APSC syllabus and exam pattern for the Combined Competitive Exam

APSC syllabus at a glance: three stages

The full syllabus of APSC works like a sieve with three meshes. Prelims removes most applicants, mains does the heavy ranking work, and the personality test fixes the final order.

• Prelims: a pair of MCQ papers, usually held one after the other. Only Paper I marks decide who goes through; Paper II must simply be cleared at 33 percent.
• Mains: six written answer papers written over several days. You may answer in English or Assamese.
• Interview: a personality test for those shortlisted on mains marks.

Apart from the missing optional paper, this design mirrors the UPSC civil services exam, so reading for the UPSC syllabus covers most national topics too. Other state commissions are compared on the state exams hub.

APSC exam pattern table

Each wrong prelims answer loses a quarter of that question's value, and marking more than one option counts as wrong. Prelims marks do not carry into the final total of 1500 mains plus 180 interview.

APSC prelims syllabus: what each paper tests

GS Paper I

• Current affairs from Assam, the rest of India and abroad
• Indian history across all periods, the struggle for independence, and how Assam figured in it
• Physical, human and economic geography of India, the world and the state
• Constitution, Panchayati Raj, governance, public policy and rights
• Economic growth, poverty, demography and government welfare programmes
• Ecology, biodiversity and the changing climate
• Everyday science and technology

GS Paper II

• Reading passages and questions on communication and people skills
• Logical and analytical reasoning, plus decision making scenarios
• Mental ability puzzles
• Class 10 level numeracy, with data read from charts, graphs and tables

Paper II is only qualifying, yet candidates from humanities backgrounds sometimes fall short here. A timed set every week, begun early, is far safer than cramming it at the end.

APSC mains syllabus, paper by paper

• Essay: you choose topics from the options given and write in English or Assamese. Structure and balance count as much as facts.
• GS I: India's art, culture and heritage, history from the modern period and of the world, society, and geography at Indian and global scale.
• GS II: the Constitution and polity, how government works, welfare and social justice, and India's foreign relations.
• GS III: economic growth and planning, scientific and technical developments, conservation and ecology, internal security and handling disasters.
• GS IV: the ethics paper, with theory on values and public service plus case studies built around hard choices an officer faces.
• GS V: a whole paper on the state. It asks about Assamese history, literature, art and traditions; the land and rivers; how the state is governed; the state economy; and its environment, security and disasters.

What to prioritise

The Assam paper is the most distinctive part of the APSC mains syllabus, and nobody coming from a UPSC only background is ready for it. Build Assam notes from the very start: the Ahom kingdom and the Burmese invasions, the Assam Accord, the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys, tea and oil in the economy, floods and erosion, tribal autonomous councils and Sixth Schedule areas, and the state's flagship schemes.

Those same notes also feed prelims GS Paper I, GS III on disasters, and essays on the state. One set of Assam notes, revised often, therefore serves four papers at once.

A study order that works

1. Two months on NCERT books to set the base in every GS area.
2. Assam history, geography and economy in depth, alongside current affairs.
3. Prelims revision with past APSC papers and weekly GS Paper II practice.
4. After prelims, shift fully to answer writing: one GS answer set daily and one essay a week.
5. Ethics case studies and the Assam paper in the final mains stretch.

National topics overlap heavily between the two written stages. Read every chapter at the depth an answer needs, then quiz yourself on it in MCQ style, and you prepare for both together.

For the UPSC style national papers, the UPSC prelims syllabus and UPSC mains syllabus pages give fuller topic lists.

Books and official material

NCERT textbooks from classes 6 to 12 cover the national base. Layer on one trusted polity reference, an economy text that explains budgets and schemes, and a modern history book. For Assam, use state board textbooks, the Economic Survey of Assam and publications of state departments. The official syllabus PDF and notices sit on the commission's website; past papers, where you can get them, show how deep each area is asked.