OPSC AAE 2026: Exam Pattern, Syllabus, Cut Off & Free Mock Tests
OPSC Assistant Agriculture Engineer (Group-B) — Odisha Agricultural Engineering Service
OPSC Assistant Agriculture Engineer is a Class-II (Group-B) officer post in the Odisha Agricultural Engineering Service under the Department of Agriculture & Farmers' Empowerment. Advertisement No. 08 of 2026-27 opened 48 posts, with the written examination fixed for 1 November 2026.
Read the eligibility line first: OPSC accepts only a Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture Engineering for this post, and the notification says in as many words that no other qualification will be accepted. A Civil Engineering degree does not qualify you here — this page exists because the syllabus overlaps ours heavily, not because civil graduates can apply.
That overlap is real and it is worth using. Paper-II's second section is water-resources engineering by another name: fluid mechanics, irrigation, drainage, groundwater and wells, hydrology, and soil-and-water conservation. Paper-I adds surveying, levelling, building construction and cost estimation. If you hold an Agriculture Engineering degree, roughly half this paper is ground a civil syllabus already covers well.
OPSC AAE 2026 — Overview
| Conducting body | Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) |
| Post | Assistant Agriculture Engineer, Class-II (Group-B) |
| Advertisement | No. 08 of 2026-27, dated 19.08.2026 |
| Vacancies | 48 (16 reserved for women) |
| Eligibility | B.Tech in Agriculture Engineering ONLY |
| Age | 21–42 years as on 01.01.2026 |
| Written exam | 1 November 2026 (Sunday) — Cuttack / Bhubaneswar |
| Selection | Written (200 marks) + Interview (25 marks) |
OPSC AAE Exam Pattern
Written Examination — Paper-I
| Section | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Section-A: General Engineering | — | — |
| Section-B: Farm Machinery and Power | — | — |
| Paper-I total | 100 | 100 |
Duration: 2 hours
Negative marking: 25% of the marks for each wrong answer; unattempted = zero
ℹ️ OMR-based MCQs, 1 mark each. OPSC states that the distribution of questions between the two sections is decided by the Commission, so no section-wise split is published.
Written Examination — Paper-II
| Section | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Section-A: Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering | — | — |
| Section-B: Soil and Water Conservation Engineering | — | — |
| Paper-II total | 100 | 100 |
Duration: 2 hours
Negative marking: 25% of the marks for each wrong answer; unattempted = zero
ℹ️ Section-B is the water-resources half — fluid mechanics, irrigation, drainage, groundwater, hydrology and watershed management.
Personality Test (Interview)
| Section | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Interview | — | 25 |
Duration: —
Negative marking: None
ℹ️ Shortlisting is about 1:2 against vacancies (minimum 5 per category), on written marks out of 200. Final merit is on the aggregate of 225 marks.
OPSC AAE Syllabus — Key Subjects
See the detailed chapter-wise syllabus (built from real previous-year papers) on the OPSC AAE test series page →
OPSC AAE Detailed Syllabus 2026
The complete official syllabus, section by section — 200 marks (100 per paper) + 25-mark Personality Test in 2 hours per paper. Pattern source: opsc.gov.in.
Paper-I · Section-A — General Engineering
- Computer Programming and Data Structures
- Data types, variables, operators, building and evaluating expressions, standard library functions · managing input and output, decision making · branching, looping, arrays, string functions · structures and union, queues, insertion and deletion operations
- Workshop Practice and Workshop Technology
- Measuring tools · welding, lathe, shaper, drilling, milling machines — their types, components, specification, tools and functions
- Applied Electronics and Instrumentation
- Diode, transistors, logic circuits · generalized instrumentation · measurement of displacement, temperature, velocity, pressure and force · transducer types and applications, strain gauge
- Common Statistical Data on Agriculture
- Statistics on agriculture (Odisha & India) · land distribution pattern, land use, land holding sizes, major crops, their production and productivity · farm power availability, agriculture workers and draft animals, sale and population of tractors, power tillers, pump sets and implements · water resource availability, irrigation potential
- Units and Dimensions
- Units and measurement, fundamental and derived units, relation between different units of measurement · dimensional analysis
- Surveying and Levelling
- Linear measurements · types of survey and their applications, estimation of errors in measurements · levelling and contouring
- Building Construction and Cost Estimation
- Building materials, building design and construction, agricultural structures, lead and material statement, building codes · estimates of buildings and agricultural structures
- Design and Maintenance of Greenhouse
- Types of greenhouse, its components, site selection, design criteria and construction, applications, repair and maintenance
Paper-I · Section-B — Farm Machinery and Power
- Farm Machinery
- Need of farm mechanization, classification of farm implements and their suitability · seed bed preparation machinery — MB plough, disc plough, sub-soilers, cultivators, rotavator, harrows, puddlers: their types, components, function & adjustments; forces acting on tillage tools, hitching systems and controls, draft measurement · seeding and planting equipment — types, parts, function and adjustment; metering mechanisms for small and bold seeds, calibration; rice transplanters · fertilizer application equipment, weeders, plant protection equipment — sprayers and dusters, their calibration, components and adjustments · principles & types of cutting mechanisms, crop harvesting machinery — reapers, reaper binders, combine harvesters, mowers and chaff cutters · threshers — types, components, functions and principles of threshing; cotton pickers, sugarcane harvester, potato digger, groundnut digger cum shaker, fruit harvesting tools and machines · testing of farm machines, test codes & procedure
- Farm Power
- Sources of farm power; classification of tractors and IC engines; engine components and their construction, functions and adjustment · engine systems — valves, fuel & air supply, governing, ignition, cooling, lubrication and electrical systems · IC engine fuels and lubricants — their properties; detonation and knocking
- Tractor Systems and Controls
- Transmission systems — clutch, gearbox, differential and final drive; brake, steering and hydraulic system, P.T.O. shaft, belt pulley and drawbar · mechanics of tractor chassis, determination of C.G. of tractor, overturning of tractor, weight transfer · tractor maintenance and trouble shooting
- Farm Power and Machinery Management
- Role of farm mechanization in increasing production and productivity and reducing drudgery; index of farm mechanization · performance analysis — machine performance, capacity, field pattern, time efficiency, field efficiency, power analysis · cost analysis of farm machines; break-even analysis — method of finding break-even hour and area of machines; reliability analysis
- Human Engineering and Safety
- Importance of human engineering in design of farm machinery and workspace · ergonomic parameters for evaluation of workers; anthropometry and its use in machine design; effect of noise, heat and vibration on operator's efficiency · safety aspects of tractors and farm machinery, safety measures and preventions of accidents
- Precision Agriculture
- Concepts of precision agriculture — requirements and applications in agricultural production system; farm implements for precision agriculture
- Renewable Energy Engineering
- Biomass conversion technology — types of biogas plants, design & construction and their defects, gasifier technology; technology and production process of bio-diesel and bio-ethanol · solar energy — fundamentals of solar energy, solar photovoltaic (PV) system, solar thermal system and their applications in agricultural system · wind energy conversion system, its applications and limitations
- Systems Engineering
- System concepts; linear programming — formulation and applications, Simplex method, Big M method · transportation problems, assignment problems · project management by PERT/CPM · waiting line theory
Paper-II · Section-A — Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering
- Engineering Properties of Food Materials
- Importance of engineering properties of biological materials · physical, thermal, frictional and aerodynamic characteristics of grains, fruits and vegetables
- Grain Processing
- Cleaning and grading of food grains — aspiration, scalping, size separators, screens, sieve analysis, capacity and effectiveness of screens, various types of separators, shape graders · size reduction — principle, different laws governing size reduction, size reduction machinery · milling of rice — conditioning and parboiling, advantages and disadvantages, traditional methods, CFTRI and Jadavpur methods of parboiling, pressure parboiling method, types of rice milling, different unit operations and equipment · milling of wheat and corn — unit operations and equipment; dry and wet milling · milling of pulses — traditional, commercial, dry and wet milling methods, pulse milling machines · milling of oilseeds — preconditioning, mechanical expression, solvent extraction, refining of oil, stabilization of rice bran, by-products utilization · material handling equipment — conveyers (belt, roller, chain and screw), elevators, trucks, pneumatic conveying
- Drying and Storage of Crops
- Drying — moisture content and water activity, isotherm, hysteresis effect, EMC determination, psychrometric chart and its use in drying, drying principles and theory, thin layer and deep bed drying analysis, falling rate and constant rate drying periods, drying equations and factors affecting drying, mass and energy balance, Shedd's equation, different methods of drying, tempering during drying, different types of grain dryers, dryer performance · storage of food grains — basics and functional requirement of storage, types and causes of spoilage, respiration of grains, moisture and temperature changes, control measures of storage environment, ventilation/aeration, control of rodents, birds, insects and microbes, bag and bulk storage, traditional storage structures, bag storage design, shallow and deep bin/silo, Rankine, Janssen and Airy's equation, storage of seeds, hermetically sealed and CAP storage, godown and warehouse design
- Horticultural Produce Processing
- Fruits and vegetables processing — cleaning, sorting, grading; juice extractors; mechanical filtration — plate and frame filter press, shell and leaf filter, bag filter; different types of dryers for fruits and vegetables · storage of fruits and vegetables — evaporatively cooled storage structures, refrigerated storage, calculation of refrigeration load, sizing and economics of cold storage, modified and controlled atmospheric storage, CAS/MAP, active and passive MAP · packaging — shrink and cling packaging, vacuum and gas packaging, antimicrobial food packaging, smart packaging · thermal processing — thermal death time, D and Z value, process time, thermal processing equipment · evaporation — objectives, basic components, different types of evaporators, multiple effect evaporation, mass and energy balance · freezing — freezing time, freezing curve, different types of freezing equipment · food laws — FSSAI, food standards (BIS standards and specifications), Codex Alimentarius, ISO
Paper-II · Section-B — Soil and Water Conservation Engineering
- Fluid Mechanics
- Properties of fluids — ideal and real fluid · pressure and its measurement, Pascal's law, pressure forces on plane and curved surfaces, centre of pressure, buoyancy, metacentre and metacentric height · kinematics of fluid flow · dynamics of fluid flow, flow in pipes, power transmission through pipe · dimensional analysis, types of similarities, dimensionless numbers
- Irrigation Engineering
- Major, medium and minor irrigation projects · sources of irrigation water, measurement of irrigation water, water conveyance, design of irrigation field channels, underground pipe conveyance system, irrigation structures, channel lining · land grading, different design methods and estimation of earth work and cost · soil-water-plant relationship, infiltration, evapotranspiration, soil moisture constants, depth of irrigation, frequency of irrigation, irrigation efficiencies · surface irrigation methods of water application · command area — definition, need, scope and development approaches, command area development authorities, planning and execution of on-farm development activities, design of field channels, cross drainage works, participatory irrigation management · micro-irrigation — types and components, sprinkler and drip irrigation: design, installation and maintenance
- Drainage Engineering
- Drainage, objectives of drainage; surface drainage, drainage coefficient, types of surface drainage · sub-surface drainage — purpose and benefits, investigations of design parameters, hydraulic conductivity, drainable porosity, water table; types and use of subsurface drainage system · design of surface drains, interceptor and relief drains; derivation of ellipse (Hooghoudt's) and Ernst's drain spacing equations · design of surface drainage system, drainage materials, drainage pipes, drain envelope, layout, construction and installation of drains, drainage structures · salt balance, reclamation of saline and alkaline soils, leaching requirements
- Groundwater, Wells and Pumps
- Occurrence and movement of ground water, aquifer and its types, classification of wells · well hydraulics, well interference, multiple well systems, design of open well · tube well design, design of gravel pack, well screen, sanitary protection, methods of drilling of wells and development of well · quality of ground water, conjunctive use, artificial groundwater recharge planning · pumping systems — water lifting devices, classification of pumps, components and parts of centrifugal pumps, pump selection, installation and troubleshooting, performance curves, hydraulic ram
- Hydrology
- Introduction, hydrologic cycle; precipitation — forms, rainfall measurement, mean rainfall, depth and frequency analysis of point rainfall · geomorphology of watersheds · runoff — factors affecting, measurement, stage and velocity, rational method, curve number method, hydrograph · head water flood control — methods, retards and their location · flood routing — graphical methods of reservoir flood routing
- Soil & Water Conservation Engineering and Watershed Management
- Soil erosion — causes, types and agents; gullies and their classification, stages of gully development, Universal Soil Loss Equation · erosion control measures — agronomical measures; engineering measures: terraces (types, their design, layout procedure and planning), bunds and their design, temporary gully control structures, permanent gully control structures (drop, chute and pipe inlet spillway) and their design · wind erosion — types and control measures · sedimentation in reservoirs and streams — estimation, measurement and control measures; introduction to stream water quality and pollution · land use capability classification · grassed waterways and their design · introduction to water harvesting techniques · small earth embankments — types and design principles, farm ponds and reservoirs, cost estimation of structures · watershed management — problems and prospects, watershed based land use planning, watershed characteristics (physical and geomorphologic parameters), factors affecting watershed management, planning and formulation of project proposal
Note: ELIGIBILITY FIRST: OPSC Advt. 08 of 2026-27 requires a Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture Engineering and says outright that no other equivalent qualification will be accepted — a Civil Engineering degree does NOT qualify for this post. Questions are of Bachelor's-degree standard, 1 mark each, with 25% of the marks deducted for every wrong answer and zero for unattempted. OPSC has not published how the 100 questions of each paper split between that paper's two sections; the notification leaves it to the Commission, so no section-wise weighting is shown here. The written exam is on 1 November 2026 at Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, and the fee is refunded only to candidates who appear in BOTH papers.
Eligibility
- ✓Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture Engineering from a university or institution recognised by a State Government or the Government of India. The notification states that no other equivalent qualification will be accepted — a Civil Engineering degree does not qualify.
- ✓Age 21 to 42 years as on 1 January 2026 (born between 2 January 1984 and 1 January 2005), with the usual Odisha category relaxations.
- ✓Citizen of India, in sound health, and meeting OPSC's other standing conditions.
Salary & Career
Level-10, Cell-1 of the Pay Matrix under ORSP Rules 2017 — ₹44,900 basic, corresponding to the pre-revised PB-2 ₹9,300–34,800 with ₹4,600 grade pay, plus dearness and other Odisha government allowances. The posts are permanent and likely to continue.
OPSC AAE Cut Off
OPSC fixes qualifying marks per paper and/or in aggregate for each category, and publishes the last-selected-candidate mark only after the final result and select list. No cut-off has been declared for this cycle yet.
Vacancy Trends
| 2026 | 48 posts (16-w) — UR 22, SEBC 03, SC 08, ST 15; 6 reserved for PwD and 1 for Ex-Servicemen |
How to Prepare for OPSC AAE
- 1Check your degree before anything else. This post is closed to Civil Engineering graduates — OPSC's own wording is that no other qualification is accepted. Do not spend a cycle preparing for a form you cannot submit.
- 2Paper-II Section-B is the highest-yield block for anyone with a civil or water-resources background: fluid mechanics, irrigation, drainage, wells and hydrology are standard syllabus there, so it is the fastest section to make safe.
- 325% negative marking on a 1-mark question is steep. At four wrong answers you have given back a full mark — practise leaving genuinely unknown questions blank, since unattempted costs nothing.
- 4Both papers run two hours for 100 questions, so pace is about 72 seconds a question. Full-length timed mocks matter more than extra reading here.
- 5The exam fee is refunded only if you actually appear in BOTH papers — skipping the second paper forfeits it.
- 6OPSC uploads a provisional answer key within 10 days of the exam and treats an unchallenged key as accepted. Note your answers on exam day so you can raise objections in the window.
Start Practising OPSC AAE — Free
Exam-pattern mocks, previous-year papers, detailed solutions and chapter-wise analytics — built only for civil engineers, by a civil engineer who cleared these exams.
OPSC AAE — Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Civil Engineering graduate apply for OPSC Assistant Agriculture Engineer?▾
No. Advertisement No. 08 of 2026-27 requires a Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture Engineering and states that no other equivalent qualification will be accepted. A B.E./B.Tech in Civil Engineering does not make you eligible for this post.
How many posts are there in OPSC AAE 2026?▾
48 posts, of which 16 are reserved for women — 22 UR, 3 SEBC, 8 SC and 15 ST. Separately, 6 posts are reserved for Persons with Disabilities (40% or more) and 1 for Ex-Servicemen, adjusted against the categories they belong to.
When is the OPSC AAE 2026 written exam?▾
OPSC has fixed the written examination for 1 November 2026, a Sunday, at Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. The detailed schedule and centre are to be notified separately.
What is the OPSC AAE exam pattern?▾
Two OMR-based objective papers of 100 questions and 100 marks each, two hours per paper, 200 marks in total. Each correct answer is 1 mark and each wrong answer loses 25% of a mark; unattempted questions score zero. A Personality Test of 25 marks follows, giving a final aggregate of 225 marks.
How much of the OPSC AAE syllabus overlaps a Civil Engineering syllabus?▾
A substantial part of it. Paper-II Section-B — fluid mechanics, irrigation engineering, drainage, groundwater and wells, hydrology, and soil and water conservation — is water-resources engineering as a civil syllabus teaches it. Paper-I adds surveying and levelling, building construction and cost estimation. Farm machinery, farm power and food processing are the genuinely agricultural parts.
What is the application fee and is it refundable?▾
₹700, paid online. SC, ST and PwD candidates are exempt. The fee is refunded only to candidates who actually appear in both papers of the written examination, and applications without the fee (outside the exempt categories) are rejected outright.
What is the salary of an OPSC Assistant Agriculture Engineer?▾
The post sits at Level-10, Cell-1 of the Odisha pay matrix under ORSP Rules 2017 — ₹44,900 basic, plus dearness allowance and other allowances sanctioned by the Government of Odisha. The posts are permanent.
What was the application window?▾
The online application link was open from 28 August 2026 to 28 September 2026 up to 5:00 P.M., which OPSC set as the closing date for submission of the registered online application.
Explore Other Exam Guides
Disclaimer: Exam patterns, cutoffs, vacancies and eligibility rules change between recruitment cycles. The figures above are compiled for guidance from past cycles — always verify details from the official notification of the conducting body before applying.