LIC Assistant Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

Both phases ran, at the same centres. The handout covers Phase II in full, and it carries two structures, applied according to the state a Division falls under.

Phase II Main Examination: Part A and B States

Phase II Main Examination: Part C States

Part A and B States add a compulsory 40-mark Hindi Language paper and cut the other four sections to 40 questions to fit it. Part C States drop Hindi and spend those marks on awareness and quantitative aptitude, at 50 each, and on reasoning and computer aptitude, at 60, the largest section in either paper. Check your Division's own notification to see which applies.

You must clear minimum qualifying marks in each Section separately and a minimum in the aggregate. Those minima are published as marks, not percentages, and work out at 40 per cent of the section for general categories and 35 per cent for SC, ST and PwBD.

Each question has five options, one correct, and a quarter of its marks comes off for a wrong answer, so random guessing loses marks. Sections are separately timed: finishing early buys nothing, because you reach the next test only when the current one's time elapses. Allow about three and a half hours at the venue.

LIC has never published a topic list for this examination. What it publishes is the information handout, which names each test, says what it measures and prints worked sample questions. Everything below comes from that, and LIC warns the samples are only illustrative and not exhaustive.

General and Financial Awareness

The samples ask which institution introduced Know Your Customer, which sector contributes most to growth in state income, what monetary policy is concerned with, and how to judge the strength of a company issuing new shares. Banking and finance first, general awareness around it.

• Banking and finance: RBI and its functions, KYC and anti money laundering, monetary policy, inflation, IPOs and credit rating, IDBI, NABARD and SIDBI
• Insurance: LIC itself, IRDAI, life insurance products, the regulator
• Economy: sectoral contribution to national and state income, government schemes, budget and economic survey
• Current affairs and static general knowledge: awards, appointments, sport. One sample asks who, associated with Operation Flood, received the Padma Vibhushan

General English

LIC states the scope: grammar, vocabulary, sentence completion, synonyms, antonyms, comprehension of a passage. The samples are error spotting in a four-part sentence with a fifth "no error" option, and antonyms of a capitalised word. Add sentence improvement, fill in the blanks, cloze test and para jumbles. English only, in both paper variants.

Quantitative Aptitude

The samples run from a one-line divisibility question, through a profit and loss problem loaded with transport, octroi and coolie charges, to a three-question set on one data table.

• Number properties: divisibility, approximation, number series
• Arithmetic: profit and loss, percentage, ratio, average, simple and compound interest, time and work, time and distance, mixtures
• Data interpretation: tables first, then bar, line and pie
• Algebra, mensuration, permutation, combination and probability

Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude

One section, two subjects. The reasoning samples are word rearrangement, a syllogism, an alphabet reversal, a letter interchange within a word and a ranking-in-a-row problem. The computer samples are an odd man out among Monitor, Keyboard, Floppy drive, Windows and Hard-disk drive, the full forms of LAN and RAM, and an output device.

The computer questions are definitional and quick, and in the Part C paper this combined section carries 60 marks, so the fastest marks sit here.

Hindi Language, Part A and B States only

LIC describes this one in Hindi: proficiency in the language, vocabulary, sentence construction, word usage, synonyms, antonyms, words with several meanings, spelling errors, proverbs and idioms. The samples are error spotting and one-word substitution, drawn from literary rather than official prose.

The 25-mark test in your state's official language is separate and qualifying only. See Selection Process.

The eligibility conditions for 2019 were printed in the divisional notifications of 17.09.2019, which LIC no longer publishes. The Notification Divisionwise link on its archived page is empty, so no age range, vacancy count or fee can be stated from the Corporation. What the surviving documents establish is below.

Graduation is rewarded, not required

The Class III and Class IV Employees (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1985 grant an employee in the scale of Assistant who is graduate of a recognised university at the time of appointment, or who becomes graduate of the recognised university after the date of appointment, two increments in the scale of pay. The rule only makes sense if the cadre is open to graduates and non-graduates alike. Whether a particular recruitment demanded a degree is a matter for its own notification.

Knowledge of the state's official language is compulsory

LIC says it twice, in two notices it still publishes: Candidate should have the knowledge of the Official language of the State for which he is submitting the application. Selected candidates are required to prove their knowledge of the Official language of the respective States, before joining. A condition of joining, not just a stage of selection. The mechanism is under Selection Process.

Reservation, from the certificate formats LIC publishes

Medical fitness, and a bar that outlives the recruitment

All 101 divisional results shortlist candidates subject to pre-recruitment Medical examination. Separately, the handout warns that incorrect information or a process violation found at any stage disqualifies the candidate and leaves them unable to appear in any LIC recruitment process in the future, applied with retrospective affect if it surfaces later.

The stages, in order

The official language test

Knowledge of the official language of the state your Division falls under will be tested by administering a qualifying test of 25 marks, with 10 marks to pass, or 9 for SC, ST and PwBD. Miss it and you are disqualified. Beat it and you gain nothing: Marks obtained in this test will not be considered while preparing the ranking list of the candidates.

Two exemptions. A candidate who qualifies the Main and produces a 10th or 12th standard marksheet or certificate evidencing having studied the Official Language of that state skips the test. And where the state's official language is Hindi or English it is not administered at all, which covers a large part of the country.

Scores are equated before any threshold

Correct answers give a Corrected Score once the quarter-mark penalty is applied. Those are then made equivalent to take care of the minor difference in difficulty level, if any, in each of the objective tests held in different sessions, giving an Equated Score reported to two decimal places. Cutoffs may be applied in two stages: on scores in individual tests, and on Total Score, so a threshold would be an equated score, not a count of correct answers.

How the examination is policed

• Thumb impression and photograph are captured before and after the paper, and a mismatch later leaves the candidature liable to be declined.
• Your responses (answers) will be analysed with other candidates to detect patterns of similarity of right and wrong answers. Wrong answers count as much as right ones, and a conclusion of sharing cancels the candidature.
• One attempt only. If more than one call letter was generated, you sat once and surrendered the rest.
• No final submission before the test time runs out, so you cannot leave early.
• Answer with the mouse: one keyboard press locks the exam.

An Assistant is a Class III employee, and the pay comes from the Class III and Class IV Employees (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1985, made by the Central Government under Section 48 of the LIC Act.

The Assistant's scale runs 23,465 to 65,565 rupees over twenty increments, and a revision sits on top of it. LIC's press release of 15 March 2024 records a wage revision with effect from 01/08/2022, an overall hike of 17 per cent for more than 1,10,000 employees, and NPS employer contribution raised from 10 to 14 per cent for the roughly 24,000 who joined after 01/04/2010. The printed scale is a floor.

A graduate gets two increments on appointment, so does not start at 23,465. A graduation allowance follows at the top of the scale: 1,625 rupees a month for an Assistant who graduates after reaching the maximum, and 830 rising to 1,625 after one and two years for one who already took the increments. It is not basic pay but counts for DA, PF, gratuity, pension, leave encashment and HRA.

Dearness allowance is 0.08 per cent of Pay for every four points by which the quarterly average of the All India Average Consumer Price Index Number for Industrial Workers exceeds index 6352 in the 1960 equals 100 series. It is revised quarterly, up or down.

Staff quarters replace HRA, with a licence fee instead. Provident fund is ten per cent of pay matched by the Corporation for everyone past probation not covered by the Pension Rules, and gratuity is one month's terminal basic pay per completed year of service, or the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 figure if higher. Passing the departmental examination earns a special allowance under the Class III Employees (Special Allowance for Passing Examination) Rules, 1988, which counts toward DA. A receiving and paying cashier gets 3,530 rupees a month, excluded from DA, PF, gratuity, HRA and pension.

How the 2019 application worked

1. Select LIC Zone based upon the State or UT under which one wishes to apply.
2. Go to the link of LIC Division of your choice and carefully read details about the vacancies, other conditions and requirements.
3. Apply Online through the link provided on next page.

The form sat on the IBPS online application platform at project code licastaug19. LIC's archived page still links to it, now labelled Application form re-print link for shortlisted candidates. The form is closed; the link survives so those candidates could re-print what they filed.

What the choice of Division decides

There is no all-India merit list to fall back on. Someone who would clear comfortably in one Division may not clear in the next one over.

A candidate claiming SC, ST, OBC non-creamy-layer, EWS or PwBD status, or asking for a scribe, had to use LIC's own annexure format. All seven are linked under Important Links. The window, fee, age limits and vacancy figures were in the withdrawn notifications of 17.09.2019, and a new cycle will carry its own.

LIC recruits for itself: no commission, no consortium, no pooled list. The terms of service of its Class III employees are made by the Central Government under Section 48 of the LIC Act.

Central Office, Mumbai issues Corporation-wide notices, among them the official-language notice and the information handout. The eight Zonal Offices group the Divisions and organise the results. The Divisional Offices, about a hundred of them, are the recruiting units: each published its own notification on 17.09.2019 with its own vacancies, and each published its own result.

Two outside bodies appear, neither of them the employer: the application platform at project code licastaug19, which issued call letters, and a test conducting body, unnamed in the handout, holding absolute discretion over any re-examination. Promotion runs to Higher Grade Assistant at 35,310 to 82,095, and then the officer cadres.

LIC's centres annexure lists 191 rows of Zone, Division, State and centre, and both phases used the same ones. You sat wherever your Division sent you. Most Divisions had a single centre; a few sent candidates to another state.

Kavaratti, Port Blair, Kohima, Aizawl, Agartala, Imphal, Shillong and Gangtok all appear, so LIC ran the paper in the smaller union territories and north-eastern capitals rather than pooling them into a metro. Shimla had the widest choice at nine centres, Meerut six, Karnal five and Chandigarh four. Since the annexure maps Division to centre, you cannot pick a city and work backwards to a Division.

Find the venue beforehand: late comers will not be allowed, and nothing electronic is permitted. If the test is disrupted, a re-exam is at the absolute discretion of test conducting body.

LIC has no Assistant recruitment open. As at September 2026 its Careers page carries only AAO (Generalists, Specialists, Assistant Engineers) 2025 and the Engagement of Chief Financial Officer on contract basis. A new cycle would be announced on LIC's Careers page, as a set of divisional notifications published on a single day.

The 2019 cycle

Three months from notification to Main, both phases at the same centres.

The gap since

Assistant last ran in 2019. Apprentice Development Officer has run twice since, in 2018-19 and 2022-23, and AAO twice, in 2023 and the live 2025 recruitment. Seven years, four officer and development rounds, and nothing for the clerical cadre. Nothing LIC publishes says when that changes.

Call letters came through the application platform at project code licastaug19. Carry the call letter with a passport photograph pasted on it, a photo ID in original and a photocopy stapled to it, and a ball-point pen.

The two names must match exactly, which catches post-marriage name changes; only an original gazette notification, marriage certificate or affidavit cures a mismatch. Thumb impression and photograph are taken before and after the paper, so wash off ink, mehndi or colour and keep both hands dry: failure there means non-admittance. Ask for a scribe in the application form, not at the centre.

LIC published 101 results, one per Divisional Office, grouped under its eight Zones, and they are all still on the archived page. Each quotes the notification of 17.09.2019 and the Main examination of 22nd December, 2019, then lists serial number, roll number and name. No marks, no rank, no cut-off. Every one shortlists candidates subject to pre-recruitment Medical examination, so the comparison is within your Division and the list is conditional.

Marks were shown separately and not to everyone: the display-of-marks facility covered South Zone Divisions except Chennai, plus Kadapa and Visakhapatnam, and showed a candidate their own score. Two results, Cuttack and Varanasi, were reissued as corrigenda, so read the version on LIC's page rather than a copy saved on the day.

A place on the list is not the end. The language test and the medical come next, biometrics are matched against the exam-day capture, and a disqualification found later applies with retrospective effect.

LIC has never released a cut-off for the Assistant examination. Each of the 101 Divisions set its own threshold against its own vacancies, and the display-of-marks facility showed candidates only their own score. The only published thresholds are the sectional and aggregate minima under Exam Pattern, a floor rather than a closing mark.

Settle which paper you are sitting

Before any syllabus, work out whether your Division's state is Part A or B, with five 40-mark sections including a compulsory Hindi Language paper, or Part C, with four sections of 50, 40, 50 and 60 and no Hindi. In a Part A or B state a fifth of the paper is Hindi, and anyone who cannot manage school-level Hindi misses the sectional minimum of 16 whatever the other four sections say.

Clear every section, then chase the total

Both gates apply: minimum marks in each section separately and in the aggregate. Banking marks in two strong sections and writing off a weak one fails at the first gate however high the total. Get every section past 16 of 40, 20 of 50 or 24 of 60, then optimise. Sections are separately timed, so train at 30 minutes a section for Part A and B, or 35, 35, 40 and 40 for Part C, and sit the full two and a half hours in one go.

Quick marks

• General and Financial Awareness is pure recall, 40 or 50 marks with no working out. Weight it toward banking, insurance and economy, which is what LIC's samples test.
• Computer Aptitude, inside the reasoning section, is definitional. In a Part C state that section carries 60 marks and its computer half is the fastest scoring on the paper.
• Quantitative Aptitude is the slowest. Practise reading one data table once and answering three questions from it.

On guessing: five options, a quarter mark off for a wrong answer. Eliminating two options makes a guess roughly break even; three makes it worth taking.

Sort the language question first

1. Division in a state whose official language is Hindi or English: no test.
2. You hold a 10th or 12th mark sheet showing you studied that language: exempt. Keep it safe.
3. Neither: a 25-mark test after the Main, needing 10 marks, or 9 for SC, ST and PwBD. Failing disqualifies you; scoring high earns nothing.

Rehearse the mechanics too: everything is done with the mouse, since one keyboard press locks the exam. Check your ID name matches the call letter exactly, leave the Ration Card and Learner's Licence at home, and wash off mehndi or ink before the biometric capture. Start before the notification: the 2019 cycle ran from 17 September to the Main on 22 December.

No question papers or answer keys have ever been released for this examination. LIC's Information Handout for the Main Examination, in English and Hindi, is the only official material: eight pages, about half of them sample questions LIC calls only illustrative and not exhaustive.

LIC's own pages

• Careers, where live recruitments appear and behind which the Archive sits
• Recruitment of Assistants -2019, with the instruction to pick a Zone and then a Division
• Assistants 2019 documents: handouts, language notices, annexures and the 101 divisional results

Examination documents

• Main Examination handout, English, 8 pages: both paper structures, qualifying marks, penalty, equating, interface rules and sample questions
• Main Examination handout, Hindi
• Official language notice 1
• Official language notice 2, with the 25-mark test and its exemptions
• Proposed Examination Centres, 191 rows
• Divisional result, Ajmer, representative of all 101
• Application form re-print for shortlisted 2019 candidates

Certificate formats

• Scribe Declaration Form
• Caste Certificate, SC and ST
• OBC certificate, non-creamy-layer
• OBC declaration
• EWS Income and Assets Certificate
• Certificate of Disability

Pay

• Class III and Class IV Employees Rules, 1985: scale, graduation increments, DA, HRA, PF and gratuity
• Wage revision press release, 15 March 2024

Is there a live LIC Assistant recruitment right now?

No. As at September 2026 LIC's Careers page carries AAO (Generalists, Specialists, Assistant Engineers) 2025 and the Engagement of Chief Financial Officer on contract basis. Assistant is in the Archive as Recruitment of Assistants -2019, and there has been no notification since 17 September 2019.

Who advertises the post?

Each Divisional Office separately. LIC's notice records the 2019 advertisement as published by the different Divisions on 17.09.2019, and candidates picked a Zone, then a Division, then read that Division's vacancies. About a hundred Divisions under eight Zones, and 101 separate results.

Why are the vacancies, age limit and fee not given here?

Because LIC no longer publishes them. They were in the divisional notifications of 17.09.2019, and the Notification Divisionwise link on the archived page is empty. A 2019 figure would not govern a new cycle anyway.

What is the Main examination pattern?

Two hundred marks in two hours thirty minutes, in two shapes. Part A and B States: five 40-mark sections, being General and Financial Awareness, General English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude, and a compulsory Hindi Language paper, 30 minutes each. Part C States: four sections of 50, 40, 50 and 60, no Hindi, timed at 35, 35, 40 and 40. Which one you sit follows your Division's state.

Is there negative marking?

Yes. A quarter of the marks for that question. Five options, one correct.

What are the minimum qualifying marks?

Absolute numbers, applied section by section and on the aggregate. In a 40-mark section, 16 for general categories and 14 for SC, ST and PwBD. In a 50-mark section, 20 and 18. In the 60-mark section, 24 and 22. That is 40 and 35 per cent throughout.

What is the official language test, and must I take it?

A separate 25-mark qualifying test in the official language of your Division's state, taken after the Main. You need 10 marks, or 9 if you are SC, ST or PwBD, and failing disqualifies you. You skip it if you produce a 10th or 12th mark sheet or certificate showing you studied that language, and it is not administered at all where the state's official language is Hindi or English. The marks never enter the ranking list, so there is nothing to gain by scoring high.

What does an LIC Assistant earn?

The statutory scale runs 23,465 to 65,565 rupees over twenty increments, plus dearness allowance revised quarterly, house rent allowance of 10, 8 or 7 per cent of pay by city size, provident fund, gratuity and a graduation allowance. LIC's press release of 15 March 2024 records a 17 per cent wage revision effective 01/08/2022, so the printed scale is a floor.

Does being a graduate help?

Yes, in cash. The rules grant an Assistant who is a graduate at appointment, or who graduates later, two increments in the scale of pay. There is also a graduation allowance at the top of the scale.

Was a cut-off published?

No, and there is no national threshold even in principle: the recruitment is divisional and the two paper shapes are not comparable. The results carry names and roll numbers only.

Is the result final?

No. Every shortlist is subject to pre-recruitment Medical examination, two results were reissued as corrigenda, biometric data is matched at later stages, answer patterns are analysed across candidates, and a disqualification found afterwards applies with retrospective affect along with a bar on any future LIC recruitment.