| Punjab Civil Services Exam Pattern Details |
Scheme of Examination: Punjab State Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination will be held in two parts i.e Preliminary Competitive Examination and Main Examination.
A. Preliminary Competitive Examination: The Preliminary Competitive Examination will consist of two papers i.e. Paper-I General Studies and Paper –II Civil Services Aptitude Test. The Preliminary Competitive Examination is designed to sift suitable candidates for the Main Competitive Examination. Marks obtained in the Preliminary Competitive Examination by the candidates, who may be declared qualified for taking the Main Competitive Examination, shall not be counted for determining their final order of merit. Candidates equal to thirteen times of the total number vacancies may qualify for the Main Competitive Examination.
B. Main Examination: The main examination will consist of written examination and a viva voce (interview) test. The written examination will consist of nine papers of conventional essay type in varous subjects. Candidates equal to 13 times the number of vacancies may be declared eligible to take Main Competitive Examination.
I. Structure of the Main Competitive Examination:The compulsory and optional subjects and the maximum marks fixed for each subject for the main competitive examination shall be as shown in the table below:
| Paper | Subject | Marks |
| I | English | 100 |
| II | Punjabi (in Gurmukhi Script) | 100 |
| III | Essay (To be attempted either in Punjabi or English) (Gurmukhi Script) | 100 |
| IV | General Studies Paper I | 100 |
| V | General Studies Paper II | 100 |
| VI | Optional Subject I, Paper I | 100 |
| VII | Optional Subject I, Paper II | 100 |
| VIII | Optional Subject II, Paper I | 100 |
| IX | Optional Subject II, Paper II | 100 |
| Viva Voce | 100 | |
| Total | 1000 | |
1. The main Examination is intended to assess the overall intellectual traits and depth of understanding of candidates rather than merely the range of their information and memory. Total number of questions in the question papers of optional subjects will be eight. All questions will carry equal marks. Each paper will be divided into two parts, viz. Part A and Part B, each part containing four questions.
2. Out of eight questions, five questions are to be attempted. In each part there will be a compulsory question. Candidates will be required to answer one more question out of remaining three questions in each part. In this way, at least two questions will be attempted from each Part i.e. one compulsory question and in addition one more question. The candidate may attempt the fifth question from any part.
3. The main competitive examination shall include compulsory and optional subjects and every candidate shall take all the compulsory subjects and two of the optional subjects, except for Ex-servicemen candidates, who are exempted from taking optional subjects. A candidate shall specify in his application form the optional subjects he/she desires to opt.
4. A candidate shall answer the question papers other than the language paper, in English or in Punjabi language.
5. If a candidate’s handwriting is not easily legible, a deduction which may be considerable may be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to him/her.
6. Credit will be given for orderly effective and exact expression combined with due economy of words, in all subjects of the examination.
7. Ex-servicemen category candidates are required to appear only in the Compulsory subjects, i.e., Paper I, II, III, IV & V. However, LDESM category candidates shall have to appear in all the papers, including optional subjects.
8. Candidates shall specify in their application form the optional subjects they desire to take. No change in the choice of options will be permitted under any circumstances.
9. The Main Competitive Examination shall include Compulsory and Optional Subjects as under:
(A) List of Compulsory Subjects:
1. English
2. Essay
3. Punjabi (in Gurmukhi Script)
4. General Studies Paper-I
5. General Studies Paper-II
(B) List of optional subjects for main examination:
| Sr. No. | Subject | Subject Code | Sr. No. | Subject | Subject Code |
| 1 | Agriculture | 31 | 14 | Management | 44 |
| 2 | Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science | 32 | 15 | Mathematics | 45 |
| 3 | Anthropology | 33 | 16 | Mechanical Engineering | 46 |
| 4 | Botany | 34 | 17 | Medical Science | 47 |
| 5 | Chemistry | 35 | 18 | Philosophy | 48 |
| 6 | Civil Engineering | 36 | 19 | Physics | 49 |
| 7 | Commerce and Accountancy | 37 | 20 | Political Science andInternational Relations | 50 |
| 8 | Economics | 38 | 21 | Psychology | 51 |
| 9 | Electrical Engineering | 39 | 22 | Public Administration | 53 |
| 10 | Geography | 40 | 23 | Sociology | 54 |
| 11 | Geology | 41 | 24 | Statistics | 55 |
| 12 | History | 42 | 25 | Zoology | 56 |
| 13 | Law | 43 | 26 | Literature of one of the following Languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Urdu or English. |
57 |
IMPORTANT NOTE : (i) Candidates shall not be allowed to offer the following combinations of subjects:
(a) Political Science and International Relations and Public Administration;
(b) Commerce and Accountancy and Management;
(c) Anthropology and Sociology;
(d) Mathematics and Statistics;
(e) Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science;
(f) Management and Public Administration:
(g) Of the Engineering subject viz., Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering
and Mechanical Engineering—not more than one subject.
(h) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science and Medical Science.
(ii) The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
(iii) Each paper will be of three hours duration. Visually impaired candidates will, however, be
allowed an extra time of thirty minutes at each paper.
(iv) Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the language papers
viz., Papers I and II above in Punjabi or in English.
(v) Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers III to IX in Punjabi language, may, if they
so desire, give English version within brackets for only the description of the technical terms,
if any, in addition to the version in Punjabi language.
(vi) The question papers other than language papers will be set both in Punjabi and English.
(vii) The Compulsory papers of Punjabi and English will be of 10+2 or equivalent standard.
(viii) For the Language papers, the script to be used by the candidates will be as under :
Language Script
Hindi Devanagri
Punjabi Gurmukhi
Sanskrit Devanagri
Urdu Persian
II. Viva Voce:
1. Candidates up to three times the number of vacancies shall be declared qualified for each category to take viva voce test.
2. The viva voce test shall be conducted by an Interview Board comprising of the Chairman and Members of the Commission which may include an outside expert. More than one Interview Boards may be set up to interview the candidates. In the event of an Interview Board not being headed by the Chairman of the Commission, the senior most Member shall be the Chairman of the Board.
C. Candidates have to qualify the Physical Test for the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police in the following events also:
| Sr. No. |
For Male Candidates | For Female Candidates |
| 1 | 1600 meters race to be completed within 07 minutes 30 seconds (only one attempt) |
800 meters race to be completed within 04 minutes 45 seconds (only one attempt) |
| 2 | Long Jump : Minimum 3.80 meters (Three attempts only) |
Long Jump : Minimum 3.25 meters (Three attempts only) |
| 3 | High Jump : Minimum 1.15 meters (Three attempts only) |
High Jump : Minimum 1.0 meter (Three attempts only) |
| 4 | Vertical rope : 2.0 meters climb from the ground (one attempt only) |
Shuttle : Running between two parallel lines 10 meter apart, five times in 25 seconds (one attempt only) |
| IMPORTANT LINKS |
| Punjab Civil Services Eligibility Details |
| Punjab Civil Services Exam Pattern |
| Punjab Civil Services Syllabus |