Sociology is among the more popular OAS optionals, and for reasons that hold up: the syllabus is compact, the reading list is short compared to most optionals, and a good deal of Paper II overlaps with General Studies topics on Indian society, social justice and development. Candidates from non-social-science backgrounds pick it up more comfortably than History or Public Administration.
Paper I is the theory paper — sociological thinkers, concepts, research methods and the foundations of the discipline. Paper II is applied to Indian society: social structure, change, rural and urban transformation, and contemporary issues. In the OAS context Paper II rewards Odisha-specific examples, which is where most answer scripts stay generic and lose marks.
All Sociology papers OPSC has published are below, Paper I and Paper II separately. Papers up to 2021-22 were written under the old pattern, when candidates took two optionals; from 2022-23 Sociology carries the full weight of the single optional.
How to use these papers
Map questions back to syllabus units before you start writing answers. Doing that across five or six years shows which units OPSC actually returns to and which have not appeared in a decade — that map is worth more than any coaching prediction. Then write full answers to the recurring ones under timed conditions.
Do not substitute UPSC Sociology papers for these. The overlap in syllabus is real, but OPSC's question framing is shorter and more direct, and the Odisha-specific expectation in Paper II has no UPSC equivalent. Use UPSC papers for extra practice on theory, not as a model for what will be asked.