What the Grama Niladhari examination is
The Grama Niladhari Competitive Examination fills the post of Grama Niladhari, the village-level administrative officer who is the government’s basic point of contact for a defined local division in Sri Lanka. It is the most locally visible civil service role in the country: a Grama Niladhari certifies residence, handles land and welfare documentation, and is the officer most citizens actually meet when they need a government matter settled. The exam is conducted by the Department of Examinations on behalf of the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, which frames the recruitment and issues the gazette notification for each cycle.
Who conducts it and who can apply
The Department of Examinations runs the written test itself, while the Ministry of Public Administration sets policy on vacancies, cadre allocation and the interview stage. Applicants must be Sri Lankan citizens. The exact minimum educational qualification for the Grama Niladhari post is set out in the gazette notification issued for each recruitment cycle rather than fixed permanently in statute, so a candidate should always check the current notification on doenets.lk before applying rather than relying on what an earlier cycle required.
One rule is constant across cycles and worth stating clearly: a candidate chooses to sit the written examination in Sinhala, Tamil or English, and that choice is fixed for the entire paper. A candidate cannot answer some questions in one language and switch to another partway through. This trilingual option reflects the fact that Sinhala and Tamil are both constitutionally official languages used nationwide in Sri Lankan public administration, alongside English as the link language.
The stage-by-stage pattern
The examination runs in two stages. The first is a written competitive examination, held in the candidate’s chosen medium. A cutoff of 40 percent per subject on the written paper is required before a candidate is considered for the next stage. Candidates who clear that cutoff and rank within the number needed for the available vacancies are called for an interview, which is the second and final stage before appointment.
The total number of applicants for the Grama Niladhari examination is not published in the sources available for this page, so this guide does not state a figure. What is on record for the 2025/2026 cycle is narrower and sourced: roughly 3,000 vacancies were advertised islandwide, and 4,232 candidates qualified for the interview stage after the written paper.
How to apply and the 2025/2026 cycle dates
Applications for the 2025/2026 cycle opened on 24 October 2025 and closed on 24 November 2025. The written examination for that cycle was held on 29 March 2026. Applications are submitted through the process set out in the Department of Examinations’ own notification for the cycle; a candidate preparing to apply should read that notification in full for the application method, fee (if any) and document requirements current to that round, since these details are republished with each new gazette rather than fixed once and reused.
Because vacancy numbers, cutoff dates and interview counts change with every cycle, the schedule and vacancy figures on this page each carry the source they were taken from and the date they were last checked, and any figure that could not be confirmed from a published source, including total applicants, is left out rather than estimated.