This is the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination that promotes serving officials — Gramin Dak Sevaks, Postmen, Mail Guards and Multi-Tasking Staff — into the Postal Assistant and Sorting Assistant cadre. It is a much larger audience than Inspector Posts: IP LDCE 2026 notified 27 tentative vacancies, while PA/SA vacancies run into the hundreds across circles, and the most recent all-India LDCE/LGO paper was held on 28 June 2026.
The thing most candidates get wrong about it is not the syllabus. It is which paper decides anything.
Three papers, one merit list
| Paper | What | Marks | Duration | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper-I | Objective (MCQ) — Part A departmental + Part B general | 100 | 120 minutes | THIS is the merit paper |
| Paper-II | Local language test — translation, letter, essay | 50 | 45 minutes | Qualifying only |
| Paper-III | DEST — Data Entry Skill Test | 25 | 15 minutes | Qualifying only |
Merit is prepared on Paper-I alone. Papers II and III have to be cleared, and failing either ends the attempt however well Paper-I went — but a high Paper-II score buys nothing. If you are budgeting study time, Paper-I gets almost all of it and Papers II and III get exactly enough to clear.
Qualifying marks
| Category | Qualifying marks |
|---|---|
| SC / ST | 33% |
| OBC | 37% |
| Others | 40% |
Paper-I Part A — departmental knowledge
This is the half you can actually revise from documents you already handle at the counter. It is also the half most general-competition study material does not cover at all.
Post Office Guide Part I and Part II
- Organisation of the Department of Posts
- Mail and parcel services, and the conditions attached to each
- Savings Bank, Postal Life Insurance and money remittance services
- The customer charter and the grievance-redressal route
Products and services
- Speed Post, Registered Post, Insured Post
- Business Post and Logistics Post
- Money Order, eMO and iMO
- India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)
- The Jansuraksha schemes — PMJJBY, PMSBY and Atal Pension Yojana
Postal Manual Volume VI and Volume VII
- Volume VI: post office procedures, administrative rules, counter and treasury duties, accounts and returns
- Volume VII: transmission of mails, sorting procedure, bag handling and closing, mail office records
Savings Bank and SB Orders
- Post Office Savings Account, Recurring Deposit and Time Deposit operations
- National Savings Certificate and Kisan Vikas Patra
- PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi operations
- SB Orders issued up to 31 December of the year preceding the exam
The SB Order cutoff matters: an order issued in the exam year itself is outside the syllabus.
IT and modernisation
- Basic computer terminology
- Core System Integrator (CSI) concepts
- Darpan and RICT at the branch office
- Core Banking Solution basics
- Digital payment services at the counter
- DIGIPIN — India Post's digital address code
Paper-I Part B — general awareness and arithmetic
- Indian geography, civics and polity, Indian culture, the freedom struggle
- General knowledge and current events
- Ethics and moral studies — public service values, integrity at the counter, handling public money, courtesy in customer dealing
- Arithmetic: number system, percentage, average, ratio and proportion, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, time speed and distance
Part B is ordinary competitive-exam ground and there is no shortage of material for it. Part A is where the exam is won, because almost nobody prepares it properly.
Paper-II — the local language test (qualifying)
| Component | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Translation, English to local language | 15 | 15 |
| Translation, local language to English | 15 | 15 |
| Letter writing in the local language | 1 | 10 |
| Essay of 80–100 words in the local language | 1 | 10 |
45 minutes for 32 items. The translation halves are where the time goes; practise writing official vocabulary — designations, "with reference to", "kindly acknowledge receipt" — in your circle language rather than literary prose.
Paper-III — DEST (qualifying)
The Data Entry Skill Test requires 1,200 key depressions in 15 minutes with a tolerance of +5%, transcribed from printed copy. That is 80 depressions a minute — a low bar for anyone who types daily, and a real one for anyone who does not. It is worth 25 marks and it is pass or fail; there is no credit for going faster.
For comparison, the Postman and Mail Guard LDCE DEST is 1,000 key depressions in 15 minutes.
The adjacent exams, and how they differ
| Exam | Paper-I | Paper-II | Paper-III |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDS / Postman / Mail Guard / MTS → PA / SA | 100 marks / 120 min | Language, 50 marks / 45 min | DEST, 1,200 depressions / 15 min |
| MTS / GDS → Postman / Mail Guard | 150 marks / 90 min | 50 marks / 60 min | DEST, 1,000 depressions / 15 min |
| GDS → MTS | 100 marks / 60 min | 50 marks / 60 min | — |
Where this came from, and what we could not verify
The pattern, the Part A / Part B split and the paper-wise marks above are transcribed from the postal community's reproduction of the DoP revised LDCE/LGO syllabus. No letter number is quoted on those pages, and the Department does not publish this syllabus as text on indiapost.gov.in. Treat the topic lists as indicative rather than authoritative, and check your own circle's notification — which is the document that governs your exam — before you rely on a marks figure. We would rather say that plainly than print a letter number we have not seen.
Which paper decides merit in the PA/SA LDCE?
Paper-I alone. Paper-II (local language, 50 marks) and Paper-III (DEST, 25 marks) are qualifying only — they must be cleared, but a higher score in them does not improve your rank.
What is the DEST speed for PA/SA?
1,200 key depressions in 15 minutes with a tolerance of +5%, which works out to about 80 depressions a minute. The Postman and Mail Guard LDCE requires 1,000 key depressions in the same 15 minutes.
What are the qualifying marks for the LGO exam?
33% for SC and ST candidates, 37% for OBC candidates and 40% for others.
Who can sit the PA/SA departmental exam?
Serving Gramin Dak Sevaks, Postmen, Mail Guards and Multi-Tasking Staff, subject to the service and eligibility conditions in the circle notification for that cycle. The eligibility conditions are set per cycle, so the notification is the authority, not a website.
What is in Paper-I Part A?
Post Office Guide Parts I and II, products and services including IPPB and the Jansuraksha schemes, Postal Manual Volumes VI and VII, Savings Bank operations with SB Orders up to 31 December of the preceding year, and IT and modernisation topics including CSI, CBS, Darpan, RICT and DIGIPIN.
The rest of the India Post series
- IP LDCE 2026 — new 3-paper pattern, full syllabus and exam dates
- IP LDCE Paper II — noting, drafting and the major-penalty charge sheet
- IP LDCE previous year question papers and answer keys
- GDS to MTS, Postman and Mail Guard — syllabus and pattern
- The Post Office Act, 2023 — summary and MCQs
- CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 — notes and MCQs
- CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965 — penalties, procedure and MCQs
- The POSH Act, 2013 — notes and MCQs
- DIGIPIN explained — India Post’s digital address code
- India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) for departmental exams
Practice: IP LDCE quizzes · syllabus · previous papers · PA/SA/MTS
