RPSC AEn Prelims Syllabus

RPSC AEn Prelims Syllabus 2024

The RPSC Assistant Engineer Combined Competitive Preliminary Examination consists of one compulsory paper and one technical paper. Candidates must choose one technical subject from Civil, Electrical, Mechanical or Agricultural Engineering.

RPSC AEn Prelims Paper Structure

Paper	Subject	Marks	Duration
Compulsory Paper	General Knowledge & General Science, including Rajasthan Geography, Economy and Culture	200	2 Hours
Optional Paper	Civil / Electrical / Mechanical / Agricultural Engineering	200	2 Hours
*Total*		400	4 Hours

Note

The Preliminary Examination is objective type and serves as a screening test. Marks obtained in Prelims are not counted while preparing the final merit list.

General Knowledge & General Science Syllabus

History, Art, Culture, Literature, Tradition and Heritage of Rajasthan

Pre-historic sites of Rajasthan from the Palaeolithic to Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages; rock art.
Ancient Rajasthan: Malawa, Yodheya, Sibi and Matsya; society, religion and culture.
Major dynasties: Guhila, Pratihar, Chauhan, Parmar, Rathore, Sisodiya and Kachchawa.
Medieval administration and revenue system of Rajasthan.
Social and political awakening in Rajasthan during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Newspapers, political institutions, tribal movements, peasant movements, Praja Mandal movements and integration of Rajasthan.
Rajasthan architecture: temples, forts, palaces, man-made water bodies, painting schools and handicrafts.
Classical music and dance; folk music, instruments, dances and drama.
Rajasthani dialects, literature and folk literature.
Religious communities, saints, warrior-saints, sects and folk deities.
Fairs, festivals, customs, traditions, costumes, ornaments and leading personalities of Rajasthan.

Ancient and Medieval India

Indus Valley Civilisation and Vedic Age.
Buddhism and Jainism.
Maurya, Kushan, Satavahan, Gupta, Chalukya, Pallava and Chola dynasties.
Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tamil literature.
Sultanate rulers and cultural achievements of the Vijayanagar Empire.
Mughal period, Afghan, Rajput, Deccan States and Maratha challenges.
Medieval art, architecture, Bhakti and Sufi movements.

Modern India

Intellectual awakening, press, western education and socio-religious reforms.
Indian freedom struggle, national movement, important stages and contributors.
Post-independence nation building and the development of science and technology in India.

Geography of India and Rajasthan

Physiography, climate, soils, natural vegetation and agriculture of India.
Major industries, population, density, sex ratio, environmental and ecological issues.
Rajasthan physiography, rivers, lakes, climate, soils, vegetation, irrigation projects, livestock, minerals, industries and tourism.

Indian Constitution, Political System and Governance

Constituent Assembly, salient features of the Constitution and constitutional amendments.
Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles, Fundamental Duties and citizenship.
President, Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, Parliament, Supreme Court and judicial review.
Election Commission, electoral reforms, NITI Aayog, CVC, Lokpal and NHRC.
Federalism, regionalism, national integration, caste, class, labour, farmers, gender, religion, language, ethnicity, naxalism and terrorism.

Rajasthan Political and Administrative System

Governor, Chief Minister, Council of Ministers, Legislative Assembly and High Court.
Chief Secretary, district administration, local self-government and Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Rajasthan Public Service Commission, State Human Rights Commission, Lokayukt, State Election Commission and State Information Commission.

Indian Economy and Rajasthan Economy

Agriculture, industry, services and trade sectors.
Liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation and their impact.
NITI Aayog, Union Budget, Sustainable Development Goals and SDG Index.
Rajasthan agriculture, commercial crops, irrigation and river valley projects.
Indira Gandhi Canal Project, industries, minerals, handicrafts, cooperative movement and tourism.
Rajasthan Budget, financial institutions, economic problems and development challenges.

Science and Technology

Everyday science and scientific awareness.
Computers, information and communication technology.
Defence technology, space technology and satellites.
Nanotechnology, biotechnology and genetic engineering.
Human health, diseases, food and nutrition.
Environmental changes, Environmental Impact Assessment, Remote Sensing and GIS.

Reasoning and Mental Ability

Number and letter series, coding-decoding, cubes and dice, blood relations and analytical reasoning.
Real and complex numbers, percentage, time and work.
Perimeter and area of plane figures.
Surface area and volume of cylinder, cone, sphere and cuboid.

Current Affairs

Rajasthan Government schemes, policies, programmes and initiatives.
Rajasthan persons, places, events, institutions, departments, reports and awards in news.
Rajasthan Economic Survey and Budget trends.
Rajasthan economic development and political issues.
State-level sports activities and awards.
National and international persons, awards, places, events, institutions and organisations in news.

Civil Engineering Syllabus ( Optional Subject )

1. Engineering Materials and Construction Technology

Building-site selection, planning and orientation.
Masonry bonds, damp-proof course, scaffolding, underpinning and racking.
Floors, staircases, roofs, doors, windows, fire protection, ventilation, air conditioning and acoustics.
Building and highway materials with relevant IS provisions.
Stones, bricks, timber, lime, cement, mortar, glass, plastics, steel, FRP, ceramics, aluminium, fly ash, admixtures, concrete and bitumen.

2. Surveying

Levelling, theodolite, total station, tacheometry, triangulation and traversing.
Contours, contouring, curve setting, survey errors and adjustment.
Area and volume calculations.
Remote Sensing, GPS, GIS and Digital Elevation Model.

3. Soil and Geotechnical Engineering

Soil classification, index properties, field identification and laboratory tests.
Permeability, Darcy’s law, flow nets, compaction and consolidation.
Soil stabilisation, Boussinesq theory and Newmark’s chart.
Shear strength, bearing capacity, plate load test and SPT.
Earth pressure, slope stability and geosynthetics.

4. Structural Mechanics

Stress, strain, elastic constants and factor of safety.
Shear force and bending moment diagrams.
Influence lines, slope and deflection of beams.
Analysis of determinate and indeterminate beams, frames and trusses.

5. Steel Structures

IS 800 and IS 875 provisions.
Limit State Design, bolted and welded connections.
Tension members, compression members, beams, column bases, plate girders, gantry girders and roof trusses.
Plastic theory concepts.

6. Reinforced Concrete Structures

IS 456 and IS 3370 provisions.
Design of singly and doubly reinforced beams, slabs, columns and footings.
Flexure, shear, bond, anchorage and development length.
RCC retaining walls and water tanks.

7. Fluid Mechanics, Hydrology and Irrigation

Fluid properties, pressure measurement, Bernoulli’s equation, Navier-Stokes equation and Reynolds equation.
Flow through orifices, venturimeter, notches, weirs, pipes and open channels.
Gradually and rapidly varied flow, momentum principles, viscous flow and drag.
Dimensional analysis, similitude and hydraulic modelling.
Engineering hydrology, floods, droughts, reservoirs, dams, spillways and groundwater.
Canals, silt theories, Khosla theory, wells and waterlogging.

8. Public Health Engineering

Water demand, population forecasting, sources and purification of water.
Water-distribution systems and house drainage.
Wastewater characteristics: BOD, COD, DO and TOC.
Sewerage layout, primary and secondary treatment, trickling filters, lagoons and sequencing batch reactors.
Rural water supply, sanitation and solid-waste classification.

Electrical Engineering Syllabus ( Optional Subject )

1. Electrical Circuits

Circuit elements, voltage and current sources, KCL, KVL, nodal and mesh analysis.
AC and DC network theorems, network functions, poles, zeros and two-port networks.
Fourier series, Laplace transform, resonant circuits and frequency response.
Three-phase balanced and unbalanced networks.
Transient analysis of RL, RC and RLC circuits.

2. Field Theory and Electrical Materials

Electrostatics, magnetostatics, Stokes theorem, Laplace and Poisson equations.
Fields in conductors, magnetic materials and dielectrics.
Maxwell’s equations.
Conducting, magnetic, dielectric and insulating materials.
Polarisation and superconductivity.

3. Electrical Measurement and Instrumentation

Units, dimensions, errors, bridge methods and measuring instruments.
Measurement of voltage, current, power, power factor, energy, resistance, inductance, capacitance and frequency.
Strain gauge, LVDT, thermistors, resistance thermometers and piezoelectric transducers.

4. Electronics, Digital Electronics and Communication

Diodes, Zener diodes, BJT, JFET, MOSFET, biasing and electronic circuits.
Rectifiers, filters, voltage regulators, amplifiers and flip-flops.
Boolean algebra, logic gates, memories, DTL, TTL, ECL, MOS and CMOS.
AM and FM generation, detection and noise behaviour.

5. Microprocessor and Computer Fundamentals

8085 architecture, instruction set and assembly-language programming.
Memory and I/O interfacing.
Digital-computer layout, input-output devices, memory organisation, algorithms and flowcharts.

6. Power Electronics and Control System

Power semiconductor devices, TRIAC, GTO, MOSFET and thyristor.
Rectifiers, converters, choppers, clipping, clamping, oscillators and multivibrators.
Open and closed-loop systems, transfer functions, block diagrams and signal-flow graphs.
Stability, Routh-Hurwitz criterion, Nyquist criterion, Bode plot, gain margin and phase margin.

7. Electrical Machines

DC motors and generators.
Transformers, losses, efficiency, voltage regulation and parallel operation.
Three-phase and single-phase induction motors.
Alternators and synchronous motors.

8. Power Systems, Switchgear and Protection

Thermal, hydro, nuclear and non-conventional power generation.
Transmission and distribution, transmission-line parameters and underground cables.
Earthing, corona, HVDC, insulators and system stability.
Circuit breakers, fault currents, reactors, busbars and protective relays.
Protection of lines, transformers, generators and busbars.

Mechanical Engineering Syllabus ( Optional Subject )

1. Theory of Machines

Kinematic pairs, mechanisms, inversions and slider-crank mechanism.
Velocity, acceleration, Coriolis acceleration and straight-line mechanisms.
Friction, brakes, dynamometers, gears, gear trains and governors.
Balancing, vibrations and torsional vibration.

2. Machine Design

Design for strength, bending, torsion, threaded fasteners and curved beams.
Manufacturing considerations and failure theories.

3. Material Science

Crystal structure, space lattice, Miller indices and crystal imperfections.
Phase diagrams, carbon steels, alloy steels, cast iron and heat treatment.
Non-ferrous materials, plastics, polymers and rubber.

4. Manufacturing Processes

Pattern making, moulding, casting, welding, brazing and soldering.
Drawing, extrusion, forging, piercing and rolling.
Lathe, shaper, drilling, milling, planer and grinding.
Metal cutting, cutting tools, modern machining methods and flexible manufacturing systems.

5. Industrial Engineering and Management

Organisation, management principles, costing, break-even analysis and budgetary control.
Quality control, TQM, time and motion study.
Plant location, layout, material handling, project management and production planning.
Supply-chain management, lean management and Industry 4.0.

6. Thermal Engineering

Thermodynamic laws and applications.
Gas and vapour power cycles.
Conduction, convection, radiation, boiling, condensation and heat exchangers.

7. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Air refrigeration, vapour-compression and vapour-absorption systems.
Refrigerants, expansion devices, psychrometric processes, human comfort and cooling-load calculations.

8. Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Machines

Fluid properties, kinematics, dynamics, laminar and turbulent flow.
Flow through pipes, boundary layer, impact of jets, pumps and turbines.

9. Power Generation

SI and CI engines, combustion and fuel-injection systems.
Steam, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants.
Biogas, solar, wind, geothermal and tidal-energy resources.
Power-plant economics.

Agricultural Engineering Syllabus ( Optional Subject )

1. Surveying, Levelling and Land Development

Linear measurement, surveying devices and methods.
Land grading, levelling, contouring, terracing and earthwork estimation.
Land-development budgeting.

2. Soil and Water Conservation

Precipitation, hydrologic cycle, rainfall analysis, watershed and runoff.
Hydrographs, erosion, soil-loss assessment and erosion-control measures.
Contour cultivation, strip cropping, terracing, afforestation and pasture development.
Gully control, wind erosion and water-harvesting structures such as Khadin, Tanka, Nadi and Anicut.

3. Irrigation, Drainage, Pumps and Water Resources

Soil-water-plant relationship, irrigation scheduling and soil-moisture measurement.
Water measurement, conveyance and field-channel design.
Irrigation methods and irrigation efficiency.
Surface and subsurface drainage.
Reciprocating, centrifugal, turbine, submersible, propeller, jet and air-lift pumps.
Surface water, groundwater, canal irrigation, command-area development and wells.

4. Farm Power and Machinery

IC engines, tractor systems, transmission, steering, hydraulics and tractor selection.
Tillage, sowing, planting, interculture, spraying, dusting, harvesting and threshing equipment.
Field capacity, field efficiency, draft and cost analysis.

5. Agricultural Processing

Size-reduction and material-handling equipment.
Separation, heating, cooling, drying, evaporation and refrigeration.
Milling of rice, maize, wheat and pulses.
Grain storage, food preservation and thermal processing.

6. Farm Electrification, Rural Housing and Renewable Energy

Farm motors, wiring, rural electrification and electrical safety.
Rural housing, building materials, roads, drainage, sanitation and construction estimates.
Solar energy, solar thermal devices, solar photovoltaic systems, biogas, biomass gasification and wind energy.