Syllabus Structure & Weightage

Written Test (Recruitment Test - RT)

The exam is offline (pen-paper), objective MCQ-based, with 100

questions in 120 minutes.

Section Key Topics

1857 Revolt, Moderate–Extremist Phase,

1. Indian Freedom Struggle
Gandhian Movements

Constitution, Fundamental Rights, DPSPs,

2. Indian Polity
Parliament, Judiciary

3. General Accounting Double-entry, Journal, Trial Balance, P&L,

Principles Balance Sheet

4. Industrial Relations &

Factories Act, Trade Unions Act, EPF Act
Labour Laws

5. Social Security in India Social Welfare Schemes, EPFO Role

6. Current Affairs &

National & International Events
Development Issues

7. General Science Basic Physics, Chemistry, Biology

8. Mental Ability &

Reasoning, Arithmetic, DI
Quantitative Aptitude

9. General English Comprehension, Vocabulary, Grammar

Here’s a quick breakdown of the subject-wise difficulty of the UPSC EPFO

EO/AO previous year papers.

UPSC EPFO EO/AO

Subject Wise Difficulty Level

Subject 2017 2021 2023

English Moderate Moderate Moderate

 Quant & Reasoning Moderate Moderate Moderate

History Moderate Moderate Difficult

Indian Polity Moderate Moderate Difficult

Computer Easy Easy Moderate

General Science Easy Easy Moderate

Accounts and Audit Easy Easy Moderate

IR & LL Moderate Moderate Difficult

Social Security Moderate Moderate Moderate

Indian Economy Easy Easy Difficult

Current Events Moderate Moderate Moderate

UPSC EPFO APFC

In the past 10 years, the UPSC EPFO APFC exam has been conducted in 2015
and 2023.

Let’s break down the difficulty level of the UPSC EPFO APFC previous year
papers from these two years.

UPSC EPFO APFC

Year-Wise Overall Difficulty Level

Exam Year Difficulty Level

2015 Moderate

2023 Difficult
As in EO/AO, subjects in UPSC EPFO APFC previous year papers varied as per
difficulty, too.

Below is the table where we have broken down the subject-wise difficulty
level in UPSC EPFO APFC previous year papers.

UPSC EPFO APFC

Subject Wise Difficulty Level

Subject 2015 2023

English Moderate Moderate

Quant & Reasoning Moderate Moderate

Culture & History Moderate Difficult

Indian Polity Moderate Difficult

Computer Easy Moderate

General Science Easy Moderate

Accounts and Audit Easy Moderate

IR & LL Moderate Difficult

Social Security Moderate Moderate

Indian Economy Easy Difficult

Current Events Moderate Moderate

PDG Easy Moderate

Insurance Difficult Moderate

 Statistics Easy Difficult

UPSC EPFO PYQ Analysis: What has been the Subject Wise
Weightage in EO/AO and APFC?

Now that you know the difficulty level, let’s talk about what actually shows
up in the exam, in terms of weightage.

Because here’s the thing:

Not every subject carries the same weight.

And if you’re short on time (which most aspirants are), you need to know
what to focus on first.

Let’s break it down for both EO/AO and APFC, based on the actual number of
questions asked in each paper.

UPSC EPFO EO/AO

So, what actually shows up in the UPSC EPFO EO/AO paper?

Let’s break down the UPSC EPFO EO/AO previous year paper by subject
to see how much weightage each subject held.

This will help you focus on what matters most, especially if you’re just
starting out or running short on time.

UPSC EPFO EO/AO

Subject Wise Weightage

Subject 2017 2021 2023

English 20 20 20

Quant & Reasoning 15 15 15

History 16 15 10

Indian Polity 2 6 5
 Computer 10 5 11

General Science 15 10 10

Accounts and Audit 10 15 10

IR & LL 8 16 15

Social Security 6 4 8

Indian Economy 1 5 7

Current Events 17 9 10

UPSC EPFO APFC

The UPSC EPFO APFC previous year question papers covered a wider
syllabus than EO/AO, but not every subject got equal attention.

If you’re planning your prep smartly, knowing this breakdown can help you
prioritize high-weightage areas first.

Here’s the subject-wise weightage of the UPSC EPFO APFC previous year
paper

UPSC EPFO APFC

Subject Wise Difficulty Level

Subject 2015 2023

English 10 20

Quant & Reasoning 29 15

Culture & History 10 10

 Indian Polity 7 10

Computer 8 10

General Science 7 10

Accounts and Audit 4 15

IR & LL 5 14

Social Security 9 5

Indian Economy 14 1

Current Events 10 7

PDG 7 2

Insurance 8 15

Statistics 2 5

UPSC EPFO High-Weightage Topics for 2025: Based on Previous Year

Papers

So now that you’ve seen which subjects matter the most, the next logical
question is:

“What are the most important topics within those subjects?”

Because not everything within a high-weightage subject is equally important.

Here’s a topic-wise breakdown for each subject based on recurring

patterns from UPSC EPFO previous year paper, for both EO/AO and APFC,
so you can prepare smart, not just hard.

Quantitative Aptitude

Here are the important topics of quantitative aptitude for the UPSC EPFO
exam.
  Simplification

 Number series

 Number system

 Percentage

 Ratio and proportion

 Mensuration

 Profit and loss

 Simple and compound interest

 Time and work

 Time and distance

Reasoning Ability

Here are the important topics of reasoning ability for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Coding decoding

 Blood relation

 Direction sense

General English

Here are the important topics of general English for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Subject-Verb Agreement

 Tenses

 Preposition

 Complex Preposition

 Advance Verbs

 Phrasal Verbs

 Sentence Improvement

 Reading Comprehension

 Synonyms & Antonyms

 Idioms & Phrases + One Word Substitution

Current Affairs

Here are the important topics of current affairs for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Government Schemes

 Reports/Surveys

 National News
 Awards and Honors

 Sports

 Defence News

 Persons in News

 Science and Technology

 Days in News

 Terms in News
Indian Polity

Here are the important topics of Indian polity and governance and
constitution of India for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Regulating Act of 1773

 Indian Council Act of 1909

 Government of India Act of 1919 and 1935

 Features of Indian Constitution

 Preamble of Indian Constitution

 Fundamental Rights

 Directive Principle of State Policy (DPSPs)

 Emergency in India

 President of India and Governor of State

 Parliament of India

 Supreme Court of India

 Finance Commission and Its Recommendations

 National Human Right Commission Election Commission

 Committees of Electoral Reforms

 Panchayati Raj Institution

 Urban Local Government

 Scheduled and Tribal Areas

Indian Economy
Here are the important topics of Indian economy for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Law of demand and law of supply

 Movement and shift in the demand curve and supply curve

 Types of market structure

 Elasticity of demand – price elasticity, cross elasticity, and income

elasticity

 National income and related aggregates

 Concept of inclusive growth, growth versus development, real GDP,

nominal GDP, and GDP deflator

 Meaning and types of poverty

 Meaning and types of unemployment

 Five year plans

 Economic reforms since 1991

 Instruments of monetary policy – quantitative tools and qualitative

tools

 Monetary policy committee (MPC)

 Components of budget – types of receipts and expenditure

 Types of government deficit with significance

 Meaning, tools, and types of fiscal policy

 Inflation and measurement of inflation – wholesale price index and

consumer price index

 All about IMF and world bank

 All about WTO

 Regional economic cooperation

 Meaning and components of balance of payments – current account

and capital account

 Determination of exchange rate – flexible, fixed and managed floating

exchange rate
 Industrial performance – situation and growth of indian industries since
independence

 Special economic zones

General Science

Here are the important topics of general science for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Kinematics including distance, displacement, speed, velocity, and

acceleration

 Dynamics and Newton’s laws of motion

 Electricity

 Light

 Magnetism

 Elements, compounds, and mixtures

 Atoms and molecules

 Physical and chemical changes

 Chemistry in daily life

 Metals and non-metals

 Acids and bases

 Food components

 Health and diseases

 Cells and tissues

 Organ systems – digestive system, skeletal system, muscular system,

respiratory system, circulatory system and reproductive system

 Biotechnology

 Space technology

 Information and nano technology

Stay updated with the latest UPSC EPFO notification for the EO/AO and APFC
exams.

Indian Freedom Struggle

Here are the important topics of Indian freedom struggle for the UPSC
EPFO exam.

 Indian national congress

 Mahatma Gandhi

 Important policies & laws by British

 Important peasant and tribal uprisings

 Major social reformers

 Revolutionary leaders

 Important battles
Computer Basics

Here are the important topics of the basics of computer applications for
the UPSC EPFO exam.

 History and generation of computers

 Computer organization
 Computer memory

 Computer hardware

 Computer software

 Operating system

 Computer network

 Number system

 Microsoft office

 Database management system

 Computer security

 Miscellaneous topics
Labor Laws
Here are the important topics of industrial relation, labor laws, and labor
codes for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Industrial Relations

o Industrial relations and the constitution of India

o National commission on labour

o Theoretical perspectives of industrial relations

o Conditions influencing an employee’s decision to join trade

unions

o Robert hoxie’s trade unionism

o Types of trade union

o Collective bargaining

o Industrial discipline

o Methods of discovering grievances

o Strikes

o Settlement of industrial disputes

o Labour welfare

o Wages

o Workers’ participation in management

o International labour organisation (ILO) and philadelphia

declaration

o Theories of accidents

o Different concepts of labour

o Union security measures/agreements

 Labor Laws

o Payment of wages act, 1936

o Minimum wages act, 1948

o Industrial employment (standing orders) act, 1946

o Trade unions act, 1926

 o Factories act, 1948

o Industrial disputes act, 1947

o The child and adolescent labour (prohibition and regulation) act,

1986

o Inter-state migrant workmen (regulation of employment and

conditions of service) act, 1979

o Contract labour (regulation and abolition) act, 1970

o Payment of bonus act, 1965

o Building and other construction workers (regulation of

employment and conditions of service) act, 1996

o Mines act, 1952

 Labor Codes

o The code on social security, 2020

o The code on wages, 2019

o The industrial relations code, 2020

o The occupational safety, health, and working conditions code,

2020
Social Security

Here are the important topics of social security for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Social security schemes

 Employees compensation act, 1923

 Employees’ state insurance act, 1948

 Employees’ provident funds and miscellaneous provisions act, 1952

 Maternity benefit act, 1961

 Payment of gratuity act, 1972

 Unorganized workers social security act, 2008

UPSC EPFO 2025 APFC & EO/AO

Free E-Book

Download PDF Now

 Syllabus
  Previous Year Papers

 Preparation Sources

 Strategy

Accounting Principles

Here are the important topics of general accounting principles for the
UPSC EPFO exam.

 Basics of accounting

 Preparation of financial statements

 Ratio analysis

 Cash flow statement

 Accounting for share capital transactions

 Accounting for bonus shares and rights shares

 Buyback of securities

 Accounting standard for inventories

 Accounting standard for revenue recognition

 Accounting standard for property, plant and equipment

 Accounting standard for investments

 Preparation and presentation of company final accounts

 Accounting for not-for-profit organisation

Important Note: The important topics outlined above are for the UPSC
EPFO EO/AO and APFC exams. However, the UPSC EPFO syllabus for the APFC
exam includes some additional subjects, important topics of those subjects
are mentioned below.

Auditing

Here are the important topics of auditing for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Nature, objective, and scope of auditing

 Audit strategy, audit planning, and audit programme

 Risk assessment and internal control

 Vouching and verification/audit of items of financial items

 Company audit

 Auditor’s report

 Audit of different types of entities

 Classification of audit
Insurance

Here are the important topics of insurance for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Basics, history, and features related to the insurance

 Fundamental principles governing insurance contract

 Types and classification of insurance

 Difference between life and general insurance

 Insurance sector in India

 Emerging concepts and products in the insurance sector

Get familiar with the latest UPSC EPFO cut off for the EO/AO and APFC exams
to understand the difficulty level and set realistic goals.

Population & Globalization

Here are the important topics of population, development, and

globalization for the UPSC EPFO exam.

 Growth of population

 Characteristics of population

 Concept of human development

 Information in the latest human development report by UNDP

 Impact of globalisation
Indian Culture

Here are the important topics of Indian culture and heritage for the UPSC
EPFO exam.

 Buddhism & Jainism

 Caves and temples in India

 Indian dance styles

 Indian scriptures

 UNESCO heritage

 Archaeology in India

 Important dynasties in India

 Bhakti movement