The OAS Mains is the written stage of the Odisha Civil Services Examination. It has nine descriptive papers of three hours each, and unlike the Prelims — which only decides who moves forward — Mains marks carry into the final ranking. Every paper below comes from OPSC's own archive.
Odia Language and English Language are qualifying papers at matriculation standard. You need 25% in each; fall short and your other papers are not evaluated at all. The seven merit papers are Essay, four General Studies papers and two optional subject papers, 250 marks apiece, adding to 1,750 before the 250-mark Personality Test.
The pattern changed in 2022
Until the 2021-22 cycle, Mains had two General Studies papers and two optional subjects — four optional papers in all. From Advt. No. 17 of 2022-23 onward, OPSC moved to four General Studies papers and a single optional subject with two papers, and cut the total from 2,250 marks to 2,000. This is the most confusing thing about OAS preparation, and it changes how you should read older papers.
General Studies Paper I and Paper II run across every year on this page, but they were not testing the same syllabus before and after 2022 — the four-paper split redistributed topics that used to sit in two. General Studies Paper III and Paper IV only exist from 2022 onward, so those tables are shorter. They are not missing papers.
The compulsory papers — Odia Language, English Language and English Essay — appear in every year. In older advertisements OPSC filed them under a separate "Written Test" heading; from 2020 they moved under "Compulsory". Same papers, different filing, so they are combined here into one table each and you can see the full run of years at once.
How to use these papers
Work backwards, not forwards. Start with the most recent two or three years to see what the current examiner actually asks, then use older papers for volume once you know the shape. For General Studies Paper III and Paper IV, three years is all that exists — treat them as pattern indicators rather than a question bank, and lean on the pre-2022 GS papers for the topics that carried over.
The Essay paper is the one candidates most often leave unpractised. It is worth the same 250 marks as a General Studies paper, and the papers here show how consistently the topic set leans on Odisha-specific and development themes.
Optional subject papers are on their own pages, one per subject.