Update: the exam has been heldThe AP written paper of 31 October 2026 is now fully solved in Chapter 15. Use it as a practice paper for the next AP, SO IT or Officer IT exam.
0-A.1 The exam at a glance (BSCS Notice No. 340/2026, 19 October 2026)
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Post | Assistant Programmer / Senior Officer (AP), Grade 9 — 33 posts in 5 banks and 2 financial institutions |
| Date and time | 31/10/2026, Saturday, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm (MCQ 1 hour + written 2 hours, in one sitting) |
| Centre | Tejgaon Government High School, Tejgaon, Dhaka — 2,482 candidates (Roll 60001–63310) |
| Entry | Be present at least 1 hour before the exam starts; no entry after 9:15 am |
| MCQ (100) | Subjects Related 75 + Mathematics 15 + General Knowledge 10; 0.25 deducted for each wrong answer |
| Written (200) | Subjects Related 150 + Mathematics 20 + English Language Proficiency 30 |
| Prohibited | Apart from the admit card (1 copy): paper, books, bags, mobile phones, calculators, smart/digital watches, any card or electronic device; nothing may be written on the admit card; both ears must be visible |
Likely question setter: BIBM (assumption, not certain)
The notice does not name the question-setting institution. But in every bank-IT exam in 2023–2026 with the "1 hour MCQ + 2 hours written in one sitting" format (BB AP 03.02.2023, Combined 5 Bank AP 09.02.2024, AME 2024, SO IT and Officer IT 2024, Officer IT 17.10.2025, BSCS AP 17.01.2026), the collections name BIBM as the setter (the last one says "BIBM/CTI"). The written split also matches (IT 150 + math 20 + English/translation 30). The other possibility is CTI, whose 2021–22 exams were written only.
0-A.2 What a BIBM AP paper contains (per BB AP 2023)
| Part | Expect | Where in these notes |
|---|---|---|
| Written IT (~9 questions) | Hashing (linear probing), graph adjacency list/matrix, writing a program (LCM etc.), SQL query, UML class diagram, overloading/overriding/hiding, CIA and at which layer E2E encryption works, Diffie-Hellman MitM | 3.9, 3.10, 4.2, 4.8, 5.10, 8.2, 8.5, 9.4 |
| Written math (4 × 5) | Algebra (x + 1/x), percentage, forming equations, geometry | 14.1 |
| English Language Proficiency (30) | In the earlier pattern: Focus Writing 10 + translation B↔E 20; the type may change | 13 (sample paragraph), 14.2, 14.3 |
| MCQ IT (75) | Port, OSI, command, short form, DS complexity, SQL clause, OOP, OS — like Officer IT MCQ 2026 (BIBM) | MCQs of each chapter + Appendix B |
0-A.3 Day-wise routine
Rule
Read each "Past question BB AP 2023" box first, then cover the answer and write it yourself. Write code and SQL by hand on paper — there is no IDE in the exam. Note every mistake on a separate page; on the last night, review only that page.
| Day | Time | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 Wed, 28 Oct DSA + Programming |
First part | Chapter 3: 3.9 Hashing (BB AP 2023 — build the table yourself), 3.10 Graph (adjacency list/matrix of 7 nodes), 3.4 Infix → Postfix, 3.7 BST traversal, 3.12 sorting table, 3.13 binary search |
| Second part | Chapter 4: 4.2 Overloading/Overriding/Hiding (BB AP 2023 — which line gives a compile error and why), 4.3 Java polymorphism program, 4.7 output tracing; from 4.8 LCM/GCD, prime, Fibonacci, palindrome, string reverse — write at least 5 by hand without looking at the book | |
| Night | MCQs of Chapters 3 and 4 (30) — list the mistakes | |
| Day 2 Thu, 29 Oct DB + Security + SE |
Morning | Chapter 5: 5.6 ACID, 5.5 Normalization, 5.8 DELETE/TRUNCATE/DROP; write every SQL in 5.10 by hand (romantic comedies, dept average, GROUP BY + HAVING, nth highest) |
| Noon | Chapter 8: 8.1 CIA, 8.2 RSA and Diffie-Hellman + MitM (BB AP 2023 — draw the diagram), 8.3 SQLi/XSS, 8.4 Firewall/IDS/IPS, 8.5 At which layer E2E encryption works (BB AP 2023) | |
| Afternoon | Chapter 9: 9.4 Token-ring LAN class diagram (BB AP 2023) — draw it yourself; 9.2 SDLC model comparison; 9.5 Testing | |
| Night | MCQs of Chapters 5, 8, 9 (45) | |
| Day 3 Fri, 30 Oct Network + OS + mock test |
Morning | Chapter 7: 7.1 OSI, 7.7 Subnetting (do 2 by hand), 7.9 memorize the port table; Chapter 6: 6.3 Scheduling Gantt chart, 6.5 Deadlock, 6.6 Paging/LRU, 6.8 Linux commands |
| Noon (at a time like 9:30–12:30) | Full mock test: Appendix C — MCQ 30 minutes (compute marks with 0.25 deducted) + written part; also time the four BB AP 2023 math questions of Chapter 14.1 | |
| Afternoon | Chapters 14.2–14.3 (translation and Focus structure) + write one English sample paragraph from Chapter 13 yourself in 200 words; go through Appendix B (short forms) and A (formulas) once | |
| Night | Only skim the mistake list + the past-question boxes; print the admit card, plan your route and travel time; sleep by 11 pm | |
| Exam day Sat, 31 Oct | Morning | Do not study anything new. Reach Tejgaon Government High School by 8:30 (entry closes at 9:15). Do not carry prohibited items (phone, watch, calculator, bag, cards) other than the admit card. |
0-A.4 Time split in the exam hall
| Part | Time | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| MCQ (assume 100 questions) | 60 minutes ≈ 36 seconds/question | First round: the sure ones (35–40 minutes); second round: the rest; last 5 minutes: match the OMR |
| Written IT (150) | ~90 minutes | Do the question you know best first; ~6 minutes per 10 marks; in code/SQL show the logic with comments |
| Math (20) | ~12 minutes | Write the formula and solve step by step; no calculator, so keep the calculation simple |
| English (30) | ~18 minutes | Focus: introduction–current situation–benefits–challenges–recommendation; in translation use short correct sentences |
Negative marking (−0.25) — when to guess
Pure blind guess among 4 options: expected marks = ¼ × 1 − ¾ × 0.25 = +0.06 (almost zero, but high risk).
If you can surely eliminate one option = ⅓ − ⅔ × 0.25 = +0.17; if you can eliminate two = ½ − ½ × 0.25 = +0.375.
Rule: If you can surely eliminate at least one option, answer; if you can eliminate none, skip.
Rule: If you can surely eliminate at least one option, answer; if you can eliminate none, skip.
0-A.5 What to skip if time is short
Chapter 12 (Electrical), the detailed Hadoop/RAID part of 11, the deep parts of 10, 8086 in 2, and flip-flop/counter in 1. From Chapter 13, see only NPSB, BEFTN, RTGS, BACH and the short forms and functions of CBS (for GK and MCQ).