UPSC SO / Steno LDCE 2026: Notification, Vacancy, Syllabus, Cut Off, Result

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE (Combined Section Officers' (Grade B) and Stenographers' (Grade B / Grade I) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to recruit for Section Officer (Grade B) in the Central Secretariat Service and allied cadres, and Stenographer (Grade B / Grade I) in the Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service. The SO LDCE 2026 with Stenographers LDCE 2022, 2023 and 2024 notification declares Not fixed in advance — UPSC states in the notice that the number of vacancies to be filled in the various cadres is not determined at the notification stage.

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE selection process

1. Written Examination — Paper-I, Paper-II and Paper-III

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE selection runs through the stages below, each of which must be cleared in sequence.

1. Written Examination — Paper-I, Paper-II and Paper-III

Exam pattern by stage

Document verification

UPSC verifies eligibility against original documents only after a candidate has qualified for the Interview or Personality Test. Until that point, admission to every stage is purely provisional — the issue of an e-Admit Card does not mean your candidature has been cleared. A candidate can therefore sit and clear a paper and still be found ineligible later.

Final merit

Merit is prepared from the marks that count for this examination, and posts are allotted by merit-cum-preference against the confirmed vacancies. Ties are broken by rules published by the Commission — typically the marks in the compulsory papers, and where those are equal, seniority in age.

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE exam pattern

Total marks

As notified in the scheme of examination.

Negative marking

As prescribed in the scheme of examination for the cycle.

UPSC does not normalise marks

This is the single most common misconception carried over from SSC. UPSC conducts each paper in one sitting with one question paper, so there are no shifts to equate and no normalisation formula. A published UPSC cut off is a raw mark you could actually have scored on the paper — which is why the figures are clean numbers rather than five-decimal scores.

What is next for UPSC SO / Steno LDCE

The Combined Section Officers' (Grade B) LDCE 2026 and Stenographers' (Grade B / Grade I) LDCE 2022, 2023 and 2024 were notified on 16 September 2026; applications closed on 6 October 2026 and the examination is on 12 and 13 December 2026.

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE Eligibility

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE eligibility requires the following. Restricted to departmental candidates already serving in the relevant cadres. This is a limited departmental examination — it is not open to the general public. The age limit is As prescribed in the Recruitment Rules for the cadre, applied on the crucial date in the notice.

Educational qualification

Restricted to departmental candidates already serving in the relevant cadres. This is a limited departmental examination — it is not open to the general public.

Age limit

As prescribed in the Recruitment Rules for the cadre, applied on the crucial date in the notice.

Age relaxation

A candidate who belongs to SC, ST or OBC and is also an Ex-serviceman or PwBD candidate is eligible for cumulative relaxation under both heads.

Number of attempts

As prescribed in the Recruitment Rules for the cadre.

Nationality

A candidate must be a citizen of India, or fall within the other categories of nationality set out in the Examination Notice — which for most services include subjects of Nepal and Bhutan, Tibetan refugees who came to India before 1 January 1962, and persons of Indian origin who have migrated from certain countries with the intention of permanently settling in India.

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE Application Form

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE applications are submitted online at upsconline.nic.in. Since 2025 UPSC uses a four-module portal, and three of those modules can be completed before the notification is even published.

Important dates — SO LDCE 2026 with Stenographers LDCE 2022, 2023 and 2024

Application fee

₹200. SC, ST and PwBD candidates are exempted.

The URN and the Common Application Form

UPSC issues every candidate a Universal Registration Number (URN), which is registered once in a lifetime and is common to every UPSC examination. The Application Number, by contrast, is generated per examination and changes each time. Keep both — UPSC asks for them in any future correspondence.

How to apply

1. Create an account on upsconline.nic.in.
2. Complete Universal Registration to generate your URN. This can be done at any time — you do not need to wait for a notification.
3. Fill the Common Application Form (CAF) with your personal details, qualification and category, and upload the supporting documents. A live photograph must be captured at this stage in addition to the uploaded photo.
4. Open the examination-specific module during the application window, choose your centre and options, pay the fee and submit.

UPSC advises using an Aadhaar card as the identity document, because it verifies automatically and avoids manual checks later.

Correcting your application

UPSC provides a one-time facility to update the URN profile. Changes made to the profile do not flow back into applications already submitted — they apply only to applications made after the profile is re-locked. This catches people out every cycle.

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE Vacancy

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE vacancies for SO LDCE 2026 with Stenographers LDCE 2022, 2023 and 2024: Not fixed in advance — UPSC states in the notice that the number of vacancies to be filled in the various cadres is not determined at the notification stage.

Posts covered

Section Officer (Grade B) in the Central Secretariat Service and allied cadres, and Stenographer (Grade B / Grade I) in the Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service.

Pay

Pay Level 8 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix (₹47,600 basic) for Section Officer.

How UPSC announces vacancies

UPSC publishes an approximate vacancy figure in the Examination Notice and states in the same paragraph that the number is liable to alteration. The final figure is settled once the cadre controlling authorities confirm their requirements, which is usually after the Main Examination. The number in the notice is therefore an indication, not a commitment.

Reservation

Vacancies are reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections and Persons with Benchmark Disability as fixed by the Government. The notice sets out the category-wise break-up, including the sub-categories of disability against which each PwBD vacancy is identified.

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE Salary & Job Profile

UPSC SO / Steno LDCE posts carry Pay Level 8 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix (₹47,600 basic) for Section Officer, plus Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Transport Allowance.

Posts and pay

Section Officer (Grade B) in the Central Secretariat Service and allied cadres, and Stenographer (Grade B / Grade I) in the Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service.

Allowances

Because HRA and Transport Allowance are city-linked, two officers on identical basic pay take home noticeably different amounts — a metro posting pays more in allowances than a district posting, though the district posting usually comes with official accommodation and a vehicle.

Career progression

Promotion follows time scales fixed for the service, moving through Junior Time Scale, Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade, Selection Grade and above. The pay matrix levels rather than the entry salary are what make these posts competitive over a career.