APPSC Group-I 2026: 166 Posts, Notification 07/2026, Apply by 27 October

Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission has opened Notification 07/2026, dated 6 October 2026, for 166 Group-I posts. Apply on psc.ap.gov.in from 6 October to 11:59 pm on 27 October 2026. The notification PDF is a verified copy of the commission text. Download the same file from the commission site when you apply.

The screening test is an offline OMR paper on 24 January 2027. That is not the mains, and it is not the merit list. If you have already clicked Save, check that you also clicked Save and Submit and paid. Save alone is an incomplete form.

This is a different exam from APPSC ASO Notification 20/2026. Do not reuse that CBRT plan here.

The 13 posts

CF means carried forward from an earlier recruitment. Those reserved CF vacancies are filled first. Community, State-wide, Multi-Zone and Zone rows sit in Annexure-I. The commission can add vacancies only before the screening test, by addendum. An addendum covering 07/2026, 08/2026 and 19/2026 went on the site on 13 October 2026. Read it before you lock preferences.

Women get 33 1/3 percent horizontal reservation. Meritorious sports persons get 3 percent. PBD reservation follows Rule 22 and the departmental special rules. It does not apply to codes 03 and 04. Code 02 is restricted to HH and OH, code 06 to HH, code 10 to OH. BC, SC, ST and EWS from other States do not get Andhra Pradesh reservation. BC-E remains subject to the court cases cited in para 4.8.

BC non-creamy-layer and EWS certificates must be issued on or after 1 April 2026 (after FY 2025-26) and not later than 27 October 2026. EWS is digital, Tahsildar rank, family income below Rs 8 lakh. A later certificate will not save you at verification.

Degree and the DSP physical

The crucial date for the degree (and for experience, if any) is the detailed notification date: 6 October 2026. A result declared after that day does not count.

Most codes need any bachelor's degree from a recognised university. Code 04 needs BE or BTech in Electronics and Communication, Electronics and Telecommunication, or Radio Engineering.

Codes 03 and 04 add a physical and medical gate, from G.O. Ms. No. 137, Home (Police E), 1 June 1998 and G.O. Ms. No. 319, Home (Police-E), 16 October 1995:

• Men: height 167.6 cm, chest 86.3 cm on full inspiration, expansion not less than 5 cm. ST: height 164 cm, chest 83.8 cm, same expansion.
• Women: height 152.5 cm, weight 45.5 kg.
• DSP (Civil) vision is tested without contact lenses. The notice prints Standard I, II and III for distant and near vision, full field, and a squint or morbid lid as a reject. Inability to distinguish principal colours is noted but is not, by itself, a reject on code 03.
• DSP (Communications) vision is without glasses on the printed Standard I / II. Colour blindness, squint, knock knees, pigeon chest, flat foot, varicose veins, hammer toes, fractured limbs and decayed tooth are disqualifications on that code.

Annexure-V has the full medical note. If you prefer DSP and you are 165 cm, or you wear only contact lenses, measure and read Annexure-V before you rank code 03 first. A failed physical after allotment is not a free slide to Deputy Collector.

Selection, in the order the notice uses

1. Screening, 24 January 2027, OMR, two objective papers, 120 marks and 120 minutes each. Negative marking one-third. You must sit both papers. Absence in one disqualifies you. Screening only decides who sits mains. The commission takes 50 times the vacancies, irrespective of community, and can relax the screening standard for SC, ST, BC and PBD if those lists would otherwise be short.

2. Mains, descriptive. Telugu and English are qualifying (150 marks, 180 minutes each). Papers I to V are 150 marks and 180 minutes each: General Essay; History, Culture and Geography of India and Andhra Pradesh; Polity, Constitution, Governance, Law and Ethics; Economy and Development of India and Andhra Pradesh; Science, Technology and Environmental Issues. You must appear in all mains papers. Absence in one drops you.

3. Interview, 75 marks.

4. Merit is mains plus interview, 825 marks, after the qualifying language papers. Screening marks do not join that total.

Medium and post, Multi-Zone and Zone preferences for mains are collected online before the mains, not in the October form. Watch the website.

Hall tickets for both stages appear only on psc.ap.gov.in.

How the form actually submits

OTPR is a profile. Para 1.4 says it is not an application. Log in, open Online Application Submission, fill 07/2026, then Save and Submit. Save without Submit never builds a payment link. The commission will not treat that as a filed form.

Fee: Rs 250 processing, plus the examination fee in para 9. The PDF extract of the examination-fee figure is incomplete, so read para 9 on the live PDF before you pay. Exemptions from the examination fee: SC, ST, BC, PBD, Ex-Servicemen, AP white-card households, and unemployed youth under G.O.Ms.No.439. Other-State applicants, except PBD and Ex-Servicemen, pay both fees. IPOs and demand drafts are not taken. Fees are not refunded.

After 27 October you get 7 days to correct the form at Rs 100 a field. Name, fee and age relaxation stay locked. No paper request is accepted.

Use the same mobile and email you put in OTPR. A later OTPR edit does not flow into an already submitted 07/2026 form.

If you have already applied

Open the filled-application PDF the site generated after payment. If you have no payment reference and no SMS, you are not in. Submit again before 27 October.

If you ranked DSP first, confirm height, chest or weight, and vision against para 3 this week, not in January. Prefer DDO (35 posts) or Cooperative (16) only if you would actually serve those jobs. Preferences for mains come later, but a form that claims a degree you cannot produce is cancelled at verification.

BC (NCL) and EWS dated before 1 April 2026: get the new certificate before 27 October.

Read the 13 October addendum. If it changes a vacancy or a condition, the addendum wins.

What 50 times means in numbers

Para 15.1 takes 50 times the vacancies, irrespective of community, to the descriptive mains. On 166 posts that is about 8,300 mains seats if the table holds. Screening is not a small filter. It is still only a filter. Those 8,300 names then sit Telugu, English and five merit papers. Absence in any one mains paper drops you. Screening marks do not join the 825.

If you are aiming at DSP (36 posts, 3 of them carried forward), the 50-times call for that preference is not calculated post-wise in the para. The commission shortlists for mains on the vacancy total, then collects post, Multi-Zone and Zone preferences online before mains. Do not treat a strong screening score as a DSP allotment.

OMR invalidation that kills a good paper

Para 12.1 is the line coaching handouts skip. If you fail to bubble the booklet series, or bubble the wrong series, the sheet is invalidated because an Optical Mark Reader reads it. Whitener, eraser, blade, chalk powder, or a damaged barcode also kill the sheet. There is no "reconsideration" request. Practise bubbling a dummy series on an OMR sheet this month, not on 24 January.

Initial keys go on psc.ap.gov.in after the screening test. Objections run three days. After that the final key is the key. Do not wait for a YouTube channel to file your objection.

Scheme, DSP medical detail and paper lists are on the syllabus page. A full 240-question screening mock is on the practice page.