The Haryana Public Service Commission successfully conducted the Haryana Civil Service Examination (preliminary) on April 26, 2026, in which a huge number of candidates participated against a total number of 102 vacancies. Those who took part in the examination are now waiting for the release of the answer key.
The answer key for the HPSC HCS examination will carry the correct answer for all the questions asked in paper 1 and paper 2. Participants are hereby notified that the commission has not confirmed any date for releasing it, but there is high speculation that they will make it public most probably in the first week of May 2026.
The commission will make public the answer key on their official website as a PDF to download. Any candidates don’t have to provide any login credentials to get it; it will be accessible with one click. The website where it will be available for download can be accessed by visiting https://hpsc.gov.in/, so make sure to keep an eye on the portal.
How to download the HPSC HCS answer key 2026?
The HPSC Haryana civil service examination was successfully held. The answer key will be available for download very soon; then candidates can download it by going through the instructions given below.
- Go to the official website of the Haryana Public Service Commission.
- Go to the menu bar, and click on the answer key option.
- Tap on the answer key for the Haryana civil services examination preliminary 2026 option.
- Hit the General Studies (Paper I) or Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT – Paper II) to download the answer key.
What if there is any error on the HPSC HCS answer key?
If any candidate finds any mistake on the Haryana civil services examination preliminary 2026 answer key, he or she will have an option to raise an objection against it, for the same window will be available on the Haryana Public Service Commission website for 3 days. To raise an objection, it is mandatory to have valid proof of objection.
There is no cap on the number of questions against which one can raise an objection, but for each question a mandatory fee is required to be paid, which is 250 rupees. Note that this fee is non-refundable; even though one’s objection(s) is/are accepted by the HPSC, the individual does not get a refund.
How to evaluate scores using the HPSC HCS answer key?
In the Haryana civil service examination 2026 there were two papers in each a total number of 100 MCQs, each one marked with a negative marking provision of 0.25 marks. To evaluate the tentative score in any paper, first a candidate is required to compare the answer key with his/her responses and find out the number of questions he/she has answered correctly and incorrectly.
After finding the number of questions one has attempted correctly and incorrectly, he/she needs to multiply the number of incorrect responses by ¼ (0.25) and deduct the result of the same from the number of correct responses. After doing the calculation, the number that will be visible will be the tentative score of that paper.
Let’s understand with an example. Suppose Arun attempted a total number of 90 questions in the paper 1, out of which 82 are correct responses and the remaining 8 are incorrect, so the 8 need to be multiplied by 1 by 4 and deducted from 82. Doing so (82 – 8 × ¼) gives the number 80, meaning that Arun scored 80 marks in paper 1.