Paper I ready · Paper II coming soon in Medha AI. Paper I: APPSC Paper I: General Studies & Mental Ability · Paper II: Civil, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering Coming soon
Full numbered syllabus: every topic, chapter and micro-topic (printable)
The common APPSC 2026 Paper I. The 2022 and 2025 papers were mostly recall on current events, history, geography and economy; reasoning and data analysis were about a fifth (55 of 294).
1. Current events
- Major current events and issues: international, national and Andhra Pradesh
2. General science
- General science and its applications to daily life
- Contemporary developments in science and technology and information technology
3. History of India
- Social, economic, cultural and political aspects
- Focus on Andhra Pradesh and the Indian National Movement
4. Geography
- Geography of India with focus on Andhra Pradesh
5. Indian polity and governance
- Constitutional issues
- Public policy and reforms
- e-Governance initiatives
6. Indian economy and planning
7. Sustainable development and environmental protection
- Sustainable development
- Environmental protection
8. Disaster management
- Vulnerability profile
- Prevention and mitigation strategies
- Remote sensing and GIS in assessing disasters
9. Logical reasoning
- Logical reasoning
- Analytical ability and logical interpretation
10. Data analysis
- Tabulation and visual representation of data
- Summary statistics: mean, median, mode and variance
- Interpretation
Two units only: strength of materials, and fluid mechanics and machinery, which includes hydro power (hydrographs, pondage, dams, spillways). The unit split is not notified.
1. Strength of materials
- Forces, moments, equilibrium, planar trusses, friction
- Simple stresses and strains: Hooke's law, mild steel stress-strain diagram, factor of safety, Poisson's ratio, elastic moduli and their relation, composite bars, temperature stresses
- Strain energy and resilience: gradual, sudden, impact and shock loads
- Shear force and bending moment for cantilever, simply supported and overhanging beams (point load, UDL, UVL); point of contraflexure
- Bending and shear stresses; section modulus; design of simple beam sections
- Principal stresses, Mohr's circle, theories of failure
- Columns: Euler's theory, end conditions, Rankine's formula
- Lifting machines and virtual work
- Torsion of circular shafts, power transmitted, combined bending and torsion; helical and leaf springs
- Thin and thick cylinders and spherical shells: hoop and longitudinal stress, volumetric strain
2. Fluid mechanics and machinery
- Fluid properties, Pascal's law, gauge and vacuum pressure, piezometer and manometers
- Hydrostatic forces on plane and curved surfaces; buoyancy and stability
- Fluid kinematics: continuity equation, velocity potential, stream function, flow net
- Euler's and Bernoulli's equations, momentum equation; venturimeter, orificemeter, rotameter, pitot tube, hot-wire anemometer
- Pipe flow: Reynolds experiment, major and minor losses, pipes in series and parallel, HGL and TEL, water hammer
- Boundary layer, separation, drag and lift
- Jets on vanes; Pelton, Francis and Kaplan turbines, draft tube, specific speed, governing, cavitation
- Centrifugal pumps: work done, efficiencies, specific speed, characteristic curves, NPSH
- Hydraulic valves: check, shuttle, directional control, pressure relief, reducing, sequence and counterbalance valves
- Hydro power plants: layouts, pumped storage, hydrographs, storage and pondage, types of dams and spillways
Circuits, measurements, illumination and six units on machines. No electronics, control systems or power electronics in either Electrical paper.
1. Electric circuits
- Network elements and sources; Kirchhoff's laws; mesh and nodal equations
- Transient and steady-state response of RL and RC circuits to impulse, step, ramp and sinusoidal inputs; Laplace transform
- Single-phase AC circuits; balanced and unbalanced polyphase circuits; three-phase power measurement
2. Measurements and instruments
- Absolute and secondary instruments; extension of range
- Measurement of voltage, current, power and energy
- Cable fault location: Murray and Varley loop tests; CRO
3. Illumination
- Solid angle, luminous flux, luminous intensity, candle power
- Laws of illumination; flood lighting, street lighting; lamps
4. DC machines
- EMF equation, shunt, series and compound generator characteristics, armature reaction
- DC motor torque, speed control and starters
5. Transformers
- Phasor diagrams, regulation, efficiency, equivalent circuit and tests
- Three-phase transformer types; Scott connection
6-9. AC machines
- Three-phase induction motors: cage and slip ring, torque-slip characteristic, speed control
- Alternators: synchronous impedance, voltage regulation, short circuit ratio, synchronisation, infinite bus, power angle curves
- Synchronous motors: starting, V and inverted V curves, synchronous condensers
- Single-phase induction motors: types, starting methods, shaded pole motor
Nine units, from building materials to surveying and transportation. It covers up to 393 of the 503 posts.
1. Building materials
- Timber: species, defects, preservation, plywood
- Bricks: IS classification, absorption, saturation factor, masonry strength
- Cement compounds, setting times; mortars
- Concrete: w/c ratio, admixtures, workability, mix design, non-destructive testing
2. Structural analysis
- Virtual work, strain energy, Castigliano's theorem, Betti's and Maxwell's reciprocal theorems
- Deflection: double integration, Macaulay, moment area, conjugate beam
- Indeterminate frames: moment distribution, slope deflection, Kani's, stiffness and force methods; plastic analysis
3. Steel structures
- Limit state method; plastic sections
- Bolted and welded connections; tension and compression members; beams
- Beam-to-column and seat connections; industrial roofs
4. Concrete and masonry structures
- Limit state design for bending, shear, axial compression
- Codal provisions for slabs, beams, columns and footings
- Prestressed concrete: methods and losses
- Brick masonry design as per IS codes
5. Construction planning and management
- Bar charts, work breakdown structure, activity-on-arrow networks
- Critical path, PERT, time-cost trade-off, crashing, resource allocation
6. Hydraulics and water resources
- Open channel flow: most economical section, specific energy, critical depth, gradually varied flow profiles, hydraulic jump
- Dimensional analysis: Rayleigh and Buckingham pi; model laws
- Hydrology: unit and S-hydrographs, floods, flood routing, reservoir capacity
- Irrigation: soil-plant-water relations, water demand, well hydraulics, water logging
- Canals: Lacey's and tractive force theories, lining; gravity dams; head works, falls, cross-drainage works, river training
7. Environmental engineering
- Water supply: sources, intakes, demand, quality standards, treatment, distribution
- Sewerage: design of sewers, sewage characteristics and treatment, plumbing, rural sanitation
- Air and noise pollution, standards, environmental impact assessment
8. Soil mechanics and foundations
- Soil classification, compaction, permeability, seepage and flow nets, consolidation
- Shear strength, earth pressure theories, soil exploration
- Bearing capacity, settlement, shallow foundations, piles, expansive soils
9. Surveying and transportation
- Chain, compass, theodolite, levelling, contours, traversing, triangulation, GPS, photogrammetry, remote sensing
- Highway alignment and geometric design, horizontal and vertical curves, pavement materials and design, drainage
- Traffic surveys, intersections, signals, mass transit
Seven of ten units are environmental science; the rest are engineering drawing, basic electrical and electronics, and computer fundamentals. Held in a different session from the other Paper IIIs.
1. Engineering drawing
- Conic sections, cycloids, involutes; plain, diagonal and vernier scales
- Orthographic projections of points, lines, planes and solids; auxiliary views
- Sections and development of surfaces of prisms, cylinders, pyramids and cones
- Isometric projection and conversion to orthographic views; AutoCAD basics
2-5. Environmental studies
- Natural resources: forest, water, mineral, food, energy and land; dams and their effects
- Ecosystems: food chains, webs, pyramids, energy flow, succession; forest, grassland, desert and aquatic ecosystems
- Biodiversity: values, hot spots, threats, endangered and endemic species of India, in-situ and ex-situ conservation
- Air, water, soil, marine, noise and thermal pollution; nuclear hazards
- Solid waste: urban and industrial waste control
6-8. Disasters, social issues and population
- Floods, earthquakes, cyclones and landslides
- Rainwater harvesting, watershed management, resettlement and rehabilitation
- Climate change, acid rain, ozone depletion; Environment Protection Act, Air Act, Water Act, Wildlife Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act
- Population growth, family welfare, human health, HIV/AIDS, women and child welfare, role of IT
9. Electrical and electronic engineering
- R-L-C, sources, source transformation, Kirchhoff's laws, star-delta transformation
- Single-phase AC: RMS and average values, form factor, impedance, power factor, j-notation
- PN junction diode, Zener diode as regulator, half-wave, full-wave and bridge rectifiers
- BJT configurations, feedback amplifiers, oscillators; op-amp as inverting, non-inverting, differentiator and integrator
10. Computer fundamentals
- Functional components, booting, memory types, USB drives
- Files, folders, paths, installing and removing applications
Power systems in nine units: transmission, distribution, insulators, cables, faults, generating stations, protection, circuit breakers, economics and utilisation.
1-3. Transmission and distribution
- Line inductance and capacitance; short, medium and long lines; ABCD constants; sag and tension
- Insulators: potential distribution over a string, string efficiency and how to improve it
- Underground cables: grading, capacitance measurement, testing
4. Fault calculations
- Symmetrical faults, symmetrical components, unbalanced faults
5. Generating stations
- Hydro plant layout and turbines, pumped storage
- Thermal plant layout, condensers, cooling towers, energy flow diagram
- Nuclear reactors, fast breeder reactor
6-7. Protection and circuit breakers
- Overcurrent, directional and distance protection
- Protection of alternators and transformers
- Air-blast, oil, minimum oil, vacuum, SF6 and DC circuit breakers
8-9. Economics and utilisation
- Load curve, load, utilisation and plant capacity factors; base and peak load; load forecasting
- Economic load dispatch, hydro-thermal scheduling, transmission losses
- Industrial drives, motor rating, testing of motors, neutral earthing
Twelve units, from thermodynamics and heat transfer to manufacturing, industrial engineering and modelling and simulation. The unit split is not notified, so skip nothing.
1-4. Thermal sciences
- Thermodynamics: laws, entropy, exergy, Otto, Diesel, Brayton, Rankine and vapour compression cycles
- Heat transfer: conduction, fins, convection, heat exchangers (LMTD, NTU), radiation, boiling and condensation
- Refrigeration and air conditioning: refrigerants, vapour absorption, psychrometry, cooling load
- Turbomachines: axial turbines and compressors, stall and surge, centrifugal machines, Pelton, Francis and Kaplan turbines
5-7. Machines and design
- Theory of machines: mechanisms, Kennedy's theorem, cams, gears and gear trains, balancing, belts and clutches
- Machine design: fits and tolerances, failure theories, shafts under fatigue, springs, joints, bearings, gears
- Machine drawing and solid modelling: Bezier, B-spline, NURBS, wireframe, surface and solid models
8-10. Materials and manufacturing
- Engineering materials: crystal defects, phase diagrams, heat treatment
- Casting, forming, powder and polymer processing, welding, metrology
- Metal cutting: Merchant's circle, tool life, machining economics; unconventional machining (abrasive jet, ultrasonic, EDM, electron beam, laser beam)
- CAD/CAM, part programming, group technology, CAPP
11-12. Industrial engineering and modelling
- Linear programming, queuing, forecasting, inventory and EOQ
- Work study, time study, plant layout, line balancing
- Quality control charts, acceptance sampling, TQM, Six Sigma; maintenance; MRP, ERP, supply chain
- Modelling and simulation: Lagrange equations, Newton-Raphson, integrators
Each wrong answer costs 1/3 of the question's marks (0.33 with 1 mark per question), in all three papers.
Papers II and III depend on the post code (Civil, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering).
APPSC Paper I syllabus · APPSC Paper I study notes