Bihar APO Cut Off 2026: Complete Category‑wise, Year‑wise Guide (Prelims & Mains)

BPSC has not yet released the Bihar APO cut-off 2026, it will come out with the Prelims result .The Prelims for 300 Assistant Prosecution Officer posts was held on 15 July 2026, and the final answer keys for GS and Law were published on 12 October 2026.

Until the official cut-off arrives, the best reference is the last APO recruitment (Advt. No. 01/2020).

• In that cycle, the Unreserved Prelims cut-off was 138.750, and BPSC later revised several reserved-category cut-offs.
• Both sets are below, along with how 2026’s smaller and differently split vacancy pool changes the comparison.

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What is the Bihar APO Cut-Off 2026?  

BPSC has not released the official 2026 cut-off. The below given is an estimate based on previous trends and the reduced vacancy count (300 in 2026 vs 553 in the 2020 cycle).  

Because 2026 has far fewer seats, the effective competition is tighter, which can push cut-offs upward if the paper is not unusually difficult.  

Category	Expected Prelims Cut-Off (Estimate)
General (Unreserved)	~50%-60%
OBC / BC / EBC	~45%-55%
SC	~40%-50%
ST	~35%-45%

The cut-off category provided above is for reference purposes. The official category-wise  cut-off 2026, will be notified with the Prelims result.

For more, candidates can refer to the Bihar APO 2026 exam analysis to get an idea for the cut-off criteria.  

Bihar APO Cut-Off for the Previous Year (2020)  

The last completed Bihar APO cycle was conducted under Advertisement No. 01/2020. Its Prelims was held on 7 February 2021, with about 19,201 candidates appearing for 553 vacancies.  

There were considerably more seats than the 300 notified in 2026. BPSC later issued a revised Bihar APO result dated 15 September 2022 for this cycle.  

Here is the Bihar APO cut-off for prelims, Advt No. 01/2020 (Revised Result, 15.09.2022):  

Category	Cut-off (result dated 27.04.2021)	Cut-off (revised result dated 15.09.2022)
Unreserved	138.750	No change
Unreserved (Female)	125.000	No change
EWS	78.750	83.875
EWS (Female)	—	35.875
SC	78.750	48.500
SC (Female)	—	−0.875
ST	105.875	88.125
EBC	78.750	74.750
EBC (Female)	—	−0.875
BC	78.875	88.375
BC (Female)	—	65.875
BCL	88.125	21.875
Disabled (VI)	79.125	37.250
Disabled (DD)	82.875	8.875
Disabled (OH)	92.125	79.500
Disabled (MD)	94.125	47.875
Grandchild of Ex-Freedom Fighter	79.375	−0.375

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How Does BPSC Decide the Bihar APO Cut-Off? 

In practice, a category's cut-off is the score of the last candidate BPSC shortlists for that category's Mains places. Four things move that score:

• Number of posts. 300 in 2026 against 553 in 2020 means fewer Mains places in each category.
• Category and horizontal reservation. Separate lines for women, PwD and freedom fighters' grandchildren explain why some 2020 cut-offs were very low.
• Paper difficulty. A harder GS or Law paper lowers the marks everyone scores, and the cut-off with it.
• Answer-key changes. Questions corrected or dropped after objections can shift every candidate's marks before the result.

Marks can vary after the objections raised through the Bihar APO Answer Key 2026. That's why final cut-offs are confirmed only in the official result PDF.  

How Vacancies Change the Bihar APO Cut-Off?  

Do more vacancies lower the Bihar APO cut-off? Usually, yes. When notified vacancies rise and difficulty stays the same, the selection ratio loosens and cut-offs tend to soften.  

When vacancies are fewer, the cut-off generally increases. Though, paper difficulty can impact this - an easy paper can raise cut-offs even in a high-vacancy year.  

A few directional rules of thumb:  

• If UR seats fall sharply while applicant strength and difficulty stay similar, the UR cut-off often climbs. 
• If SC/ST seats rise while difficulty stays high, those cut-offs may hold steady or drop slightly. 
• Horizontal reservation (women, PwD) redistributes within categories.  

The direction of movement can be summarised as:  

Vacancies	Difficulty Level	Likely Cut-Off Direction
High	Tough	Down or stable
High	Easy	Slightly up
Low	Tough	Mixed
Low	Easy	Up

For the exact 2026 category-wise split that will shape these lines, check the Bihar APO vacancy 2026.  

Bihar APO 2020 Recruitment in Numbers                                                                                                                                                    

In 2020, about one in five candidates who sat the Prelims (20.8%) reached Mains. BPSC shortlisted roughly seven candidates for every advertised post.

If the Commission keeps a similar ratio this time, around 2,100–2,200 candidates would move to Mains for 300 posts. That figure is simple arithmetic from the 2020 numbers, not an official estimate, and BPSC is not bound to repeat the ratio.

Detail	Advt. 01/2020	Advt. 13/2026
Posts	553	300
Posts reserved for women	188	[verify from notification]
Candidates who appeared in Prelims	19,201	Not yet published
Candidates qualified for Mains	3,995	Awaited
Qualified per post	about 7.2	Awaited

How to Estimate Bihar APO 2026 Target Score 

Start from category's revised 2020 cut-off, then add a margin, because 2026 has fewer posts.

1. Download BPSC’s final answer keys for GS and Law, published on 12 October 2026, and score yourself using your OMR copy.
2. In 2020, a quarter mark was deducted for each wrong answer. Use whatever rule the Advt. 13/2026 notification states, and check how BPSC treats any questions deleted in the final key.
3. Find your category, and your gender where a separate female line exists, in the 2020 table. Use the revised column, since that was BPSC’s final word for that cycle.
4. If your category’s seats fell sharply (see the table above), treat the 2020 line as a floor, not a target.
5. If your score sits comfortably above your category’s 2020 line, start Mains answer-writing now. Results in this cycle are already running slower than in 2020.

Check: Bihar APO answer key

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Bihar APO Cut-Off 2026: Prelims, Mains & Final - What's Important?  

Is the Prelims cut-off or the Mains cut-off more important? The Prelims cut-off only screens candidates for Mains and does not count toward final merit.  

The Mains cut-off, combined with Interview marks, determines final selection. That is why you should build a larger safety margin above the Mains cut-off than the Prelims cut-off.  

Prelims Cut-Off

• For Prelims, the candidates are shortlisted for Mains (usually a multiple of total posts).
• It has a pattern of objective paper(s) with negative marking. Check the current Bihar APO exam pattern for more details.
• Make an approach to target 10-12 marks above your category's last published Prelims cut-off, adjusted for vacancies and difficulty.  

Mains Cut-Off 

• Mains exam decides who qualifies for the Interview (the merit backbone).
• Mains exam pattern is descriptive, law-heavy papers.
• Atleast aim 15-20 marks above your category's last published Mains cut-off.  

Final / Aggregate Cut-Off

• Calculated post-Interview, aggregating Mains + Interview marks as per the selection scheme.
• Reservation and horizontal adjustments apply at this stage; category-wise final lists are published if released.
• In some years BPSC publishes only the last selected candidate's score per category; in others, detailed breakups appear.  

Stage	What the cut-off decides
Prelims	Who is shortlisted for the Mains
Mains	Who is called for interview
Final	Who is recommended for appointment (Mains + Interview)

Understand the Bihar APO exam and selection process to get this better.  

Where 2026 Vacancies Shrank Most, Category by Category

Cut-offs are set category by category, so the total number of posts matters less than how many seats candidates own category has.

Category	2020 posts	2026 posts	Change
Unreserved	225	129	−43%
EWS	55	29	−47%
BC	74	25	−66%
BC (Female)	22	4	−82%
EBC	88	64	−27%
SC	88	42	−52%
ST	1	7	+6 posts
Total	553	300	−46%

Key Takeaways

Candidates can check the Bihar APO Cut-Off 2026 and previous year's cut-off criteria to set a realistic target score for category.

• Verify all cut-off marks and recruitment details using official BPSC documents to ensure accuracy.
• Aim for a score 10–20 marks above the previous cut-off, adjusting your target based on vacancies, exam difficulty, and category.
• Refer to revised cut-off PDFs instead of original versions whenever updated documents are available.
• The BPSC APO 2026 recruitment cycle is underway under Advertisement No. 13/2026, with 300 vacancies, and the Prelims was held on July 15, 2026; the cut-off marks are awaited.
• Analyse previous BPSC APO cut-offs by category and examination stage using official BPSC PDFs.

If you want a structured guidance, take a free demo online class or talk to a Judiciary Gold counsellor about the Judiciary APO Coaching 2026.