OPSC Assistant Section Officer 2026 — Complete Written Examination & Computer Skill Test

Recruitment: Advertisement 15 of 2026–27 · 340 Group-B ASO seats · Odisha Secretariat Service, Home Department. Written examination tentatively 17 January 2027 (Sunday). The final schedule, examination centres and admission-certificate download instructions will be issued by OPSC.

✍️ Examination scheme: 400 written marks, 50 practical marks

📊 Written paper marks — relative weight within the 400-mark examination

Every wrong answer in the objective written examination attracts 0.25 negative marks. The advertisement states that the questions in the written papers are multiple-choice; the Computer Skill Test is practical, not an additional multiple-choice paper. The question papers are in English except for the Odia language paper or as otherwise indicated for the language portion.

Minimum qualifying marks: each paper counts independently

For sports persons and ex-servicemen, the prescribed minimum relates to their social category. Achieving the minimum in one paper does not compensate for being below the minimum in another; the written selection requires satisfying the stipulated paper-wise rules. The computer practical has a separate 40% qualification requirement.

📚 Paper I — General Awareness (100 marks, 100 questions)

The official Appendix I gives a broad general-awareness syllabus that connects Indian public life, Odisha, governance and world affairs. Concentrate on the named areas rather than memorising unrelated lists:

1. Current national and international events: significant developments in India and abroad, particularly their public-policy context.
2. Indian history: British rule in India, major events of the freedom struggle and the historical background to independent India.
3. Indian Constitution: constitutional framework, institutions and public administration fundamentals.
4. World physical geography: salient physical features and major geographical processes.
5. India and Odisha geography: physical geography of India and Odisha as separately mentioned in the notice.
6. Governance and accountability: transparency, accountability, e-governance, civil-service roles, code of ethics, ethical governance, grievance redressal, government information and public resource management.
7. Defence: defence in India and the Armed Forces.
8. Science in daily life: scientific inventions, their applications and common everyday-life science questions.
9. Environment: environmental concerns, ecology, biodiversity and climate change.
10. International institutions: United Nations and other international organisations, their structure and mandate.

The syllabus is not limited to headlines and static state facts: it expressly names governance transparency and public-service ethics. That distinction matters for a Secretariat cadre where administration-related understanding is relevant.

🔢 Paper II — Reasoning & Mental Ability (50) + Mathematics (50)

Verbal reasoning: Number series, alphabet series, direction-sense testing, coding-decoding, number ranking, arithmetic reasoning and age-calculation problems.

Non-verbal reasoning: Mirror images, cubes and dice, grouping identical figures, embedded figures and comparable visual-reasoning exercises.

Mathematics: Arithmetic, algebra, mensuration in two and three dimensions, statistics and probability. The appendix lists these headings; it does not specify a fixed topic-by-topic mark quota, so none should be assumed.

Both segments share Paper II's 1½-hour duration. Neither 50-mark component is an independently timetabled full paper; their joint maximum is 100.

📖 Paper III — English (100) and Odia (100)

English

The detailed Appendix I lists Grammar covering verbs, prepositions, adverbs, subject–verb agreement, error correction/recognition, tense, fill-in-the-blanks with articles and related vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms. It also includes comprehension and sentence rearrangement. Candidates should consider both language accuracy and the ability to understand and reorder passages/sentences.

Odia

The notice assigns 100 marks to the Odia language paper, which is part of Paper III along with English. The Odia portion's syllabus is set out in the original appendix in Odia script. The candidate must already satisfy the separately stated Odia speaking/reading/writing and school/test certificate requirements. Do not treat possession of a certificate as an exemption from answering the 100-mark Odia paper.

Paper III duration: 2 hours for the combined English and Odia components, not two hours for each language.

💻 Paper IV — Computer Application (Practical Skill Test)

The skill exam is essential but qualifying in nature. Marks earned in it are not added to the 400 written marks to determine final merit. Prepare for practical document creation/editing in Word, spreadsheet handling in Excel, presentation basics, Access fundamentals and basic internet use, but do not assume an official hidden distribution of the five tasks across these packages — the advertisement does not publish one.

🧮 Who reaches the skill test?

OPSC calls skill-test candidates from the written-examination results using the stipulated category-wise ratio. In general, the advertisement describes approximately two times vacancies (minimum five) for a category with five or fewer seats, and approximately one-and-a-half times, rounded upward, for a category with more than five. PwD backlog candidates receive the special provisions stated in the recruitment notice. A place on the shortlist requires the published written-exam eligibility and minimum marks; neither an assumed 510-person universal list nor an automatic invite for everyone who achieves 35% is promised.

🏆 Final merit and tie resolution

Final merit = written marks out of 400, among candidates who qualify Computer Skill Test. In a tie, the candidate who has higher Paper I General Knowledge marks is ranked first. If this is also equal, the older candidate is placed ahead. OPSC may publish individual marks and the final select list on its official website after the process is complete.

🗺️ Examination zones and the two-choice rule

The notice identifies 33 zones: Balasore, Brahmapur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur, Angul, Baragada, Bhadrak, Balangir, Boudh, Debagada, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jeypore, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Kendrapada, Kendujhar, Khordha, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada, Nabarangpur, Nayagada, Puri, Rayagada, Rourkela, Sonepur and Sundargarh.

Select two preferred zones in order during the application. The Commission may allocate a different centre where necessary, and requests to change an allotted examination zone/centre are not entertained. An exam-zone preference is not a guarantee of the exact venue or of the final allotted district.

🗓️ Answer key, objections, admit card and result

The commission has given 17 January 2027 as a tentative written-examination date. After the examination, a provisional key may be made available, along with instructions for objections/representations through the prescribed channel and period. The present advertisement does not supply the date or fee of a future objection window. The actual admission certificate, skill-test calendar and written/result notices must be read from the later official publications.

No interview is specified. Candidates therefore should not invest in an assumed interview-stage mark distribution or treat circulating coaching-based question estimates as the Commission's announced pattern.

Official OPSC portal: https://www.opsc.gov.in/Public/OPSC/Default.aspx