OPSC ASO Recruitment 2026: 340 Posts, Apply 9 to 30 Nov

OPSC ASO Recruitment 2026 has 340 Assistant Section Officer posts open in the Odisha Secretariat Service, and the form runs from 9 November to 30 November 2026 at 5 pm on opsc.gov.in. The written exam falls on 17 January 2027. The fee is Rs 700, free for SC, ST and PwD candidates, and the advertisement is No. 15 of 2026-27, dated 5 November 2026.

This is a Group-B desk post in the Home Department, and the pay is Rs 35,400 a month at Level 9, Cell 1, plus dearness and other allowances. Any graduate can apply, but the Odia language condition is the part that quietly rejects applications every year, so read that section before you pay the fee.

OPSC ASO Recruitment 2026 at a glance

The Odia rule is where most applications fail

You must be able to speak, read and write Odia. The notification accepts four routes. You passed the Middle School exam with Odia as a language subject, or you passed Matriculation with Odia as the medium of exam in a non-language subject, or you passed Odia as a language subject in the final exam of Class VII or above, or you passed an Odia test at Middle English School standard run by the School and Mass Education Department.

If none of those shows in your regular certificates, you need a supporting certificate dated before the last date of application. A headmaster certificate, a principal certificate showing Odia as a subject from Class VII, or an Odia test pass certificate from the School and Mass Education Department or the Board of Secondary Education will do. OPSC will not accept a certificate issued after 30 November, and OPSC treats forging one as a criminal offence, with rejection and debarment.

Two certificate traps catch people every cycle. First, the SEBC certificate must be issued on or after 10 November 2023. An older one is invalid, and an OBC certificate does not work in place of an SEBC certificate.

Second, women in the SEBC, SC or ST categories must submit a caste certificate showing "daughter of". OPSC can reject one showing "wife of".

The category rules have other sharp edges. Reservation and relaxation for SC, ST and SEBC apply only to those categories of Odisha, so a candidate from another state applies as unreserved. Children of ex-servicemen cannot claim the ex-servicemen posts, and the Commission says it can reject such applications outright. Transgender candidates can apply, with an identity certificate from the competent authority.

One more rule is easy to miss. Registration gives you a Permanent Public Service Account Number, called PPSAN. Apply through more than one PPSAN account and OPSC rejects your applications. If you need to correct a submitted form, cancel it and apply again before the last date.

Who can apply

The age limit is 21 to 42 years on 1 January 2026, which means born between 2 January 1984 and 1 January 2005. The upper limit relaxes by 5 years for SEBC, SC, ST, women and ex-servicemen, and by 10 years for persons with disabilities with 40 percent or more permanent disability. A PwD candidate in a reserved category gets 15 years in total. If you qualify under more than one head, you get only the single most useful relaxation.

The education rule is a Bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university, or an equivalent qualification, plus adequate knowledge of computer application as specified in the schedule. You must hold the qualification by the closing date of the form. Government servants can apply too, but they must inform their head of office in writing and produce a no objection certificate at document verification.

If your birthday falls near the cut off, work out your exact age on 1 January 2026 before you pay. The site's age calculator does that in seconds, and it beats guessing from a birth year.

What the exam looks like

OPSC ASO Recruitment 2026 selects through a written exam and a computer skill test. The written exam has three papers worth 400 marks in total. Paper I is General Awareness, 100 questions for 100 marks in 1 hour 30 minutes. Paper II is Reasoning and Mental Ability for 50 marks plus Mathematics at 10th standard level for 50 marks, 100 questions in 1 hour 30 minutes.

Paper III is Language, English for 100 marks and Odia for 100 marks, 200 questions in 2 hours. Every question carries 1 mark, and every wrong answer loses 0.25 marks. You answer in English except in the Odia paper.

You must clear each paper separately. The qualifying marks are 35 percent for UR and SEBC, 30 percent for SC and ST, and 28 percent for PwD. Ex-servicemen and sports persons follow the qualifying marks of their own caste category. About 1.5 times the vacancies in each category go to the skill test, on written exam merit.

The skill test is a practical computer test of 50 marks, 5 questions in 1 hour, covering Windows, MS Office and internet use. It is qualifying only, and you need 40 percent to pass it. It cannot lift your rank.

The final merit list uses only the 400 written exam marks. Paper I marks break ties first, then age, with the older candidate ranking higher.

The exam runs in 33 zones across Odisha, from Baleshwar to Sundaragada. You pick two zones in order of preference while filling the form, and the Commission will try to allot your first choice. OPSC does not entertain requests to change zone or centre, so pick carefully.

The fee comes back if you sit the test

The fee is Rs 700 for everyone except SC, ST and PwD candidates, who pay nothing. Pay it online while filling the form. OPSC treats an application without the fee, except from the exempt categories, as incomplete and rejects it outright.

The refund is the part worth reading twice. The notification says OPSC refunds the fee only to candidates who actually appear in the written examination. If you pay and do not sit the test, the money stays with the Commission. Refunds go back through the original payment method, so the form also asks for your bank account number, IFSC code, account holder name and branch, in case the refund fails through the original route.

How to apply on opsc.gov.in

OPSC ASO apply online opens on 9 November 2026, and only forms submitted through opsc.gov.in count. Start on opsc.gov.in, register first, which gives you your PPSAN, then fill the form and pay the fee before 30 November at 5 pm. Upload a scanned passport size photograph, your full signature and your left hand thumb impression. All three must be clearly visible, or OPSC can reject the application.

If your photo or signature file is the wrong size for the form, the site's exam photo resizer fixes it in a minute. Keep at least four copies of the same photograph for later use.

Submit well before the closing date. The Commission says plainly that it is under no obligation to entertain requests to fix a form sent with errors or missing documents, and OPSC entertains no request for withdrawal of candidature or change of category under any circumstances. After the written result, shortlisted candidates submit a signed printout of the form with photocopies of all documents, and bring the originals for verification before the skill test.

OPSC uploads the admit card on its website before the exam, and sends no separate letter. For technical problems while registering, the helpline is 0671-2304707 between 10.30 am and 1.30 pm and 2 pm and 5.30 pm on Odisha government working days. The facilitation counter for other questions is 0671-2304141 or 2305611, extension 205.

Gujarat opened a separate state recruitment the same week, with 1,237 posts and a 30 November deadline of its own, and the details sit in the GSSSB CCE 2.0 Recruitment 2026 post on this site.

Sources & verification: Odisha Public Service Commission, Advertisement No. 15 of 2026-27, Notice No. 6266/PSC dated 5 November 2026, read 6 November 2026 from the official notification PDF downloaded from opsc.gov.in. Apply only through opsc.gov.in. The key figures in this article were read directly from that notification: the vacancy table on page 1, the age limit on page 1, the fee and exam date on page 2, the vacancy and reservation tables on pages 1 to 2 of the long advertisement, the Odia conditions on page 5, the exam scheme on page 7, the qualifying marks on page 7, the skill test and merit rules on page 8, the documents list on page 12, and the paper-wise scheme in Appendix I.