Insurance · Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)
LIC AAO — Life Insurance Corporation of India — Assistant Administrative Officer (Generalist)
The complete LIC AAO blueprint: tier-wise pattern, topic weightage from previous-year analyses, and free chapter-by-chapter study material.
3 stages — Prelims, Mains, Interview360 final-merit-relevant marks (Mains Objective 300 + Interview 60)80:20 Mains-to-Interview weighting for final merit Free · tutor-verified
LIC AAO at a glance
Conducted byLife Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)
CycleOnce a year (notification ~Aug; Prelims/Mains later in the cycle; check licindia.in for exact dates)
ModePrelims & Mains Objective: online MCQ. Mains Descriptive: online typed, English only. Interview: in-person.
EligibilityBachelor's degree in any discipline, age 21-30 (21-32 for AAO Legal/CA specialist posts)
LanguagesEnglish & Hindi for objective sections; Descriptive test in English
Pay bandBasic pay ₹88,635/month, with gross emoluments of approximately ₹1,26,000/month in a metro (A-class) city once allowances are added
Posts you can get
Assistant Administrative Officer (Generalist) — India's sole state-owned life insurerSpecialist AAO posts (Legal, Chartered Accountant) also recruited under separate streams~350 Generalist vacancies out of a total 800-850+ across Generalist and Specialist posts in a typical recent cycle
⚡ What changed recently
- Prelims' English section marks are excluded from Prelims' own ranking — English is checked only for a qualifying cutoff, not counted toward the Prelims score used to shortlist for Mains.
- Mains' Insurance & Financial Market Awareness is a distinctly named, dedicated 60-mark section — unlike some comparable insurance exams that fold insurance content into a broader General Awareness section instead.
- The Descriptive test (25 marks, 30 minutes) is evaluated ONLY if the objective Mains cutoffs are cleared, and carries its own separate qualifying threshold (~10/25 general, ~9/25 SC/ST/PwBD) — clearing the objective Mains does not make the descriptive test optional.
- Final merit combines Mains Objective and Interview scores in roughly an 80:20 weighting — Prelims and the Descriptive test are both excluded from the final merit calculation once their own qualifying bars are cleared.
How LIC AAO selection works
Know what each stage is for before you spend a single hour preparing.
QUALIFYING SCREEN
Prelims
100 questions · 60 minutes, sectional-locked 20 min each (Reasoning 35Q/35marks, Quantitative Aptitude 35Q/35marks, English 30Q — marks excluded from ranking). Clears you to Mains; marks are then discarded.
300 OF YOUR FINAL MERIT MARKS
Mains — Objective Test
120 questions · 300 marks · 120 minutes, sectional-locked (Reasoning 30Q/90marks/40min, Data Analysis & Interpretation 30Q/90marks/40min, GK & Current Affairs 30Q/60marks/20min, Insurance & Financial Market Awareness 30Q/60marks/20min). −1/4 negative marking.
QUALIFYING ONLY (OWN SEPARATE THRESHOLD)
Mains — Descriptive Test
25 marks · 30 minutes · 2 tasks (Email & Report Writing 13, Situation Analysis & Precis 12). Evaluated only if the Objective Mains cutoffs are cleared. Qualifying: ~10/25 (general/OBC/EWS), ~9/25 (SC/ST/PwBD).
FINAL 60 MARKS
Interview
Qualifying: ~30/60 (UR/OBC/EWS), ~27/60 (SC/ST/PwBD). Final merit = Mains Objective (300) + Interview (60), weighted roughly 80:20.
The exam pattern, tier by tier
Marks, timing and negative marking exactly as per the official notification.
Preliminary Exam
Qualifying only70 marks · 100 Q
60 min (20 min per section, locked) · No negative marking reported for Generalist Prelims
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoning Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 min |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 35 | 35 | 20 min |
| English Language | 30 | 0 | 20 min |
💡 English section (30 Qs) is checked only for a qualifying cutoff — its marks are excluded from the 70-mark Prelims ranking total (Reasoning 35 + Quant 35).
Main Exam — Objective Test
Merit — 300 of your final merit marks300 marks · 120 Q
120 min (sectional-locked) · −0.25 per wrong answer
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoning Ability | 30 | 90 | 40 min |
| Data Analysis & Interpretation | 30 | 90 | 40 min |
| GK & Current Affairs | 30 | 60 | 20 min |
| Insurance & Financial Market Awareness | 30 | 60 | 20 min |
Main Exam — Descriptive Test
Qualifying only — own separate threshold25 marks · 2 Q
30 min, typed, English only · No negative marking
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email, Report, Situation Analysis & Precis | 2 tasks | 25 | 30 min |
Official syllabus units
- Email & Report Writing (13 marks) — a policyholder grievance response, branch process-change email, or lapse/mis-selling pattern report
- Situation Analysis & Precis (12 marks) — weighing a policyholder's interest against a rule, or a one-third precis
💡 Evaluated ONLY if the objective Mains cutoffs are cleared. Qualifying: ~10/25 (general/OBC/EWS), ~9/25 (SC/ST/PwBD) — a real hurdle, not a formality.
Where your final LIC AAO score comes from
Prelims is qualifying only (English marks are excluded even from Prelims' own ranking). Mains has an Objective test (300 marks, fully merit-counting) and a separate Descriptive test (25 marks, qualifying only — evaluated solely if you clear the objective cutoffs). Final merit combines the Objective score and the 60-mark Interview, weighted roughly 80:20. Here is how the 300 Mains Objective marks split — click any block to open its chapters:
Reasoning Ability90 marks · 30%
The joint-largest Mains section by marks, 30 questions in 40 minutes.
Data Analysis & Interpretation90 marks · 30%
DI-heavy quant, matching the section's own name — the joint-largest Mains section.
GK & Current Affairs60 marks · 20%
60 marks in just 20 minutes — the fastest marks-per-minute section once revised.
Insurance & Financial Market Awareness60 marks · 20%
LIC-specific, life-insurance-flavoured content distinct from general banking awareness.
Subjects in LIC AAO
Chapter-by-chapter study material built to the exam's own blueprint.
Topic-wise weightage — what to study first
Question counts per topic, distilled from previous-year paper analyses. Click any topic with a link to open its full chapter.
| Topic | Prelims Q | Mains Q | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puzzles & Seating Arrangement | 10–14 | Very high | |
| Syllogism | 2–3 | High | |
| Inequality (direct & coded) | 2–3 | High | |
| Coding–Decoding | 2–3 | High | |
| Blood Relations | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Direction & Distance | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Order & Ranking | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Alphanumeric / Alphabet Series | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Data Sufficiency | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Input–Output | 0–2 | Low | |
| Logical / Verbal Reasoning | 0–2 | Low | |
| Computer Aptitude (in Reasoning) | 0–1 | Low |
🎯 The identical banking-family reasoning syllabus as IBPS PO — puzzles and seating arrangement dominate, especially at Mains where 90 marks are packed into just 30 questions, raising the marks-per-question stakes.
| Topic | Prelims Q | Mains Q | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Interpretation | 10–14 | Very high | |
| Simplification & Approximation | 3–5 | High | |
| Number Series | 2–4 | High | |
| Arithmetic — Percentage, Profit & Loss, Interest | 3–5 | High | |
| Quadratic Equations | 1–3 | Medium | |
| Ratio, Proportion & Partnership | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Average, Mixture & Alligation | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Time, Work, Speed & Distance | 1–2 | Medium | |
| Permutation, Combination & Probability | 0–1 | Low | |
| Mensuration | 0–1 | Low | |
| Data Sufficiency (quant) | 0–1 | Low | |
| Quantity Comparison (I vs II) | 0–1 | Low |
🎯 Mains' framing as 'Data Analysis & Interpretation' signals a DI-heavy question mix layered on top of the standard arithmetic/algebra toolkit — the full IBPS-PO-shared quant syllabus prepares for both stages.
| Topic | Prelims Q | Mains Q | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension | 6–8 | High | |
| Cloze Test | 4–5 | Medium | |
| Error Spotting / Sentence Correction | 3–4 | Medium | |
| Para Jumbles / Sentence Rearrangement | 3–4 | Medium | |
| Sentence / Double Fillers | 2–3 | Medium | |
| Word Swap / Word Usage | 2–3 | Low | |
| Sentence Improvement | 1–2 | Low | |
| Column-based / Connectors | 1–2 | Low | |
| Vocabulary | 1–2 | Low | |
| Descriptive — Email, Report, Situation Analysis & Precis | 25 marks | Very high |
🎯 Prelims English exists only as a qualifying gate — its marks don't count even within Prelims. The real English stakes are the Mains Descriptive test's insurance-specific Email/Report/Situation-Analysis/Precis tasks, covered in this subject's dedicated chapter.
| Topic | Prelims Q | Mains Q | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Affairs | 12–15 | Very high | |
| Banking & Financial Awareness | 6–8 | High | |
| Static Banking & Economy | 3–5 | Medium | |
| Budget & Economic Survey | 2–3 | Medium | |
| Static GK | 3–4 | Medium |
🎯 The fastest marks-per-minute section on the Mains paper once revised — dominated by recent current affairs and banking/financial awareness.
| Topic | Prelims Q | Mains Q | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance Fundamentals & Principles | 10–14 | Very high | |
| Life Insurance Products & LIC | 16–20 | Very high |
🎯 Insurance principles apply identically to life and general insurance, but LIC's own product content (term/endowment/ULIP/annuity, PMJJBY/PMSBY) is specifically life-insurance-flavoured — distinct from NIACL AO's general-insurance-flavoured version of this same section.
LIC AAO resources
Everything you need to prepare.
Need structured LIC AAO guidance?
Combine our free study material with a live course or 1-on-1 tutoring.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
No — English is checked only for a qualifying cutoff at Prelims; its marks are excluded from the 70-mark Prelims ranking total (Reasoning 35 + Quantitative Aptitude 35 only).
No — the Descriptive test has its own separate qualifying threshold (~10/25 general/OBC/EWS, ~9/25 SC/ST/PwBD), evaluated only after the objective Mains is cleared. A strong objective score does not offset a failing descriptive script.
Mains Objective (300 marks) and Interview (60 marks) are combined in roughly an 80:20 weighting. Prelims and the Descriptive test are excluded once their own qualifying bars are cleared.
The underlying insurance principles (indemnity, insurable interest, etc.) are shared, but LIC's product content is life-insurance-flavoured (term, endowment, ULIP, PMJJBY/PMSBY) while NIACL's is general/non-life-insurance-flavoured (motor, health, fire, marine, reinsurance).
A Bachelor's degree in any discipline, age 21-30 (21-32 for Legal/CA specialist posts). Selected candidates join as Assistant Administrative Officer at basic pay ₹88,635/month, with gross emoluments of approximately ₹1,26,000/month in a metro city.
Take the next step
LIC AAO — find a tutor
Pair self-study with a tutor, a live course or a coaching centre.
