Rajasthan APO syllabus and exam pattern

How the APO selection works

Recent reports of the RPSC scheme describe three steps:

1. Preliminary exam: an objective OMR paper that only screens candidates. Whatever you score there stays out of the final tally.
2. Main exam: two descriptive papers that decide the merit list.
3. Document verification for those who make the merit list.

Earlier recruitment cycles also carried a short interview, and reports differ on whether the newest scheme keeps one. Go through your cycle's advertisement before you plan any interview practice.

Rajasthan APO exam pattern: screening paper and written mains

A wrong bubble in the prelims wipes out a third of the mark that item carries. RPSC OMR sheets also carry a fifth bubble that you must fill when you skip a question; leaving too many questions with no bubble at all can cost you marks or even your candidature, so read the instructions on the sheet.

In the mains you must sit both papers and score at least 40 percent in each, while SC and ST candidates get 5 points of relief. The Law paper mixes very short, short and essay type answers and tests practical skill such as framing a charge.

Rajasthan APO pre syllabus: the Law part

The 70 law questions of the prelims come from this list of codes and Acts:

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), read with the older IPC of 1860
• Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), read with the CrPC of 1973
• Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), read with the Evidence Act of 1872
• Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
• POCSO Act, 2012, on sexual offences against children
• Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015
• Probation of Offenders Act, 1958
• Arms Act, 1959
• Rajasthan Excise Act, 1950
• Rajasthan Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1992, and the newer Rajasthan Act on measures against unfair means in recruitment

Objective questions here reward exact recall: section numbers, punishments, time limits for arrest and remand, and which old provision maps to which new one.

Rajasthan APO mains syllabus for the law and language papers

Paper I: Law (300 marks)

The same Acts as the prelims return, but now you write. Expect problem questions where you identify offences from a set of facts, draft a charge, explain the stages of a criminal trial or apply rules on the admissibility of confessions and dying declarations. Both the old codes and the three new criminal laws appear in the official list, so learn the new section numbers alongside the familiar ones.

Paper II: General Hindi (50 marks)

• Idioms and proverbs with meaning
• Translation and legal terminology
• Giving a title to a passage and summarising it
• A short essay on a current topic
• Official letters, office orders, circulars, notifications, press releases and the vakalatnama

Paper II: the English half (50 marks)

• Usage and grammar: tenses, determiners, phrasal verbs, subject verb agreement, modals, confused words, synonyms and antonyms
• An unseen passage with questions, plus precis writing
• Paragraph writing and notice writing

The language papers are set at senior secondary standard. They are easy marks to bank if you practise formats such as the office order and the notice in advance.

Language topics in the prelims

The 30 language questions of the screening paper are split equally. General English draws on tenses, prepositions, determiners, modals, voice and one word substitution. General Hindi covers correction of words and sentences, joining and splitting sentences, a word for a phrase, prefixes, antonyms and English to Hindi administrative terms.

A language question is worth exactly as much as a law question here, so steady work on these 30 questions can lift you over the screening line even when the law part feels tough.

Rajasthan APO syllabus: where to put your hours

Law alone carries 70 percent of the prelims and 75 percent of the mains, so give it most of your hours. Inside law, the three main codes (penal law, procedure and evidence) form the core of almost every question, while the special Acts supply many short, factual items.

• Read each code beside a table mapping former sections to their new numbers.
• Make one page notes for each special Act: definitions, key offences, punishments, special courts and bail rules.
• Do not skip the two Rajasthan unfair means Acts and the Excise Act. They are short and local, so many candidates ignore them.

For the wider picture of commission exams in the state, browse our RPSC overview or the wider list of state exams.

A study plan for working graduates

• Phase 1: bare Acts of the three codes, with the new numbering.
• Phase 2: special and state Acts, plus the language grammar list.
• Phase 3: mock prelims with the negative marking rule, and old RPSC papers from the commission's website.
• Phase 4 (after prelims): answer writing, charge drafting, Hindi letters and English precis.

Eligibility in brief

For the latest cycle, reports give these rules:

• A law degree (LLB) from a recognised university
• Age between 21 and 40 for unreserved candidates, with state rules giving extra years to reserved groups
• A working command of Hindi in the Devanagari script plus some grounding in Rajasthani customs and heritage

Each advertisement sets its own date for counting age and its own list of relaxations. Anyone comparing other state prosecution posts can look at the UP APO syllabus and the Bihar APO syllabus, which test similar codes with different language and general studies papers.