CGPSC Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility, Important Dates

The scheme is Appendix-1 of the 2008 Rules, as amended on 13 February 2019. Everyone sits the same papers, whatever post they want.

Preliminary

• Objective, four choices, two marks a question.
• Negative marking: a third of a correct answer's marks for each wrong one.
• Minimum 33 per cent unreserved, 23 per cent reserved, in each paper.
• Paper-II is qualifying only. The Mains shortlist is drawn on Paper-I alone: fifteen times the posts, category by category, plus everyone tied with the last candidate.
• Preliminary marks don't count in the final result.
• The paper is in Hindi and English; the Hindi version prevails in any doubt.

Main

Conventional short, medium and long answers. Miss any paper or the interview and you're liable to disqualification. Every paper except Language can be written in Hindi or English, but not part in each.

General Studies papers III to VII: five fixed sections

Forty-three answers in three hours, thirty-five of them in sixty words or fewer.

Essay: four essays

Two of about 750 words on international and national issues, and two on Chhattisgarh issues, each from four topics and worth 50 marks. Each must cover the reason, the present status with data, and the solution. Three thousand words in three hours.

Interview

100 marks, one fifteenth of the total. Three times the posts are called, category by category, on Mains marks, plus ties.

Rules that cost marks

• Writing your name, roll number, a religious mark or any identifying mark outside the set place, or using anything but a blue or black ball point, costs 5 marks from that paper or the whole script goes unmarked. Where a Language answer needs a name, write A, B, C for people and X, Y, Z for places.
• No re-evaluation or re-totalling, ever.
• No mobile phones or communication devices.

The syllabus is in the 2008 Rules and reprinted in the advertisement: Appendix-2 for the Preliminary, Appendix-3 for the Mains.

Preliminary Paper-I: half of it is Chhattisgarh

50 questions from Part-1 and 50 from Part-2, each worth 2 marks.

Preliminary Paper-II

1. Interpersonal skills including communication skills.
2. Logical reasoning and analytical ability.
3. Decision making and problem solving.
4. General mental ability.
5. Basic numeracy and data interpretation, both at Class X level.
6. Knowledge of Hindi Language, at Class X level.
7. Knowledge of Chhattisgarhi Language.

Hindi and Chhattisgarhi are tested in those languages only, with no translation.

The seven Mains papers

Six of the seven papers have a Chhattisgarh part. Section 05 of each General Studies paper draws its 30 marks from Part-01 and Part-03, so the state part feeds the longest answers.

The Language paper

• Chhattisgarhi: the language, its development and history, literature and principal writers; grammar (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, voice, indeclinables, case, tense, gender, number, word formation, prefixes, suffixes, sandhi in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi, compounds); the Chhattisgarh Rajbhasha Aayog; the role of newspapers, magazines, All India Radio and cinema; everyday usage; verb forms across tenses.
• General Hindi: comprehension, precis, synonyms and antonyms, homophones, one-word substitution, sandhi, samas, tatsam and tadbhav, correction, prefixes and suffixes, idioms and proverbs, letters, periods of Hindi literature, Chhattisgarh's writers and their works, unseen passages, drafting, official letters, notifications, reports, journalism, and translation between Hindi and English.
• General English: comprehension, precis, rearranging and correcting sentences, synonyms, antonyms, blanks, spelling, vocabulary, idioms, tenses, prepositions, voice and parts of speech.

Qualification

A degree from a university set up by a Central or State Act, or deemed under section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or equivalent. State-recognised professional and technical equivalents count. You can sit the Preliminary while awaiting your result, but must have passed by the last date of the Mains application.

Age on 1 January 2025

All relaxations together can't take you past 45.

Physical standards (six cadres)

No chest measurement for women. For DSP there's no relaxation in chest, you need full medical fitness and clear colour vision, and you sign an affidavit before the interview if you opt for the post.

Reservation

• SC, ST and OBC benefits are for Chhattisgarh residents only; those from other states count as unreserved.
• Disability reservation is for local residents only.
• OBC candidates must be non-creamy layer, with an income certificate issued within three years before the last interview date. Married women need one in their father's name.
• Ex-servicemen posts are for ex-servicemen themselves, not dependants, and only once. Paramilitary service doesn't count.
• Give your permanent caste certificate's number, date and issuer in the Mains application, or you may lose the relaxation and be declared ineligible.

Disqualifications (Rule 6, Civil Services General Conditions of Service Rules, 1961)

• A man with more than one living wife, or a woman married to a man with a living wife, unless the Government finds special reasons.
• Failing the medical examination.
• Any conviction for an offence against women. A pending case holds the appointment until it's decided.

1. Preliminary: two objective papers, 400 marks; shortlist on Paper-I.
2. A fresh online application for the Mains. Miss the date and your candidature is cancelled.
3. Main Examination: seven papers, 1400 marks.
4. Online preference form for the posts.
5. Document verification and interview, 100 marks.

Documents come late

Nothing is uploaded with the application, so admission is provisional until the Commission checks your certificates. They go in with the attestation form before the interview.

Preference form

• It can't be changed once submitted.
• Don't fill it and your order defaults to the advertisement's order of posts.
• Posts are allotted on Mains plus interview, by preference and eligibility. You won't be considered for a post you didn't list.
• If you get none of your preferences, you're considered for the rest in advertisement order, except any you've expressly ruled out. The same applies to supplementary lists.

If you're employed

Ask your appointing authority to send a No Objection Certificate directly to the Commission and keep the receipt to show at interview. Otherwise you'll be interviewed, but if your employer won't relieve you and the appointment falls through, no one is responsible.

After selection

• Three years' probation, with training and departmental exams.
• Posting anywhere in Chhattisgarh, and you must join when offered.
• DSPs sign a bond to serve the State for at least three years.

Impersonation, false or tampered documents, or suppressing information at any stage brings disciplinary action.

Naib Tehsildar is the biggest cadre at 51, and the two Chief Municipal Officer grades together are 47. Deputy Collector is just 14 of 265.

Within the category totals, posts are reserved for local resident women, Chhattisgarh ex-servicemen and local resident disabled candidates, the last by type: OA (one arm), OL (one leg), BL (both legs), OAL (one arm and one leg), B (blind), LV (low vision) and HH (hearing handicapped). DSP, State Tax Inspector, Excise Sub-Inspector and Assistant Jail Superintendent are not open to disabled candidates.

Online only, on the Commission's site. No postal forms, no drafts or cheques.

The paid window covers only date of birth, gender, category, original resident status, disability and ex-serviceman. Switching residence from no to yes, or reserved to unreserved, means paying the difference; the other way isn't refunded. After that window, no more corrections, and your data is final.

Fee

Plus portal fee and GST. Local residents who turn up get the exam fee back if they apply through the dashboard link within 10 days of the exam or interview. Portal, correction and service charges aren't refunded.

No documents are uploaded for the Preliminary, but you must state the certificate number, date and issuer if you claim the Chhattisgarh disabled or ex-serviceman category.

The Rules list forty-three services and posts the exam can fill; twenty are in this cycle. Scribe rules follow the RPwD Act, 2016 and the Government of India letter F.No. 29-6/2019-DD-III of 10 August 2022.

The Commission doesn't pay candidates' travel, except that Chhattisgarh-domiciled SC, ST and OBC candidates not already in service get travelling allowance, claimed on forms at the centre.

Notices appear on psc.cg.gov.in and, when needed, in Rozgar Aur Niyojan and daily papers. This cycle's advertisement ran in Rozgar Aur Niyojan on 3 December 2025.

Each city has a fixed number of seats, and once it fills it disappears from the list. Apply early if you want your own district. Centres can't be changed afterwards.

Scribes and extra time

• You need Form-1 and Form-2 from a Government CMO, Civil Surgeon or Medical Superintendent certifying you can't write.
• Arrange your own scribe or ask the district or divisional office. The scribe must be below the exam's minimum qualification but at least matriculate.
• Forms in Appendices 5 to 8 go to the district office; finish everything five days before the exam.
• 20 minutes per hour extra for blindness, both arms affected, or cerebral palsy.

No mobile phones. Misconduct, unfair means or damaging papers is punishable.

2025 cycle

The last four rows are from the Commission's Result and Model Answer pages. Those pages show the pattern of recent cycles: Preliminary model answers every February since 2022, Mains written results between August and October, and the 2024 selection list on 21 November 2025. New advertisements go up on the Advertisement page.

The Mains application deadline fixes when your degree must be in hand, and the last interview date fixes the three-year window for an OBC income certificate.

Admission cards come through the Commission's website, with notices on the Notifications page and, when needed, in Rozgar Aur Niyojan. You can't sit either stage without one.

An admission card doesn't mean you're eligible. The Commission checks eligibility only after you're marked for the Mains or interview, and its decision on eligibility is final.

Results are on the Result page as PDFs. Final merit is Mains 1400 plus interview 100; the written papers carry over ninety-three per cent.

• Preliminary: roll numbers, with category and sub-category cut-offs. No individual mark sheet at this stage.
• Main: roll numbers called for interview (three times the posts).
• Final: selection list, then a statement of Preliminary and Mains marks and a detailed merit list. For 2024 these came on 20 to 21 November 2025, with Preliminary marks on 1 December 2025.
• Mains mark sheets are sent after the final result.

No re-evaluation or re-totalling. Everything stays provisional until your documents are confirmed.

The latest are the 2025 Preliminary result and the 2025 Mains written result.

The Commission publishes Preliminary cut-offs by category and sub-category with the Preliminary result, and Mains cut-offs with the final result. The latest full set is the 2024 Mains cut-off marks; all of them are on the Result page.

What's fixed in advance is the floor: 33 per cent unreserved, 23 per cent reserved, in every paper. The rest floats with the ratios, 1:15 to the Mains on Paper-I marks and 1:3 to interview, plus ties. With 265 posts that's roughly 3,975 at the Mains and about 795 at interview.

A wrong answer costs about 0.67 of a mark, so the swing between right and wrong is about 2.67.

1. Make Chhattisgarh your main subject. Fifty of the hundred Paper-I questions, a block of Paper-II, a third of the Language paper, half the Essay paper and a part of three General Studies papers.
2. Start Chhattisgarhi early. There's no translation in the Preliminary, and the Mains wants its grammar, history and writers.
3. Clear Paper-II; aim at Paper-I. Paper-II marks don't count beyond the 33 or 23 per cent line.
4. Attempt selectively. Each wrong answer costs a third of a right one's two marks, about 0.67.
5. Drill the five-section shape: 22, 13, 8, 1 and 2 answers at 30, 60, 100, 125 and 175 words, 43 answers in three hours. Timing costs more marks than knowledge. Don't leave any Part thin, since Sections 04 and 05 draw from specific Parts.
6. Practise four structured essays in three hours: reason, present status with data, solution.
7. Pick a medium and stick to it in each paper.
8. Keep the answer book clean: blue or black ball point, no names (A, B, C and X, Y, Z).
9. Apply on the first days to get your centre, and get the six correctable fields right first time.
10. Claim your fee refund within 10 days if you're a local resident.

The Commission publishes the Preliminary model answers for every recent cycle on its Model Answer page, first as a provisional key and then as an amended one. For 2025 they came out on 23 February and 25 March 2026; the archive goes back to the 2020 Preliminary.

Mains papers aren't published as a set. The structure to practise against is Appendix-1 of the advertisement (forty-one pages, with the Rules and all appendices).

• psc.cg.gov.in, Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission
• Advertisement No. 06/2025/Exam, 26 November 2025, with the Rules and Appendices 1 to 8
• Corrigendum of 3 December 2025 and corrigendum of 12 December 2025 (letter No. 1298/ADV/469/2025)
• Advertisement, Notifications, Result and Model Answer pages

Who conducts it?

The Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission, under the State Service Examination Rules, 2008.

How many posts are there?

265 across twenty cadres in the 2025 cycle, after two corrigenda raised it from 238.

How many Deputy Collector posts?

14. The biggest cadre is Naib Tehsildar at 51.

Do both Preliminary papers count?

No. Paper-II is qualifying; the Mains shortlist uses Paper-I only.

Is there negative marking?

Yes, a third of a question's marks per wrong answer in the Preliminary.

How much is about Chhattisgarh?

Half of Preliminary Paper-I, plus Chhattisgarhi language in Paper-II and Chhattisgarh parts in six of the seven Mains papers.

What is the age limit?

21 to 30, or 35 for local residents with a further 5 years under the 2026 circular; 21 to 28 for DSP. Never above 45 with all relaxations.

Do I need to apply again for the Mains?

Yes, or your candidature is cancelled.

What is the fee?

₹300 for local SC, ST, OBC and disabled candidates, ₹400 for others, plus portal fee and GST. Local residents who appear can claim it back.

Are cut-offs published?

Yes, category-wise with the Preliminary result and with the final result, on the Result page.

Can I ask for re-evaluation?

No.