What the Section Officer exam is
Section Officer, known in Nepali as Sakha Adhikrit, is a Gazetted Third Class post and the standard officer-entry tier of Nepal’s civil service. It is the point at which a graduate enters the officer cadre directly, rather than working up through the non-gazetted Kharidar and Nayab Subba tiers first. Recruitment runs through the Public Service Commission (Lok Sewa Aayog, लोक सेवा आयोग), the constitutional body responsible for civil service recruitment in Nepal since its establishment on 15 June 1951, which selects candidates using the methods it sets for each exam: an open competitive written examination, an open competitive practical examination, an interview, or any other method it adopts.
The Section Officer tier is not a single, uniform exam. It covers several distinct services examined at the same Bachelor’s-level entry point, including the Nepal Administration Service (in its Revenue and General Administration groups) and the Nepal Foreign Service, among others, each running its own syllabus and vacancy notices under the same officer-entry structure. A candidate should always confirm which specific service and group a notice covers before applying, since the subject papers differ by service even though the overall two-part written-and-interview shape is shared.
Who conducts it and who can apply
The baseline qualification for Section Officer is a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from a recognised institution; this is what separates the officer-entry tier from Kharidar (SLC/SEE level) and Nayab Subba (10+2 level) below it in PSC’s non-gazetted ladder. Beyond the degree requirement, PSC sets service-specific conditions, including any subject-matter or professional prerequisites relevant to a particular cadre, in each vacancy notice, and these should be confirmed there rather than assumed to be identical across services.
The stage by stage process
A Section Officer candidate sits a written examination whose subject papers are set according to the specific service and group applied for, covering general administrative or professional knowledge alongside a subject relevant to that cadre. Candidates who clear the written stage proceed to an interview, the final stage that determines the recommendation list alongside the written marks. The exam medium may be set in Nepali, in English, or in both languages depending on the position and paper, so candidates should check the language requirement stated in the specific vacancy notice for their service rather than assume a single rule applies across every Section Officer track.
PSC sometimes advertises several Section Officer services together under a single combined vacancy announcement. One such announcement, numbered 16701 to 16707 for the 2081-82 cycle, covered posts across the Foreign Affairs, Administration, Auditing and Federal Parliament services together, run under a shared written examination centre and schedule even though each service was recruited separately; no sourced post count specific to that combined announcement is available at the time of writing.
How to apply
Section Officer vacancies are advertised and administered through PSC’s own channels at psc.gov.np, and every stage from application to admit card to result follows the process set out in that cycle’s official notice for the relevant service. Application fee, photo and signature specifications, and admit card instructions vary by service and by notice, and are not summarised here because no single sourced figure covers every Section Officer round across every service; candidates should confirm these details against the live notice on psc.gov.np before applying.