though its exact Pay Level is reported inconsistently across sources — treat it qualitatively as "a notch below the DSP/SDM tier" rather than a confirmed specific level.
Where BPSC leads
Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) — Sub-Divisional Magistrate / Block-level executive postings, Pay Level 9Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) — Bihar Police Service, Pay Level 9Block Development Officer and other allied executive and revenue postsOne of the largest state PCS aspirant pools in India, reflecting Bihar's population and the exam's broad post-graduate-and-graduate eligibility
⚡ What changed recently
- BPSC Prelims negative marking is currently −1/3 (−0.33) per wrong answer — introduced at the 68th CCE and raised to its current level from the 69th CCE onward. The 72nd CCE (2026) notification adds a genuinely new wrinkle: a mandatory 5th "Option E — Not Attempted" bubble on the OMR sheet. Marking E costs nothing, but leaving a question completely blank without bubbling E now also triggers the same −1/3 penalty as a wrong answer — the old "blank is always safe" assumption no longer holds unless E is explicitly marked.
- The 70th CCE (Dec 2024 Prelims) saw a paper-leak/irregularity dispute at one Patna examination centre, leading BPSC to re-conduct the exam only for the ~12,000 affected candidates rather than statewide, and triggering large protests. The Supreme Court declined to intervene and directed petitioners to the Patna High Court; the 70th CCE process nonetheless ran its full course, with results declared in December 2025. The most recent cycle (71st CCE, September 2025) ran as a single shift, sidestepping the cross-shift normalisation dispute in practice — though this is an administrative choice made cycle by cycle, not a codified permanent policy.
- BPSC's 2023 caste-based survey of Bihar (covering 2.9 crore households, ~13.07 crore people) found EBC 36.01%, OBC 27.13%, SC 19.65%, General 15.52%, ST 1.68% — this hub's Bihar-specific chapter teaches the survey's findings as settled fact, but the resulting law raising reservation from 50% to 65% was struck down by the Patna High Court in June 2024, with Bihar's appeal still pending before the Supreme Court — treat the 65% figure as NOT currently in force, and the 50% ceiling as the operative one, until a final court ruling changes that.
- India's criminal-procedure and evidence framework changed structurally on 1 July 2024: the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the CrPC and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replaced the Indian Evidence Act — relevant wherever this hub's content touches law and order.
- Bihar's political leadership changes more often than most states' — this hub deliberately does not name a specific sitting Chief Minister or Governor in its content, since both offices have turned over more than once in recent years (including a reported mid-2026 gubernatorial and chief-ministerial transition); always confirm the current office-holders independently rather than trusting a cached figure.
How BPSC selection works
Know what each stage is for before you spend a single hour preparing.
SCREENING GATE ONLY
Prelims — single General Studies paper
One objective General Studies paper — unlike UPSC CSE or UPPSC, BPSC sets no separate CSAT/aptitude paper at Prelims.
THE REAL SCORING STAGE
Mains — 4 written papers, 900 marks (600 merit-counting)
General Hindi (100, qualifying only at 30 marks) + Essay (300) + General Studies I & II (300 each, both merit-counting, both weaving Bihar-specific content through national sections).
FINAL 120 MARKS
Personality Test (Interview)
A board interview assessing administrative aptitude, awareness of Bihar-specific issues and general personality. Final merit = Mains 900 + Interview 120 = 1,020 marks (General Hindi's marks do not enter merit).
The exam pattern, tier by tier
Marks, timing and negative marking exactly as per the official notification.
Prelims — General Studies (single paper, no CSAT)
Screening only150 marks
2 hours · −1/3 (−0.33) per wrong answer, current since the 69th CCE. From the 72nd CCE (2026) onward, a mandatory "Option E — Not Attempted" bubble applies — leaving a question fully blank without marking E also draws the −0.33 penalty, unlike the old assumption that a blank answer was always safe.
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| History & Culture | — | — | Single GS paper |
| Geography | — | — | Single GS paper |
| Polity & Governance | — | — | Single GS paper |
| Economy | — | — | Single GS paper |
| Environment & Ecology | — | — | Single GS paper |
| Science & Technology | — | — | Single GS paper |
💡 150 questions, 150 marks. Same static-knowledge syllabus as UPSC CSE Prelims GS1. BPSC's single-paper design (no CSAT) is a genuine structural difference from UPSC CSE and UPPSC — don't budget CSAT-style aptitude prep time for this exam.
Mains — General Studies I & II
Merit — 600 of your 900 Mains marks600 marks
3 hours per paper
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| GS Paper I | 8 questions (3+3+2 across 3 sections) | 300 | 3 hours |
| GS Paper II | 8 questions (3+3+2 across 3 sections) | 300 | 3 hours |
💡 Both papers weave Bihar-specific content through otherwise-national sections. GS I: modern history & culture (with Bihar), current events, and a distinctive statistical-analysis section. GS II: Indian polity, and Indian economy & geography (with Bihar), plus science & technology.
Mains — Essay & General Hindi
Essay counts fully (300 marks); General Hindi is qualifying only300 marks
3 hours per paper
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (3 essays, one per section, 100 marks each) | 3 essays | 300 | 3 hours |
| General Hindi (qualifying only — not modelled here) | — | 100 | 3 hours |
💡 General Hindi (comprehension, grammar, sentence construction, précis) is a language-skill paper, out of scope for this hub's chapter format, and does not add to merit once you clear its 30-mark qualifying bar. The Essay paper's craft chapters are aliased from UPSC CSE.
Where your BPSC score comes from
Prelims is a single General Studies paper (screening only — BPSC sets no separate CSAT/aptitude paper, unlike UPSC CSE or UPPSC). Mains is where merit is decided: Essay (300) and General Studies I & II (300 each) all count fully, while General Hindi (100) is qualifying only at 30 marks and does not add to merit. General Studies I pairs modern Indian history and current events with a distinctive statistical-analysis section; General Studies II pairs Indian polity with the economy and geography of India — both papers weave Bihar-specific content through otherwise-national sections rather than setting Bihar apart as its own paper, unlike UPPSC's dedicated state papers. Click any block to open its chapters:
General Studies I & II600 marks · 66.7%
Two-thirds of Mains merit, and the papers where this hub's Bihar-specific chapters do the most work alongside the aliased national content.
Essay300 marks · 33.3%
A full hour and 100 marks per essay — more space than UPSC CSE's own essay format, rewarding a sustained, well-evidenced argument over a tightly compressed one.
General Hindi0 marks · 0%
Qualifying only at 30 of 100 marks — clear the bar, then redirect all further Hindi-paper study time elsewhere; it adds nothing further to merit.
Subjects in BPSC
Chapter-by-chapter study material built to the exam's own blueprint.
Topic-wise weightage — what to study first
Question counts per topic, distilled from previous-year paper analyses. Click any topic with a link to open its full chapter.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Colonial Economy, Society & the Freedom Struggle | ~14 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS1. BPSC's own syllabus explicitly pairs this with Bihar — Kunwar Singh, Champaran and Bihar's peasant/tribal movements sit in this hub's own History, Culture & Society of Bihar chapter, which carries the marks this aliased national chapter alone won't.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Indian Art, Literature & Architecture | ~10 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS1. Pala-era art, Madhubani painting and Bihar's Buddhist/Jain heritage sit in the Bihar-specific chapter alongside this national survey.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Governance, Transparency & the Civil Services | ~12 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS2. BPSC's own "current events" section draws heavily on Bihar's own governance record — pair with the Bihar-specific chapter's welfare-scheme and caste-survey content.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| India's Foreign Policy, Neighbourhood & Global Groupings | ~12 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS2. Examined identically to CSE — no Bihar-specific dimension applies here.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Write GS3 Mains Answers | ~14 | High |
| Growth, Development & Macroeconomic Policy | ~14 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS3. Cross-reference the Bihar-specific chapter for how a national economic event (a Union Budget change, a GST-rate revision) actually plays out for a low-per-capita-income, remittance-dependent state economy like Bihar's.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack Basic Numeracy & Data Interpretation for CSAT | ~24 | High |
| Numeracy & Data Interpretation | ~24 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Prelims CSAT. BPSC is unusual in examining this numerical-reasoning skill descriptively inside a Mains GS paper rather than as a Prelims-only qualifying skill — the underlying skill (reading and interpreting a table or chart correctly) is identical, so this CSAT chapter transfers directly; practise writing the interpretation in full sentences rather than just circling an option.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Write GS2 Mains Answers | ~14 | High |
| Constitutional Evolution, Features & Basic Structure | ~14 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS2.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Federalism, Devolution & Local Governance | ~14 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS2. Bihar's own Panchayati Raj — including its 50% women's-reservation policy, one of the earliest in India — sits in the Bihar-specific Polity, Economy & Geography of Bihar chapter, not in this national-framework chapter.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Geography, Resources & Geophysical Phenomena | ~10 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS1. The Kosi and Bihar's other flood-prone river systems — genuinely the highest-yield geography topic for this paper — sit in the Bihar-specific chapter.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Science, Technology & Indigenous Innovation | ~16 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Mains GS3. Examined identically to CSE — no Bihar-specific dimension applies here.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Write the UPSC Essay | ~100 | High |
| Essay Structure, Argument & Paragraph Craft | ~100 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE. BPSC gives a full hour and 100 marks per essay — substantially more space than UPSC's own essay — so this chapter's structuring discipline matters even more here to avoid a sustained argument drifting off-topic.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Abstract & Quotation-Based Essays (Section A) | ~100 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE. This is the aliased chapter most directly matched to BPSC's own Section I ("quotation and proverb-based topics").
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Contemporary, Policy & Development Essays (Section B) | ~100 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE. Matches BPSC's Sections II and III (economy/development/Bihar; science/environment/governance) — bring in Bihar-specific evidence (migration, floods, prohibition) from the Bihar-specific chapters wherever the topic allows.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Building an Essay Material Bank | ~100 | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE. Keep a dedicated Bihar folder in your bank — migration, floods, prohibition and the caste survey recur across BPSC essay sittings.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack History for Prelims | — | High |
| Ancient India & the Indus Valley Civilisation | — | High |
| Medieval India — Sultanate to Mughals | — | High |
| Modern India — Company Rule to 1857 | — | High |
| Indian Freedom Struggle, 1885–1947 | — | High |
| Indian Art, Culture & Heritage | — | High |
🎯 BPSC Prelims is a single 150-mark General Studies paper only — unlike UPSC CSE and UPPSC, BPSC sets NO separate CSAT paper at Prelims. This subject's chapters are identical to CSE's own static-knowledge content.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack Geography for Prelims | — | High |
| Physical Geography & Geomorphology | — | High |
| Indian Geography & Natural Resources | — | High |
| World Geography & Map-Based Facts | — | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Prelims.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack Polity for Prelims | — | High |
| Constitution, Preamble & Schedules | — | High |
| Fundamental Rights, Duties & DPSPs | — | High |
| Union Executive & Parliament | — | High |
| State Executive & State Legislature | — | High |
| Judiciary & Constitutional Bodies | — | High |
| Local Governance & Panchayati Raj | — | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Prelims.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack Economy for Prelims | — | High |
| Economic Concepts & National Income | — | High |
| Money, Banking & Inflation | — | High |
| Fiscal Policy, Budget & Taxation | — | High |
| Economic Reforms & Sectors of the Economy | — | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Prelims.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack Environment for Prelims | — | High |
| Ecosystems, Biodiversity & Conservation | — | High |
| Climate Change & Environmental Policy | — | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Prelims.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| How to Crack Science & Tech for Prelims | — | High |
| Space Technology & Defence | — | High |
| Biotechnology, IT & Health | — | High |
🎯 Shared with UPSC CSE Prelims.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| History, Culture & Society of Bihar | ~76 | Very high |
🎯 No aliased source covers this content anywhere else on the hub — every fact here is Bihar-specific and has to be learned as such. Get the Birsa Munda/Jharkhand geography distinction and the caste survey's settled-findings-versus-unresolved-reservation-law split right by design, since these are the two places candidates most often lose easy marks through imprecision.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Polity, Economy & Geography of Bihar | ~76 | Very high |
🎯 Bihar's economy and geography content rewards paired framing above all — growth with poverty, the SCS demand with its declined status, the Kosi's 2008 breach with its 1963-1991 predecessors. A one-sided answer citing only the more impressive-sounding half of any of these pairs scores below one that holds both together.
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FAQs
Frequently asked questions
A substantial share of the underlying content — modern history, polity, economy, and science & technology are examined to broadly the same national syllabus CSE Mains GS1-3 covers, which is why this hub aliases those chapters directly. What's different is the paper structure itself: BPSC has just 2 GS papers (not 4), weaves Bihar-specific content directly into those papers rather than setting it apart, and its Prelims has no separate CSAT stage.
Yes, currently −1/3 (−0.33) per wrong answer, in force since the 69th CCE. The 72nd CCE (2026) added a new wrinkle: a mandatory 'Option E — Not Attempted' bubble, and leaving a question fully blank without marking E now also draws the same −0.33 penalty — the older assumption that a blank answer is always safe no longer holds unless E is explicitly marked.
It's qualifying only at 30 of 100 marks, so once you clear that bar, no further Hindi-paper marks add to your merit score — but failing to clear it disqualifies your candidacy regardless of your GS and Essay performance. Prepare enough to clear the qualifying threshold comfortably, then redirect further study time to the merit-counting papers.
Both offices have turned over more than once in recent years — including a reported mid-2026 transition — and this content is written to stay accurate across those changes rather than go stale the moment an office-holder changes. Always confirm the current names independently close to your exam date rather than relying on any single cached source, including this one.
No — always pair it with its current status. The survey's findings (EBC 36.01%, OBC 27.13%, SC 19.65%, General 15.52%, ST 1.68%) are settled data, but the law raising reservation to 65% was struck down by the Patna High Court in June 2024, with Bihar's Supreme Court appeal still pending. The operative rule right now is the pre-existing 50% ceiling.
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