APPSC TSPSC Telugu Typing Test — Unicode/InScript + Anu
One page, both Telugu keyboard layouts. Practise the 25 WPM skill-test for APPSC Group II/III/IV (Junior Assistant, Bill Collector, Steno-Typist), TSPSC equivalents, and other AP/Telangana clerical posts — in modern Telugu Unicode/InScript or the legacy Anu font, whichever your admit card prints. Start in either layout below, then read the matching guide: the cutoff, Net WPM scoring, an InScript-vs-Anu comparison, layout-specific mistakes, and a week-by-week plan.
- Speed cutoff
- 25 WPM
- Duration
- 5 min
- Layouts
- InScript + Anu
- Scoring
- Net WPM
- Source
- APPSC / TSPSC notification
Choose your Telugu layout
Telugu (Unicode / InScript)
The modern Unicode standard. Matra comes after the consonant — the order you read Telugu in — and every keystroke stores a real Telugu character. Easiest for first-time typists, works on any system without a font, and the same Unicode runs the AP/Telangana e-office systems you will use after joining.
Start in Unicode/InScript → Read the InScript guide ↓Telugu (Anu — legacy)
The legacy ASCII font most Hyderabad and Vijayawada coaching centres still teach. You press Latin keys on a typewriter-style mapping; Telugu shows only when the Anu font loads, and the file stays ASCII inside. Choose this if you already trained on Anu Script Manager — the key order does not match InScript.
Start in Anu → Read the Anu guide ↓Both tests share the same 25 Net WPM cutoff, 5-minute window and backspace policy — only the keyboard layout and font differ. Not sure which is yours? Read the Unicode/InScript vs Anu comparison below before you start.
Who takes the APPSC TSPSC Telugu typing test
Telugu typing is required across both Andhra and Telangana state recruitments. The post list and the 25 WPM bar are the same in either layout — the only thing that changes between Unicode/InScript and Anu is the keyboard under your fingers.
Junior Assistant / Typist / Stenographer
APPSC's clerical and stenographer cadres require Telugu typing as a qualifying skill test. Speed targets are 25 WPM Telugu for typist and 30+ WPM for stenographer. Both Unicode/InScript and Anu are accepted; you lock the choice on the application.
Junior Assistant / Steno-Typist
TSPSC follows a similar pattern to APPSC — qualifying only, with cutoffs in the same 25-30 WPM band. Typing happens post-mains at a state-allotted centre, in whichever Telugu layout you declared.
Office Subordinate / VRO / Clerks
Lower clerical recruitments at the village and mandal level sometimes include Telugu typing as an optional skill. Speeds tend to be lower and the stage is often classroom-based, where older centres still default to Anu.
Telugu Steno-Typist
Telugu stenographer posts under both PSCs and the AP and Telangana High Courts require shorthand plus typing. Typing speeds run 30 WPM and above; the transcription layout is whichever the candidate declared — Unicode/InScript or Anu.
The most expensive mistake here has nothing to do with speed: it is training on the wrong layout. An Anu-trained candidate who lets the application default to InScript — or an InScript typist who declared Anu by accident — lands at the centre facing a keyboard their hands have never used. The first 30 seconds produce garbage, two minutes vanish before anyone flags it, and 25 WPM in the remaining three is out of reach. Decide your layout deliberately on this page, train only on that one, and verify it against the admit card the day it releases.
Official typing test pattern
Recruitment cycles published by APPSC / TSPSC notification include the typing assessment as the final qualifying gate. The layout — Telugu Unicode/InScript or Anu — is locked at the application stage and printed on the admit card.
Duration: a 5-minute active typing window, with a separate ten-minute pre-test instruction screen that does not count against the candidate's time.
Speed cutoff. The hard floor is 25 WPM Net. Falling under it removes the application from the appointment list for the cycle — no rounding, no written-examination override, no in-cycle re-test. This is identical for both layouts.
Layout: Telugu Unicode/InScript or Anu, selected during the online application; the choice is permanent for that recruitment cycle. Practise on the same layout the admit card prints — switching costs 8 to 12 WPM from layout shock alone, because the key order and several glyph keys differ between the two.
Skill-gate logic: the typing test sits between the written shortlist and document verification. It is qualifying in the sense that any score above the floor is sufficient; speed beyond the floor earns no extra marks, but it does build a buffer against test-day stress and unfamiliar passage vocabulary.
How the typing test is scored
Net WPM and accuracy run as parallel cutoffs in the APPSC TSPSC Telugu scoring engine. Neither compensates for the other, and the scoring is the same whether you type in Unicode/InScript or Anu — the engine compares the rendered Telugu against the passage, not the underlying key codes.
Gross WPM
For APPSC TSPSC Telugu and every comparable assessment in the same cadre family, Gross WPM is character count divided by five, divided by minutes. The calculation is universal across typing tests; the test-specific behaviour starts at the Net WPM step.
Net WPM
Net WPM is the selection-deciding number for APPSC TSPSC Telugu. The error penalty treats commissions and omissions identically — one error each, no partial credit, no leniency for near-misses.
Why the final minute is the real test
The first minute is the easy minute — fresh fingers, no fatigue, attention high. The final minute decides the cutoff. Most failed mocks show a clean first three minutes and an error-laden fourth. The fix is the simplest one: drill the final minute deliberately, in isolation, every other session.
Worked example
Gross WPM = (710 + 4) / 5 / 5 = 28.56 WPM
Net WPM = 28.56 − (4 / 5) = 27.76 WPM
Accuracy = 710 / 714 × 100 = 99.44%
Both gates clear: Net WPM of 27.76 sits 2.76 above the 25 WPM floor, and accuracy at 99.44% is comfortably above the 95% requirement. Aim for that margin in mocks; arrive at the centre with the cutoff already cleared on three consecutive runs in your chosen layout. Anything tighter and test-day stress eats the buffer.
Backspace and editing — the same rule in both layouts
Telugu typing for state-government recruitment runs through two parallel commissions since the 2014 bifurcation. APPSC (Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission) handles AP state cadres with centres in Vijayawada, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Anantapur. TSPSC (Telangana State Public Service Commission) handles Telangana cadres from Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam. Both accept Telugu typing through similar software, but registrations are state-cadre-specific — an APPSC result is not usable for TS cadres, and vice versa.
Backspace is permitted across current APPSC and TSPSC Telugu software in both layouts. But it costs more in Telugu than in English, and more again in Anu than in InScript, because a single Telugu syllable can be several keystrokes — in Anu, sometimes a base glyph, a vowel sign and a separate vottu key. Delete one keystroke and you are left with a broken half-form on screen. Three rules calibrated to the Telugu structure:
- State-commission verification rule. Confirm whether the application is for APPSC or TSPSC, and that the centre location matches the state. Aspirants who applied to the wrong commission face cadre-eligibility issues at allotment regardless of typing performance.
- Vottulu lock rule. Telugu uses extensive consonant clusters with subscript consonants (vottulu) attached to a base — క్క, స్త, ర్క. Backspace through the whole compound, never one keystroke, then retype it clean. Fix the first occurrence in a passage and let the muscle memory carry the rest.
- Final-45-seconds no-backspace rule. Telugu's matra-after-consonant ordering produces ambiguous on-screen states under haste that backspace cannot cleanly resolve in the closing window. Type forward to the buzzer; a trailing typo costs one error, a panicked over-correction costs ten.
Across both layouts, the centre fail-patterns cluster around two themes: over-correction and panic-typing in the final minute. Over-correction is the bigger cause. Practise saying no to fixes from the previous word during your 5-minute mocks, and the discipline transfers to the centre on its own.
Unicode/InScript vs Anu — which should you pick
Both write the same Telugu, but the keyboard behaves completely differently underneath. Here is the difference that actually matters on test day.
APPSC and TSPSC accept both Telugu layouts, but only the one you declared on the form runs at the centre — and you cannot change it on test day. The headline difference is where the matra goes and what the file stores. In Telugu InScript (the Unicode standard), the vowel sign is typed after its consonant, exactly as you read Telugu, and every keypress writes a real Unicode character that any device can render. In Anu (the legacy ASCII font), the mapping descends from the old Telugu newspaper typewriters: you press Latin keys, the file stays ASCII inside, and Telugu glyphs appear only when the Anu font is installed. Several vowel signs and vottulu sit on different keys, and a few digit and symbol keys carry Telugu glyphs — which is exactly why Anu muscle memory does not transfer to InScript, and vice versa.
Phonetic order, font-free, future-proof
Matra after the consonant, like reading. Each keypress stores Telugu Unicode, so the text is readable on any system with no font install — and the same Unicode runs AP/Telangana e-office and file-noting. Best for: first-time Telugu typists with no prior habit, and anyone who will use Telugu at the desk after joining.
Trade-standard, coaching-taught, ASCII inside
Latin keys map to Telugu via the Anu Script Manager layout; the file is ASCII and shows Telugu only when the Anu font loads. Vottulu and several signs sit on their own keys. Best for: candidates already drilled on Anu at a Hyderabad or Vijayawada institute, or coming from Telugu DTP/newspaper typing.
The one rule that settles it: pick what the admit card prints — that is what test day gives you, with no switch option. If you are filling the form now with no prior habit, choose Unicode/InScript: it is the easier start, the universal standard, and it carries straight into the e-office job. But if your hands are already trained on Anu, stay on Anu; switching three weeks before the exam drops your speed for a fortnight before it recovers, and that fortnight is the worst time to lose it.
InScript is a Unicode keyboard, not a font. The vowels sit on the left hand and the consonants on the right, and the vowel sign is always typed after its consonant — the same order you read Telugu. That phonetic logic is why we point first-time APPSC and TSPSC typists at InScript: there is no reversed muscle memory to unlearn. The centre panel comes pre-configured; you select nothing and install nothing. And because each keypress stores a genuine Devanagari-block Telugu Unicode character, the file reads correctly on any device with no font — which is exactly what the AP and Telangana e-office, file-noting and notification systems run on after you join. Learn InScript once and the same keystrokes serve the exam and the desk.
The InScript trap is the opposite of Anu's. Because the layout is phonetic, beginners assume it is forgiving, then hit a wall on conjuncts. Telugu vottulu — the subscript consonants in క్క, స్త, ర్క — are typed as base + halant + secondary, a three-key sequence that has to become one reflex motion. Drill those before you chase speed; a typist who sails through plain consonants but stutters on every cluster will lose 2-3 WPM exactly where APPSC and TSPSC passages are densest, because administrative Telugu is full of compound terms.
A Telugu InScript sample — state-administration style
This renders directly in Telugu Unicode below, no font install required — that is the whole point of InScript. The same line stored in Anu would be ASCII gibberish until the Anu font loaded.
Six InScript-specific mistakes that fail Telugu candidates
These patterns recur in feedback from APPSC and TSPSC InScript-stream candidates who failed one cycle and cleared the next. Each fix is small; together they recover the 3-5 WPM that matra slips, state vocabulary and a late start quietly eat.
Treating InScript as easy because it is phonetic
The matra-after-consonant order feels natural for the first day, so beginners skip structured drilling and jump to timed passages. Then conjuncts ambush them. Phonetic does not mean automatic — the finger paths still have to be built.
Spend week 1 on layout fluency only, no timer. Earn the speed after the layout is reflexive, not before.Skipping vottulu (subscript consonant) drills
Telugu clusters like క్క, ర్క, స్త, స్న, త్త need a base + halant + secondary keystroke sequence. Typists who have not drilled them produce visible pauses on every cluster, losing 2-3 WPM across the passage.
Drill 10-12 high-frequency vottulu (క్క, ర్క, స్త, స్న, త్త, న్న, మ్మ, య్య, ల్ల, ప్ప) for 10 minutes daily from week 2 until each is one motion.Drilling neutral prose instead of the state-administration corpus
APPSC and TSPSC passages lean on state-government terms — ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ ప్రభుత్వం, తెలంగాణ రాష్ట్రం, మండల పరిషత్, గ్రామ పంచాయతీ, కలెక్టర్ కార్యాలయం, రెవెన్యూ శాఖ. These long compound nouns recur and slow typists trained on general Telugu.
Build a 30-term state-government vocabulary list (AP from psc.ap.gov.in, TS from tspsc.gov.in) and drill it daily from week 2.Letting Anu habits leak into an InScript declaration
Candidates who once dabbled in Anu Script Manager sometimes reach for the wrong keys under exam stress — the matra ends up before the consonant, and the conjunct breaks. One reversed habit ruins a whole word, repeatedly.
In the final two weeks, touch only InScript. If you declared InScript, do not open Anu practice at all — the interference is real.Ignoring AP/Telangana dialect and register differences
APPSC prose runs to the coastal-Andhra administrative register; TSPSC prose to the Hyderabad-Telangana one. A candidate from one region facing the other commission's passage hits unfamiliar terminology in the opening minute.
If applying to TSPSC, fold 15% of weekly practice into Telangana-administration content; for APPSC, Andhra secretariat content. The differences are real and recur.Chasing WPM while the accuracy gate quietly fails
There is no live accuracy meter during the window. A typist piling up errors does not see it until the result screen shows 92% and a failed gate, even though the Gross WPM looked fine.
Hold 98% in practice before pushing speed. Treat any mock below 96% as a fail regardless of WPM, and slow down until accuracy returns.A four-week InScript practice plan
Assumes an 11 WPM Telugu InScript baseline and targets 30 WPM with a clear buffer above the 25 WPM cutoff.
InScript foundation
- Daily 25-minute drill on InScript home-row consonants
- Memorise vowel-sign positions (కా, కి, కు, కే)
- Read state-government Telugu each evening
- No timed mocks yet — layout fluency first
State corpus + vottulu
- Switch corpus to your-state administration content
- Drill the 30-term state vocabulary list
- Begin the daily vottulu compound drill
- Two short 5-minute mocks at week's end
Conjunct fluency
- One full 5-minute Telugu mock daily
- Drill 10-12 vottulu as fixed phrases
- Vottulu lock rule reinforced on every backspace
- One mid-week rest day
Buffer + centre simulation
- Two full mocks per day at the expected slot time
- Final-45-seconds no-backspace rule enforced
- External keyboard from this week on
- Verify the InScript declaration on the admit card
Start the InScript mock — 5-minute timer + Net WPM
Exam-style Telugu passage, 5-minute timer, Net WPM with the 95% accuracy floor, backspace rule picker. No sign-up, no ads inside the typing widget, and a result card that shows exactly where the Net WPM penalty came from.
Start in Unicode/InScript →Anu is not a keyboard; it is a legacy ASCII font riding on the Anu Script Manager key mapping. You press Latin keys, and Telugu glyphs appear on screen only while the Anu font is loaded — inside, the file stays plain ASCII. The mapping descends straight from the Telugu newspaper and DTP trade of the 1990s, which is why Anu is still what Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam coaching institutes teach by default: a whole generation of compositors and office typists learned it, and the muscle memory got handed down. If your hands are already drilled on Anu, this is the layout to declare — but know exactly what you are committing to.
Two things make Anu fundamentally different from InScript, and both bite on test day. First, the key order is not phonetic: several vowel signs and the vottulu live on their own keys, and a handful of Telugu glyphs sit on the number and symbol row — so a syllable that is one logical sound can be two or three unrelated keystrokes, in an order you simply have to memorise. Second, because the stored text is ASCII, Anu output does not travel: paste it into a Unicode editor or an AP/Telangana e-office form and you get Latin characters, not Telugu. That is fine for the exam, where the scoring engine reads the rendered glyphs, but it is why HCM and junior-assistant joiners who typed Anu must convert to Unicode for real file-work later.
An Anu sample — ASCII source vs the Telugu it renders
The first line is the raw ASCII a typist actually keys in Anu; the second is what the Anu font draws from it. Without the font, the first line is all you would see — which is the whole compatibility problem in one example.
Six Anu-specific mistakes that fail Telugu candidates
Some come from the legacy ASCII structure, some from the AP/Telangana administrative passages — these are particular to Anu, and InScript drills will not catch them.
InScript habits resurfacing under stress
If you have ever practised on InScript, exam pressure pulls your fingers toward the phonetic key — but in Anu that key produces a different glyph, and the whole word breaks. One reversed reflex spoils a run of words, not just one.
In exam week, practise only on Anu. Do not open InScript at all — the cross-layout interference is the single biggest Anu failure mode.Not memorising the number-row and symbol-key glyphs
Anu parks several Telugu signs on the digit and punctuation keys. Typists who only drilled the letter rows freeze whenever a passage needs one of those glyphs, breaking rhythm for a second or two each time.
Make a one-page Anu key map of every non-letter glyph and drill those keys specifically for 10 minutes a day from week 1.Backspacing one keystroke inside a multi-key syllable
In Anu a single Telugu syllable can be two or three ASCII keystrokes. Hit backspace once and you are left with a broken half-form that looks right but scores wrong, and fixing it mid-flow costs more time than the original typo.
Backspace through the entire syllable, never one key. Drill this rhythm in practice so it is automatic at the centre.Assuming Anu output is portable
Candidates copy their practice text into a Unicode notepad to share it, see Latin gibberish, and panic that their typing was wrong. The typing was fine — Anu is just ASCII underneath, and it needs its font to display.
Understand the ASCII-vs-Unicode mechanic before the exam. It is not a bug; it is how Anu works, and knowing it removes a real test-week scare.Training on a different Anu font version than the centre runs
Anu Script Manager has shipped in several versions, and a few keys moved between them. A typist drilled on one version who meets another at the centre finds two or three keys producing the wrong glyph — small, but enough to derail a passage.
Practise on the standard Anu mapping used here and confirm the centre version from the admit-card instructions where stated.Ignoring the post-join Unicode conversion need
Anu clears the exam, but AP and Telangana e-office systems are Unicode. Joiners who never learned to convert Anu to Unicode lose time at the desk re-typing notes that should have been a one-click conversion.
After selection, learn one Anu-to-Unicode conversion workflow. It is a 30-minute skill that saves hours of re-typing on the job.A four-week Anu practice plan
Anu's non-phonetic key order takes longer to make reflexive, so this plan front-loads layout work and assumes an 11 WPM Anu baseline, targeting 30 WPM with a buffer above 25.
Anu key-map mastery
- Build and memorise the full Anu key map, including digit-row glyphs
- Daily 30-minute drill on letter rows + special keys
- No InScript practice at all this cycle
- No timed mocks yet — mapping first
State corpus + vottulu keys
- Switch corpus to your-state administration content
- Drill the 30-term state vocabulary in Anu
- Drill the Anu vottu keys as fixed sequences
- Two short 5-minute mocks at week's end
Syllable-level backspace rhythm
- One full 5-minute Anu mock daily
- Backspace-through-the-whole-syllable drilled deliberately
- Confirm your practice Anu version matches the centre
- One mid-week rest day
Buffer + centre simulation
- Two full mocks per day at the expected slot time
- Final-45-seconds no-backspace rule enforced
- External keyboard; verify the Anu declaration on the admit card
- Note any post-join Unicode-conversion requirement
Start the Anu mock — 5-minute timer + Net WPM
The same exam-style passage on the Anu layout, 5-minute timer, Net WPM with the 95% accuracy floor, backspace rule picker. No sign-up, no ads inside the typing widget, and a result card that breaks down exactly where the Net WPM penalty came from.
Start in Anu →Frequently asked questions
Concise, accurate, and tied to APPSC / TSPSC notification — covering both the Unicode/InScript and Anu layouts. Update cadence: every recruitment cycle, plus any mid-cycle clarifications the authority publishes.
Pick the layout printed on your admit card, because that is what the centre PC is configured for and you cannot switch on test day. If you are choosing fresh and have no prior habit, Telugu Unicode/InScript is the safer bet — it is the modern standard, transfers across every Indian-language InScript layout, and the same Unicode is what state e-office systems use after you join. Pick Anu only if you already trained on it at a coaching centre.
InScript is a Unicode keyboard layout: every keystroke stores a real Telugu Unicode character, so the file reads correctly on any system without installing a font. Anu is a legacy ASCII font with its own typewriter-style key mapping — you press Latin keys, the file stays ASCII inside, and Telugu only appears when the Anu font is loaded. The key order and several glyph keys differ, so muscle memory does not transfer between the two.
25 WPM Telugu for most APPSC and TSPSC clerical posts (Group IV Junior Assistant, Steno-Typist, Bill Collector). Some posts add a 30 WPM English component. The cutoff is the same whether you type in Unicode/InScript or Anu — confirm the figure in the specific notification, since both commissions occasionally revise it between cycles.
APPSC Group II, III, IV (Junior Assistant, Bill Collector, Typist, Steno-Typist), TSPSC Group II/III/IV equivalents, VRO/VRA in some districts, and various Telangana state-board clerical posts. The skill test is qualifying for all of them, in whichever Telugu layout you declared on the application. Some posts add an English typing requirement of 30-35 WPM.
Net WPM = Gross WPM minus errors per minute, with a parallel accuracy gate. Telugu characters are scored as full units; a missing or wrong glyph counts as one error. Scoring is identical for Unicode/InScript and Anu — the engine compares the rendered Telugu against the passage, not the underlying key codes. Clearing 25 WPM is sufficient; speed beyond the floor earns no merit marks.
Most modern APPSC and TSPSC centres allow backspace and basic editing in both layouts. Backspace costs more in Telugu than in English because a typo inside a consonant cluster usually forces you to delete the whole compound before retyping. In Anu, where one Telugu syllable can be several ASCII keystrokes, the cost is higher still — so type forward and fix only the first occurrence of a recurring error.
Formal administrative Telugu — governance, schemes and general-knowledge prose drawn from AP and Telangana state writing, with recurring terms like ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ ప్రభుత్వం, తెలంగాణ రాష్ట్రం, మండల పరిషత్ and రెవెన్యూ శాఖ. About 500-700 Telugu characters in a 5-minute window. The passage text is the same regardless of which layout you type it in.
Yes. Many Hyderabad and Vijayawada institutes still teach Anu Script Manager because of the older Telugu newspaper-typing trade, and both commissions accept Anu when you declare it at application. Practise on the Anu page here so your reflexes match the centre PC. Just remember the declaration is locked for that cycle — verify it against the admit card before the test.
Not directly. Anu files are ASCII inside and only display Telugu with the Anu font installed; AP and Telangana e-office and file-noting systems run on Unicode. After joining you will usually convert Anu text to Unicode, or type fresh in Unicode/InScript. This is one practical reason to learn InScript if you are starting from scratch — the same keystrokes serve the exam and the desk job.
From 12 WPM to 25 WPM Telugu: three to four weeks of thirty focused minutes a day in your chosen layout. Below 8 WPM: six to eight weeks. Telugu rewards conjunct (vottulu) accuracy heavily — drill 98 percent accuracy first, then build speed on top. Anu learners should add a week, since the ASCII key order takes longer to make reflexive than InScript's phonetic layout.