Sunday witnessed the climax of a saga - China's national civil servant recruitment examination - to select candidates for government departments. The competition is relentless, with 1.41 million examinees fighting for roughly 14,000 government posts.

This year the turnout for the exam hit a new record. Just seven years ago the number of candidates was 87,600.

The popularity of the exam reflects the supply and demand in the labor market. A rapidly emerging China needs a team of public governance of high caliber. As more people gravitate to civil service the government becomes more creative and has a higher quality of public service.

From the supply-side, a government job is a very preferable job to have; especially in the aftermath of the economic recession that struck most of the global economy. It is widely presumed that civil service jobs provide employees with a stable long-term income.

The similarity between today's civil service exam and the defunct imperial exam is apparent: Both of them highlight the importance of exam tactics, and the popularity of both is a bit cyclopean.

It's not easy to comment on the effectiveness of exams in terms of selecting the most suitable candidates. But at least the direction of these exams generally reflects the purpose of civil service - which is ultimately to serve the public. Civil servants' devotion, their willingness to best serve local people, integrity and compliance with laws and regulations are all crucial qualities that an exam is designed to assess. And we hope the current civil service exam won't regress into a state like that of the imperial exam.

What's more, the public has a reason to worry about the motivation of these eager examinees. It is not clear psychologically whether an applicant is truly devoted to serving the public or just in it for a payday. But it is clear that their preferences for specific government posts are somehow homogeneous. Some posts in administration pertaining to energy management, taxation, media and public relations are fiercely contested, while the posts related to weather or working in undeveloped areas have suffered from apathy.

It is further worrisome that people look at the privileges and remuneration as the main reason to become a public servant. The imperial exam finally deteriorated and lost credibility in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) because government departments became corrupt.

To prevent the ongoing civil service exam from being another imperial exam, a long-term strategy should revolve around making the civil service a place for devoted aspirants who come to serve the public. The examination should progressively focus on a candidate's integrity and competence rather than his ability to take an exam.