Bengaluru: Nearly 1.5 lakh candidates applied for the preliminary examination conducted by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) Sunday to fill 319 Gazetted Probationer posts for the 2026–27 recruitment cycle. Around 60% of the total applicants took the examination across the state.According to KPSC, a total of 1,47,067 candidates had applied for the examination, of whom 1,14,406 downloaded their hall tickets. The average attendance across the two sessions stood at 88,134 candidates, accounting for 59.9% of the total applicants and 77.1% of those who downloaded their hall tickets.A total of 88,450 candidates appeared for the first session and 87,817 for the second session, held in the morning and afternoon, respectively.The examination was conducted in 6,192 halls across 345 district sub-centres in 15 district centres: Kalaburagi, Raichur, Ballari, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Dharwad, Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Davanagere, Tumakuru, Mysuru and Bengaluru.In Bengaluru, 18,865 candidates appeared for the morning session out of 29,807 applicants, while 18,728 candidates took the examination in the afternoon session.The recruitment notification was issued on July 31, 2026. The preliminary examination marks the first stage of the selection process for Gazetted Probationer posts. Candidates who qualify will be eligible to appear for the subsequent stages of the recruitment process.
