BPSC Previous Year Question Papers (56th to 71st) with Answer Keys: Official PDFs

BPSC publishes the question booklets of every Combined Competitive Examination on its own website, free, as PDFs: the prelims General Studies paper, the four compulsory Mains papers (Essay, General Hindi, GS Paper I and GS Paper II) and every optional paper, from the 66th CCE (2020) to the 71st CCE (2025–26), plus the final answer key of each prelims. The links below go straight to those official files, so you do not need a coaching site’s re-typed copy. For the 64th and 65th CCE only the answer keys survive on the site; for older exams (56th to 63rd) we give the dates and point you to our question-wise practice sets.

Use this page as the index: download the paper, attempt it in two hours with the current scoring rules, check it against the final key, and then read the subject-wise trend to see where the marks are.

Official question papers and answer keys, 64th to 71st CCE

All links open the PDF on bpsc.bihar.gov.in. Final answer keys are given where BPSC published one; for the 64th to 67th CCE the site holds only the provisional key that was put up for objections.

Where BPSC publishes the papers and keys

• Question booklets: the Question Booklets page on bpsc.bihar.gov.in. Choose “Combined Competitive Examinations (CCE)”, then the exam, then the paper. The archive starts at the 66th prelims.
• Answer keys: under Notices. BPSC first uploads a provisional key with a notice inviting objections (usually within a week of the exam) and then the final key after the objections are examined. The marks are awarded on the final key only.
• OMR sheets and Mains answer books: after each result BPSC also uploads candidates’ own OMR sheets (prelims) and evaluated answer books (Mains) under the candidate login for a week or two. They are not public.

Exam dates: when each BPSC CCE was held

The gap between prelims and Mains has narrowed from a year (64th and 65th, when Covid intervened) to about four to seven months now, and the whole cycle from prelims to final result is now 18 months or less.

The older exams: 56th to 63rd CCE

BPSC’s current website does not host the booklets of these exams (they were published on the old bpsc.bih.nic.in domain), so treat any PDF you find elsewhere as a scan. The dates matter because the 56th–59th and 60th–62nd were “common” exams that merged several years of vacancies into one cycle.

Our Bihar history PYQ set and the Bihar polity and geography set include questions from these older papers, re-typed and checked, with explanations.

How the paper has changed, and what to watch when you solve an old one

• Prelims: one General Studies paper of 150 questions, 150 marks, two hours, 12 noon to 2 pm, in every exam from the 64th to the 71st. The 72nd keeps the same paper.
• Negative marking was introduced from the 68th CCE (announced in December 2022). Papers before that were attempted without penalty, so a 2019 score is not comparable with a 2025 score. In the recent exams one-third of a mark is deducted for each wrong answer; see the negative marking and Option E guide for the 2026 rule on blank rows.
• Option E: from the 60th–62nd to the 68th the fifth option meant “none of the above / more than one of the above”; the 69th to 71st papers had four options; from 2026 BPSC’s OMR carries an E bubble that means “not attempted”. When you solve a 2017–2023 paper, remember that option E was then a genuine answer choice.
• Mains: until the 67th the written exam was General Hindi (100, qualifying) plus GS-I, GS-II and a descriptive optional of 300 marks each. From the 68th, an Essay paper of 300 marks replaced the optional in the merit, and the optional became a 100-mark objective qualifying paper. So the 67th and earlier GS papers are still useful; the older optional papers are not.
• Final merit since the 68th: Essay 300 + GS-I 300 + GS-II 300 + interview 120 = 1,020. Cut-offs by category are on our cut-off page.

Subject-wise trend in the prelims paper, 68th to 71st

BPSC does not publish a subject break-up, so these counts are from published paper analyses (Testbook for the 70th and 71st, Physics Wallah for the 69th, CollegeDekho and Testbook for the 68th). Sources differ by a few questions in how they classify Bihar and environment questions; read the table for the shape, not the exact number.

Three things stand out. Science plus current affairs is 50 to 60 questions in every paper, more than history. Economy has shrunk to a handful of questions while geography has grown to about 20. And Bihar-specific questions (history, geography, schemes, the Economic Survey) are 14 to 27 a year, which is why we keep a separate Bihar special mock test and the Bihar GK notes.

How to use the previous year papers

1. Attempt, don’t read. Print the booklet or open it on a second screen, set two hours, and mark answers on a blank OMR with five bubbles. Score it on the current rule: +1 for a correct answer, −1/3 for a wrong one, 0 for Option E. The rule is explained in our negative marking and Option E guide.
2. Check against the final key, not the provisional one. Between the two, BPSC usually deletes or changes a handful of questions; the final key is what decided the cut-off.
3. Compare your score with that year’s cut-off. Our cut-off page has the category-wise prelims and Mains cut-offs from the 65th to the 71st CCE. A score 10 to 15 marks above the unreserved cut-off on a two-year-old paper is a safe place to be.
4. Tag every wrong answer by subject and compare with the trend table above. Most candidates lose the same 15 to 20 marks every paper in two subjects; that is where the next month goes.
5. Repeat the Bihar questions. BPSC re-asks facts about Bihar’s history, geography and schemes in slightly different words. Our Bihar history PYQ set (152 questions), Bihar polity and geography PYQ set and Bihar economy PYQ set collect them topic-wise with explanations.
6. For the Mains, read the GS Paper I and II booklets for the question style (statistical analysis in Paper I, Bihar-specific sub-questions in Paper II) and the essay topics of the 68th to 71st Mains, which we have listed section-wise.

72nd CCE: where things stand

The 72nd advertisement came out on 5 May 2026 with 1,230 posts, now 1,187 after three corrigenda. The prelims was fixed for 26 July 2026, moved to 25 October 2026, and on 12 October 2026 postponed again without a new date. When it is held, BPSC will put the booklet on the Question Booklets page within a day or two and the provisional key under Notices within a week; we will add both here. Until then the 70th and 71st papers are the closest guide to the 72nd. Our 72nd BPSC page tracks the date.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I download BPSC previous year question papers as PDF?

From BPSC’s own Question Booklets page (bpsc.bihar.gov.in/question-booklets), which has the prelims, Mains and optional papers from the 66th CCE onwards. The table on this page links directly to each PDF.

Does BPSC release an official answer key?

Yes. A provisional key is uploaded under Notices within about a week of the prelims with a window for objections (₹250 per objection in the 71st CCE), and a final key follows after the objections are examined; the 71st final key, for example, came on 31 October 2025 with five questions deleted. Marks are awarded on the final key.

How many years of previous papers should I solve for BPSC?

All six papers with official booklets (66th to 71st) under exam conditions, and at least the 68th to 71st twice, because those are the papers set under the current rules (negative marking, Essay in the Mains). Older papers are useful for Bihar-specific questions, which BPSC repeats.

Are questions repeated from previous BPSC papers?

Rarely word for word, but the same facts and topics return, especially on Bihar: rivers and their origins, the Champaran and Quit India movements, the Mauryan and Pala periods, state schemes and Economic Survey figures. Solving the old papers tells you which facts BPSC likes.

Related pages

• 71st BPSC Mains result 2026: numbers, interview timeline
• BPSC eligibility 2026: age limit, attempts and qualification
• BPSC interview: process, marks and likely questions
• BPSC cut-off, 65th to 71st: prelims, Mains and final, by category
• BPSC syllabus and exam pattern 2026
• 72nd BPSC 2026: notification, vacancies and exam date
• BPSC negative marking and the Option E rule
• All free BPSC mock tests and PYQ sets
• BPSC posts and salary: every CCE post with pay level and in-hand pay

Sources

Checked 31 October 2026. All papers and keys are hosted by BPSC; dates are from BPSC’s own notices and result PDFs.

• BPSC: Question Booklets (Combined Competitive Examinations)
• BPSC: Notices (answer keys, examination programmes and results)
• BPSC: Archived notices, 2018 to 2024