BPSC Interview 2026: Process, 120 Marks, Documents, Common Questions and Bihar-specific Questions

The BPSC interview (personality test) carries 120 marks and is added to the 900 marks of the three Mains papers that count (Essay, GS Paper I and GS Paper II) to make the final merit of 1,020. About 2.5 candidates are called for every post: in the 70th CCE, 5,401 candidates were called for 2,017 posts, 5,354 appeared, and 2,009 were recommended (the 70th topper, Shraddha Pandey, finished on 593 of 1,020). There is no published minimum in the interview, so a strong interview can move a candidate several hundred ranks, and a weak one can cost the preferred service.

This page explains how the marks work, who is called, what happened in the 70th CCE interview round (January to April 2026) as the worked example, what to carry and expect on the day, where the questions come from, and 40 questions that candidates of the 63rd to 70th CCE have reported being asked. The 71st Mains result, which will trigger the next round, had not been declared as of 31 October 2026.

How the interview counts in the final result

• Who is called: candidates above the category-wise Mains cut-off (for the 70th CCE, 445 of 900 for unreserved, 430 BC, 428 EWS, 420 EBC, 396 SC, 403 ST), which BPSC sets to call roughly two and a half times the vacancies. The Commission’s own comparison at the 70th result press conference: 817 interviewed for 324 posts in the 68th, 1,252 for 475 in the 69th, 5,450 for 2,035 in the 70th.
• The arithmetic: the final cut-off for unreserved candidates in the 70th was 528, against a written cut-off of 445, so the typical selected candidate added about 80 interview marks to a written score in the 450s. Candidates report scores from the 60s to the 90s out of 120; a 30-mark spread in the interview is worth more than most candidates gain between two Mains attempts.
• Prelims marks do not count, and neither do General Hindi or the optional once qualified.
• For CDPO, Financial Administrative Officer and Sub-Divisional Protection Officer (the Table II posts), the optional is a 300-mark written paper in place of the Essay, but the interview is the same 120.

Category-wise written and final cut-offs for every exam since the 65th are on our cut-off page.

The 70th CCE interview, step by step

The 70th round is the most recent complete cycle and the first under BPSC’s new board-allotment rules, so it is the best guide to what the 71st will look like.

What changed in 2026

• Board by lottery. From 21 January 2026 the candidate draws a slip just before the interview to pick the board, the subject experts on each board are chosen by software, and the candidate goes in with a code number instead of a roll number, so the board does not see the profile in advance.
• Serving officers on the boards. From April 2026 BPSC placed at least one serving IAS or IPS officer on each board, and the questions moved towards administrative scenarios (as reported in the press; BPSC has not published a notice on the composition).
• Medical examination on the interview day at a venue named in the call letter, with a fee of ₹16.

On the day: rules, documents and the board

• Reporting: one hour before the session on the call letter (10:30 am or 2:30 pm). Relatives are not allowed on the premises.
• Prohibited: mobile phones, smartwatches and ordinary wristwatches, Bluetooth devices, electronic pens. Leave them with the person who dropped you.
• Carry: the printed interview letter; the photo ID used in the application; originals and a set of photocopies of the matriculation certificate (date of birth), graduation certificate and marksheets, caste, EWS or creamy-layer certificate as applicable, domicile, disability certificate, freedom-fighter dependant certificate, and the employer’s NOC if you are in service; passport photographs. BPSC checks these at the document verification before the interview, and your candidature stays provisional until it is satisfied.
• The board: usually four or five members: a chairperson from the Commission, subject experts and, since 2026, a serving IAS or IPS officer. Candidates report interviews of 15 to 25 minutes, in Hindi or English as the candidate prefers; most Bihar candidates answer in Hindi and the boards are described as courteous but quick to counter-question an opinion.
• Dress: there is no rule; formal shirt and trousers or a sari or suit is what candidates wear.

Where the questions come from

BPSC has no separate detailed application form; the board works from the Mains application and the bio-data sheet: name and date of birth, home district, school, college and university, graduation subject, the optional, current job, and the order of service preferences. Candidate accounts of the 63rd to 70th CCE show the same five areas every time:

1. Your home district: headquarters, origin of its name, area, population and literacy (Census 2011 and the 2023 caste survey), sex ratio, rivers, crops, industries, tourist sites, the sitting MP and MLAs, the DM and SP, its two or three problems and what you would do about them.
2. Your graduation subject and optional: the board almost always asks at least two or three questions here, often basic definitions.
3. Current affairs of the last three or four weeks, national and Bihar, and an opinion question on a contested issue, where the board will take the opposite side to see whether you hold your ground politely.
4. Situational questions for the post you have put first: a law-and-order crisis as SDM, a complaint against a police station as DSP, a flood or an exam-cheating case.
5. Your choices: why this service, why Bihar, why you left a job, why DSP above SDM.

40 questions BPSC boards have asked

The first 30 are questions that selected candidates of the 63rd, 65th, 68th, 69th and 70th CCE have described in published interviews (Subodh Kumar, 63rd, rank 49; Rajeev Kumar, 65th, DSP; Anubhav Kumar and Prerna Singh, 68th, ranks 2 and 3; Ujjwal Kumar and Jyotsna Priya, 69th; Shraddha Pandey, 70th topper). The last ten are the kind of Bihar questions that follow from a bio-data sheet; prepare your own versions.

Bihar and your district

1. Name the schemes the Bihar government runs for women. (The candidate named about a dozen and was then questioned in detail on JEEVIKA.)
2. What special schemes exist for the welfare of women in Bihar, and which would you strengthen?
3. Which sites in Bihar are on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and which in India?
4. What is the “poster war” in Bihar politics?
5. You are from Uttar Pradesh: how would you adapt to Bihar’s socio-economic challenges, and what could the two states learn from each other in agriculture and administration?
6. Who was Bihar’s first woman IPS officer, and what is her book called? (Manjari Jaruhar, Madam Sir.)

Current affairs and opinion

7. What is the current issue between India and Bangladesh?
8. If the government promotes inter-caste marriage, should SC and ST reservation be withdrawn for such families? (The candidate said no, and was pressed to defend it.)
9. Has social media done more harm than good? (The member argued for “harm”; the candidate, from a village, argued it was the medium that had helped her most.)
10. What do you think of the current political controversy in the state?
11. What is special about the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya? (Asked of a civil engineer.)
12. What is disinvestment, and how does it affect tourism?

Your subject and optional

13. What is the difference between a doha and a sortha? (Hindi literature optional; asked of two different candidates in the 69th, one of whom could not answer and said so.)
14. Recite a few lines of Rashmirathi. In what language is the Ramcharitmanas written, and the Ramayana?
15. What is the fiscal deficit, and how is the Union Budget prepared? (B.Com graduate.)
16. Questions on the themes of the candidate’s history and English literature degrees.
17. What were the old and the new Silk Routes? Why was the north-west, around Kabul, strategically important under the Kushans? What do you know about the Qutub Minar? (History optional.)
18. Questions on the geography optional and on the candidate’s current job.
19. Technical questions from civil engineering, the candidate’s degree.

Situations and the job

20. As an SDM, a sudden law-and-order situation breaks out in your sub-division. What do you do in the first hour?
21. How would you take forward rural women’s empowerment in your sub-division?
22. You work as a GST assistant commissioner: how do you detect tax evasion and raise revenue?
23. If you became DSP, what would you change, and why would you be the one to change it rather than someone else?
24. Why should you be given the police service? What is special in you for this post?
25. You have chosen DSP above SDM; defend the choice.
26. You are in a state service in Uttar Pradesh; why move to Bihar?
27. You left a bank job paying ₹1.5 lakh a month; why?
28. Your first preference is this post; what will you do on the first day?
29. What are your hobbies? Which places have you visited? (The tourism hobby led to the heritage-site questions above.)
30. You are a mother of three returning to study after years; how did you manage, and how will you manage the job?

Ten Bihar questions to prepare from your own bio-data

31. Give three facts about your district from the 2023 caste survey and Census 2011 that a visiting officer should know.
32. Which river floods your district, and what did the Economic Survey 2025-26 say about flood management?
33. Name the Saat Nishchay-2 schemes you can see working in your block, and one that is not.
34. What is JEEVIKA’s role in your district, and what would you ask its didis to do first?
35. Which crop or industry is your district known for, and what stops it from growing?
36. Who are the MLAs of your district, and what are the main local demands?
37. What does the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 let a Gram Kachahari decide?
38. What is the state’s per-capita income, and how does your district compare?
39. What was the result of the 2025 Assembly election in your constituency, and what does it tell you about local priorities?
40. Which tourist site in your district would you develop, and how?

How to prepare in the six to eight weeks after the Mains result

• Write a one-page bio-data and prepare every line of it: your district (use the Bihar at a Glance facts and the Bihar GK notes), your subject, your job, your choices.
• Read the last month of Bihar and national current affairs (our current affairs notes) and prepare an opinion, with one argument on each side, on the five biggest issues.
• Revise the basics of the optional, not the details: definitions, two or three thinkers, one recent development.
• Do three mock interviews with people who will disagree with you, and record them. The 2026 boards push back; the mark is for staying calm and reasoned, not for winning.
• Get the documents verified early: a missing creamy-layer certificate or NOC is the most common reason for a provisional candidature being held up after the interview.

71st CCE: where the next round stands

The 71st Mains was held on 25, 27, 28, 29 and 30 April 2026 for 14,261 candidates (13,368 for the CCE posts and 893 for Financial Administrative Officer) against 1,298 posts. BPSC uploaded the unevaluated answer booklets for viewing between 24 and 29 August 2026, a step that in the 70th came about a month before the Mains result. Update, 6 November 2026: BPSC declared the 71st Mains result, calling 3,185 candidates for the interview for the CCE posts (1,467 Unreserved, 309 EWS, 421 SC, 25 ST, 474 EBC, 405 BC and 84 BCL) and 207 for FAO; the numbers, the category-wise break-up and the likely interview timeline are on the 71st BPSC Mains result page. The 71st BPSC interview tracker has the projected DV and interview dates, the documents to carry and the score arithmetic. The interview schedule is to be notified separately; going by the 70th, expect document verification within two to three weeks and interviews in two phases over about ten weeks. The 72nd BPSC page tracks the prelims date for the next cycle.

Frequently asked questions

How many marks is the BPSC interview?

120 marks, added to the 900 marks of the Essay and the two General Studies papers of the Mains, for a final total of 1,020. General Hindi and the optional paper are qualifying only, and prelims marks are not counted.

How many candidates does BPSC call for interview?

About two and a half times the vacancies, set through a category-wise Mains cut-off. In the 70th CCE 5,401 candidates were called for 2,017 posts; in the 69th, 1,252 for 475; in the 68th, 817 for 324.

Is there a minimum qualifying mark in the BPSC interview?

BPSC has not published any minimum for the interview, and the final result is drawn up on the combined total of 1,020 marks, so every interview mark counts towards rank and service allotment.

What documents are needed for the BPSC interview?

The interview letter downloaded from bpsconline.bihar.gov.in, the photo ID used in the application, and originals with photocopies of the matriculation and graduation certificates, caste or EWS certificate, domicile, disability certificate and employer’s NOC where applicable. In the 70th CCE these were checked at a document-verification round before the interview, with a “watermark certificate” printed from the candidate dashboard.

Related pages

• BPSC eligibility 2026: age limit, attempts and documents
• BPSC cut-off, 65th to 71st: prelims, Mains and final, by category
• BPSC syllabus and exam pattern 2026
• BPSC posts and salary: every CCE post with pay level and in-hand pay
• BPSC previous year question papers with answer keys
• BPSC essay topics, 68th to 71st Mains
• Bihar at a Glance: names, formation, rulers and key facts

Sources

Checked 31 October 2026. Dates and headcounts are from BPSC’s notices and result PDFs; the reported questions are from published interviews with selected candidates.

• BPSC: Final result, Integrated 70th CCE (20 June 2026) and Mains result (16 December 2025)
• BPSC: 70th CCE interview letters, phase 1 (14 January 2026) and phase 2 (6 February 2026)
• BPSC: 71st CCE Mains, unevaluated answer booklets (24 to 29 August 2026)
• Devdiscourse, 22 January 2026: BPSC’s lottery system for interview boards; Indian Masterminds, 5 April 2026: serving IAS and IPS officers on boards
• Candidate interviews: Shraddha Pandey (70th), Ujjwal Kumar (69th), Jyotsna Priya (69th), Anubhav Kumar (68th), Prerna Singh (68th), Subodh Kumar (63rd)