Candidates of 47th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) preliminary examination have accused Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) of serious irregularities in the question paper and have demanded a formal response within three days.
At a press conference held on Wednesday at Dhaka University’s Madhur Canteen, a candidate Jalal Ahmed, along with others, claimed that widespread flaws in the exam design disadvantaged thousands of applicants and may have led to an abnormally low pass rate.
Jalal stated that the exam, held on 19 September, included questions so complex that they were difficult to even understand within the allotted time.
He argued that the paper lacked a balance between time and content, making it almost impossible for candidates to answer accurately, regardless of how well they had prepared.
Several technical and factual errors were also highlighted.
In Set-1, Question 146 on computer processor speeds reportedly offered no correct answer, while Question 110 about Iran's Fordow nuclear facility failed to include “Qom,” the correct location.
Question 120, which asked which country is not a member of OPEC, was also flawed, as both Indonesia and Bangladesh could be seen as correct responses depending on the timeframe.
Jalal noted that around 15 to 16 questions had more than one justifiable answer.
Candidates also alleged inconsistencies in question distribution, pointing out that some examination centres in Khulna received entirely different question sets; raising further doubts about the fairness and standardisation of the exam process.
The controversy intensified following the publication of results, which showed that only 10,644 candidates had passed; marking the lowest success rate in last eight BCS preliminary exams.
Jalal questioned whether the flawed questions had deliberately or inadvertently caused such an outcome and urged PSC to explain the reasons behind the result.
At the press conference, the candidates placed nine formal demands, including an increase in the number of preliminary pass candidates, publication of correct answer sheets and cut-off marks and balanced question setting to accommodate candidates from Humanities, Business and Science backgrounds.
They also called for transparency in all phases of the examination, reforms to the Non-Cadre Rule 2023, a university-style migration system to avoid unfilled positions, a central candidate database to prevent duplicate cadre recommendations, options for affordable re-evaluation and resolution of technical issues like Teletalk notification failures.
“We want jobs based on merit and transparency, not chance,” Jalal said, warning that if PSC fails to respond within three days, protests will escalate nationwide.
