Overview
省考 (shěngkǎo, the Provincial Civil Service Examination) is the general name for the recruitment exams that China's 31 provincial-level administrative units — provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities — each run on their own to staff their provincial, city, county and township-level government offices. There is no single national 省考: each province's human resources and social security department (人力资源和社会保障厅/局) or civil service bureau issues its own recruitment notice, sets its own post list, fees and cut-off scores, and marks its own papers. This is separate from 国考 (the national civil service exam run by the Central Organisation Department and National Civil Service Bureau for central-government posts). A majority of provinces coordinate to hold their written exam on the same calendar day, an arrangement commonly called 多省联考 (multi-province joint exam), but even then every participating province still runs its own registration, question set in parts, and marking — only the write-up date is shared. Because the exam is organised separately per province, a candidate should always treat their target province's own official notice as the final word on dates, eligibility and fees.
Who can apply
Across provinces, a candidate generally must: hold People's Republic of China nationality; support the PRC Constitution; have good political conduct and integrity; have the ability required for the post; and be physically and psychologically fit to perform the duties. Beyond these common conditions, the details vary by province and by post, and change year to year:
Age: most provinces set 18 to 35 as the general band. Some provinces widen this — for example, Guangdong's 2026 recruitment notice sets 18 to 38, extended to 43 for 2026 fresh graduates applying with a master's or doctoral degree as their highest qualification, with a narrower 18–25 band for certain police-specialist posts.
Education: most posts ask for a bachelor's degree or above from a nationally recognised institution; a smaller number of posts (often grassroots or vocational-track posts) accept an associate/vocational-college diploma.
Household registration (户籍) or student-origin (生源): many provinces restrict most posts to applicants whose household registration or university admission origin is in that province, though the rule is not universal — some provinces drop it for provincial-level posts or specialist/technical posts.
Post-specific conditions: individual posts can add party membership, prior work experience, a professional licence, or (for public-security posts) extra physical and specialised tests.
Candidates should check the eligibility table in their target province's current-year notice, since age, education and residency conditions differ by province and post.
Exam pattern
The written exam (笔试) is common to all provinces for most posts and has two public subjects:
| Subject | Format | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| 行政职业能力测验 (Xíngzhèng Zhíyè Nénglì Cèyàn, "Xingce") | Fully objective, multiple-choice | About 120 minutes |
| 申论 (Shěnlùn) | Fully subjective, written-response | About 150 minutes |
Both papers are usually sat on the same day, roughly 4 to 4.5 hours of testing time in total, though the exact schedule is set by each province's notice. Some posts sit an additional specialised paper instead of, or alongside, the two public subjects — for example a 公安专业科目 (public-security specialist test) for police posts, or an 行政执法能力测验 (administrative law-enforcement test) for law-enforcement posts.
Candidates who clear the written-exam cut-off (and, for some posts, a qualification review) go on to an interview (面试). Most provinces use a 结构化面试 (structured/panel interview) format, with some provinces or post categories instead using a leaderless group discussion; interviewers score expression, problem-solving, adaptability, and fit for the post.
Syllabus
行测 is organised around five modules that recur across provinces: 言语理解与表达 (verbal comprehension and expression), 数量关系 (quantitative relations), 判断推理 (judgement and reasoning, including logical, analytical and figural reasoning), 资料分析 (data analysis), and 常识判断 (general knowledge, covering law, current affairs, basic science and political theory). 申论 gives candidates a set of policy-related reading materials and asks for a mix of short-answer tasks (summarising, outlining or proposing measures) and one longer policy essay.
There is no single published nationwide outline covering every province; each province's own exam notice (and, where issued, its exam outline/大纲) is the authoritative statement of scope and weighting for that year's exam.
Marking and results
The objective 行测 paper is machine-scored; 申论 is marked by examiners against a marking scheme set by the organising province. After the written exam, a province publishes its own pass line and shortlists candidates, by post, for interview. The final ranking combines written and interview scores, but the weighting differs by province — a common pattern is written score and interview score each counting 50%, though some provinces weight them differently (for example, posts with no specialised subject in Shandong have weighted written and interview scores at roughly 40% and 60% in recent cycles). Candidates should confirm the exact formula, and any further steps (physical examination, background check, public notice period) in their target province's notice.
Important dates
Each province announces its own registration window, written-exam date and interview period independently, and these shift from year to year. In recent cycles a large group of provinces (commonly reported to include provinces such as Hubei, Fujian, Guangxi, Hebei, Anhui, Yunnan, Heilongjiang and others) have aligned their written-exam date under the 多省联考 arrangement, with that joint date historically falling in the second half of March. This report could not confirm the exact 2026 joint-exam date, registration window, or the full list of participating provinces with an official source read directly, so these should be treated as variable and checked against the candidate's own province's current-year notice rather than assumed from a previous year. Not every province joins the joint date — some provinces (and some recruitment rounds, such as campus-targeted or mid-year supplementary recruitment) run on their own separate schedule.
Fees
Written-exam fees are set per province and typically charged per subject. Recent examples reported for individual provinces: around CNY 30 per subject (CNY 60 for the two public subjects) in Henan; around CNY 45 per subject (CNY 90 for two subjects) in Guangdong; a flat CNY 100 exam-service fee in Hebei; and around CNY 50 per subject in Zhejiang. Fees change by year and province, so a candidate should use the figure in their own province's current notice rather than any of the above. Most provinces waive or refund the fee for applicants from registered low-income households (建档立卡脱贫家庭) or urban/rural minimum-subsistence-guarantee (低保) households, on submission of the relevant certificate.
How to apply
Registration is online, through the organising province's own personnel/civil-service exam portal (its 人事考试网 or 公务员考试网), not through a single national site. The usual steps are: create an account and fill in the application, choosing a specific post; upload a photo meeting the stated specification; wait for the recruiting unit's qualification review (资格审查) of the application; pay the exam fee online within the notified window (or apply for a fee waiver where eligible); and download and print the admission ticket (准考证) once it is released, shortly before the written exam.
Preparation tips
Work from the current year's notice for the specific province being targeted, since post lists, eligibility rules, fees and dates are reissued every year and are not carried over automatically from the previous cycle.
Practise 行测 under strict timing, since it is a high-volume, time-pressured multiple-choice paper across five modules.
For 申论, practise reading long policy material quickly and writing structured, concise answers rather than a long free-form essay for every task.
If shortlisted for interview, practise answering structured questions aloud within a time limit, since most provinces use a structured/panel interview format.
FAQs
Is 省考 one single exam for the whole country?
No. Each of China's 31 provincial-level units runs its own recruitment and exam, with its own notice, posts, fees and cut-offs. Many provinces align their written-exam date under the 多省联考 arrangement, but each still organises and marks its own exam separately.
Can I take more than one province's 省考 in the same cycle?
Only if the written-exam dates do not clash. Since a large group of provinces share a common joint-exam date, a candidate can usually sit only one of those provinces' written exams per cycle; a province running its own separate date could still be combined with a joint-date province.
Does 省考 require local household registration (户籍)?
It depends on the province and the post. Many provinces restrict most posts to applicants whose household registration or university admission origin is in that province, but this is not universal — some provinces and some post categories (for example certain provincial-level or specialist posts) do not require it. Check the eligibility conditions in the specific post's listing.
How is the final rank worked out after the interview?
Provinces combine the written-exam score and the interview score into one composite score, most commonly weighting each at 50%, though the exact split (and whether a specialised-subject score is also included) varies by province and is stated in that province's own exam notice.