BPSC 72nd CCE Prelims Postponed Again: New Date Awaited

The 72nd CCE prelims has now been postponed twice — and there is no new date

The Bihar Public Service Commission has postponed the Integrated 72nd Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination for the second time, this time calling off the paper that was to be held on Sunday, 25 October 2026. The Commission's notice, dated 12 October 2026, says only that the examination is deferred for unavoidable reasons and that the new date will be announced later. The earlier postponement came in July: the prelims was first scheduled for 26 July 2026, put off, and subsequently listed for 25 October in the BPSC exam calendar issued on 14 August 2026. That October date is now dead as well.

As of this update, BPSC's homepage still carries the "Important Notice: Regarding Postponement of 72nd CCE (Preliminary) Competitive Examination" — and no revised date. Candidates should work on that basis: any date you see on social media, coaching channels or job portals is speculation, not a schedule. Your admit card, centre and all logistics will flow from the Commission's fresh notice, whenever it appears, and previously issued exam-date notices stand superseded.

What the examination is

The Combined Competitive Examination is Bihar's flagship state services recruitment — the route into the Bihar Administrative Service, Bihar Police Service and allied state services, including posts such as Sub-Divisional Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police. The cycle began with the advertisement of 5 May 2026, covering 1,230 posts; online applications ran from 7 to 31 May 2026. The selection process moves through Preliminary examination, Mains, Interview, and then document verification and medical examination.

The prelims itself is a single objective paper: 150 questions, 150 marks, two hours, in Hindi and English, in offline OMR mode. One recent change from BPSC deserves attention while you are still in a preparation holding pattern: the Commission has introduced a fifth answer option 'E' in its MCQ examinations, so the OMR format you will finally face is not the four-option paper of older cycles. Check the Commission's notice on the fifth option — it is listed on the BPSC homepage — and practise with it, because the new date may come with a short runway.

The vacancy count has shrunk — use the new matrix, not the advertisement

Candidates comparing services should stop quoting the advertised 1,230. Since May, BPSC has issued corrigenda that reduce the pool:

• 44 Sugarcane Officer vacancies deleted (corrigendum issued in the cycle).
• Deputy Superintendent of Police (BPS) reduced from 22 to 20 — a cut of 2 vacancies, by the corrigendum of 3 September 2026.
• Sub-Registrar vacancies were also revised.

Read together, the current total stands at roughly 1,186–1,187 posts, and the exact post- and category-wise position must be taken from the latest vacancy matrix on the BPSC notice list. For borderline candidates in the affected services — especially anyone whose preparation or service preference assumed a Sugarcane Officer or Bihar Police Service seat — this is not bookkeeping: 46 seats have disappeared from the cycle.

Eligibility, for the record

Applications for this cycle closed on 31 May 2026, so eligibility matters now mainly as a check that your accepted application stands. The advertisement required a bachelor's degree from a recognised university. Age was reckoned as on 1 August 2026, with a minimum of 21 years and maximum ages of 37 for unreserved men, 40 for women (unreserved) and BC/EBC candidates, and 42 for SC/ST candidates, with relaxations per BPSC rules. The application fee was ₹100 for all candidates, plus bank charges. None of this reopens with the postponement — a postponed exam is not a fresh application window, and candidates who missed May cannot enter now.

What candidates should do while waiting

1. Check only bpsc.bihar.gov.infor the revised programme. The postponement notice and any new date will appear in its notification list; the Commission announces admit cards separately, close to the exam.
2. Ignore "expected date" content.Two postponements in one cycle show that even the Commission's own calendar (14 August) did not hold — third-party guesses are worth less.
3. Keep preparing to the prelims pattern150 questions, two hours, with the new fifth option 'E'. A postponement rewards candidates who convert the extra weeks into syllabus coverage rather than a pause.
4. Watch your registered details.BPSC has separately enabled facilities in this period — including editing of gender in the One Time Registration profile and updating data in the profile tab of the online application system. If any of your particulars are wrong, use these windows now rather than after the new date is announced.
5. Do not book travelto an exam centre district on any rumoured date. Centres are allotted with the admit card, not the date alone.

The story of the 72nd CCE so far is: advertised 5 May for 1,230 posts, prelims set for 26 July, postponed; reset for 25 October, postponed again on 12 October; vacancies trimmed to about 1,187 by corrigenda; and a new fifth answer option waiting in the paper you will eventually sit. Until BPSC publishes the revised examination programme, that is the whole of the official position.

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