Government · State · Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC)
BSSC Graduate Level Combined Competitive Exam
Four marks for a right answer, one off for a wrong one — a five-mark swing on every guess you get wrong.
What this exam is
Bihar's graduate-level clerical and technical intake: Assistant Section Officer, Planning Assistant, Junior Statistical Assistant, Auditor, Data Entry Operator. The fourth CGL cycle carries 1,883 posts after a revision that added the Industrial Extension Officer role, and it runs in two stages — a qualifying prelims, then a mains that decides everything.
The marking scheme is what separates this paper from its central-government cousins. Four marks for a correct answer and one deducted for a wrong one means the gap between answering and guessing wrong is five marks, not one. Prelims runs 150 questions across three equal blocks — General Studies, General Science with Mathematics, and comprehension with logical reasoning and mental ability — in two and a quarter hours.
Mains adds a trap that catches people who prepared only for content: Paper 1 is a 100-question Hindi language paper, and you must clear roughly 30% in it before Paper 2 is even evaluated. Paper 2 then repeats the prelims' three-block structure at 150 questions. Bihar-specific material carries real weight throughout — close to half the General Studies topics are about the state itself.
Who can sit it
- A bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university; some posts carry additional technical requirements
- Age limits and relaxations are fixed per advertisement by BSSC and differ by category and post
- Data Entry Operator and similar posts additionally require a computer or typing qualification
- Applications are made online through bssc.bihar.gov.in
The paper, stage by stage
| Stage | Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims | General Studies | 50 | 200 | 2 hr 15 min for the full paper |
| Prelims | General Science & Mathematics | 50 | 200 | — |
| Prelims | Comprehension, Logical Reasoning & Mental Ability — qualifying only | 50 | 200 | — |
| Mains · Paper 1 | Hindi Language — qualifying, roughly 30% needed before Paper 2 is evaluated | 100 | 400 | — |
| Mains · Paper 2 | General Studies | 50 | 200 | — |
| Mains · Paper 2 | General Science & Mathematics | 50 | 200 | — |
| Mains · Paper 2 | Reasoning Ability — Paper 2 builds the merit list | 50 | 200 | — |
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Original items in this exam's style — a timer armed the moment you saw them. Your answer and your seconds produce the diagnosis.
Which river is known as the "Sorrow of Bihar" for the floods it brings almost every year?
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Common questions
BSSC CGL — frequently asked
Who conducts BSSC CGL?
BSSC Graduate Level Combined Competitive Exam is conducted by Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC).
When is the next BSSC CGL exam?
CGL-4 is mid-cycle. The BSSC calendar places prelims in a July–August 2026 window and mains around October 2026, both tentative and both without a fixed day announced at the time of writing. BSSC's recent cycles have slipped more than once — the earlier CGL application round was postponed outright over a fee revision — so the calendar is a direction of travel rather than a promise.
How many vacancies or seats does BSSC CGL have?
1,883 posts (CGL-4, revised figure including 60 Industrial Extension Officer posts).
What is the BSSC CGL exam pattern?
The paper is Prelims 150; Mains 100 (Hindi) + 150 (Paper 2). Timing: Prelims 2 hr 15 min; Mains 2 papers.
Is there negative marking in BSSC CGL?
+4 for a correct answer, −1 for a wrong one — a five-mark swing.
What is the eligibility for BSSC CGL?
A bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university; some posts carry additional technical requirements Age limits and relaxations are fixed per advertisement by BSSC and differ by category and post Data Entry Operator and similar posts additionally require a computer or typing qualification Applications are made online through bssc.bihar.gov.in
Which languages is BSSC CGL available in?
English & Hindi; the mains language paper in Hindi only.
What is the BSSC CGL syllabus?
The paper covers Bihar history, geography, polity, economy and culture, Indian history and the national movement, Indian polity, economy and current affairs, General science — physics, chemistry and biology to school level, Arithmetic, number system, percentage, ratio and averages, Mensuration, algebra and data interpretation, Reasoning: series, analogy, coding-decoding, classification, Mental ability and Venn diagrams, Reading comprehension and logical reasoning, Hindi grammar, vocabulary and comprehension for the mains language paper.
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Two hundred marks, and 135 of them are about your subject and how to teach it — general knowledge is barely a fifth of one paper.
Honesty note: Adversarial verify pass pending (agent budget) — both question keys manually re-solved and confirmed. The exam pattern, marking scheme and Bihar state weighting come from a syllabus audit already held in the AvM backend repository, which itself compiled them from coaching portals rather than a BSSC notification PDF; BSSC does not publish per-topic weightage. One conflict is unresolved and worth knowing about: the vacancy count is reported as 1,883 by two portals after a revision, while a third states 8,054 — the lower, more consistently repeated figure is shown. Exam dates come from the BSSC calendar and are tentative with no fixed day announced, and the July–August prelims window was still open at the time of writing, so whether it was held on schedule is unverified. Applicant numbers, previous-cycle dates and cutoffs were not found in this pass and are shown as unknown rather than estimated. Age limits vary by post and advertisement, so no single band is quoted. Confirm everything against the specific BSSC advertisement before acting on it.
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Now sit the paper.