NICL AO Exam Analysis 2025: The NICL AO Prelims Exam 2025 was conducted smoothly on 20th July 2025 across all exam centres. Candidates appeared for 266 administrative officer (AO) posts, and now many are eager to understand how they performed. Based on feedback from candidates and expert review, this article presents a section-wise NICL AO Exam Analysis 2025, highlighting the difficulty level, question types, and good attempts to help you gear up for the Mains exam.
NICL AO Exam Analysis 2025 Overall Difficulty Level
As per the responses from exam takers, the overall paper was of moderate difficulty. While the English section was relatively easier, the quantitative aptitude section was more challenging due to lengthy calculations and tricky DI sets.
| Section | Difficulty Level |
| English Language | Easy to Moderate |
| Reasoning Ability | Moderate |
| Quantitative Aptitude | Moderate to Difficult |
| Overall | Moderate |
Section Wise NICL AO Prelims Exam Analysis 2025
The Prelims exam had three objective sections – English Language, Reasoning Ability, and Quantitative Aptitude – with a total of 100 questions to be solved in 60 minutes. Let’s look at the detailed analysis below.
English Language
The English section was Easy to Moderate in difficulty. Candidates with a strong grasp of grammar and vocabulary found this section manageable. Most questions were from familiar topics like comprehension, sentence structure, and error spotting.
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Reading Comprehension (Dating App theme) | 10 |
| Cloze Test | 05 |
| Fillers | 02-03 |
| Error Spotting | 07-08 |
| Sentence Rearrangement | 05 |
| Total | 30 |
Reasoning Ability
The Reasoning section was reported as Moderate. Those who practiced puzzles regularly found this section comfortable. It had a variety of questions, mainly puzzle-based along with a few logic-based problems.
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Month-Based Puzzle | 05 |
| Floor Puzzle | 05 |
| Box Puzzle | 05 |
| Uncertain Seating Arrangement | 04 |
| Linear Seating Arrangement | 05 |
| Pair Formation | 01 |
| Number Formation | 01 |
| Direction Sense | 03 |
| Inequality | 05 |
| Meaningful Word | 01 |
| Total | 35 |
Quantitative Aptitude
This section was Moderate to Difficult due to lengthy calculations in DI sets and arithmetic questions. Candidates with strong calculation speed and conceptual clarity were at an advantage.
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Data Interpretation (Bar Graph) | 07 |
| Data Interpretation (Tabular) | 06 |
| Caselet DI | 04 |
| Arithmetic | 09 |
| Missing Number Series | 05 |
| Approximation | 04 |
| Total | 35 |
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