AAI Junior Assistant Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

Stage 1 is a two-hour objective Computer Based Test of 100 marks at a regional centre. The Northern Region advertisement says there's no negative marking.

The subject half follows the post's qualification. The general half is General Knowledge, General Intelligence, General Aptitude and General English.

Minimum marks are 50 per cent for UR, EWS and OBC and 40 per cent for SC and ST, but they're only a floor. In Northern Region the UR list closed at 84. No second attempt is allowed at any stage.

For Fire Service, stage 2 is physical and medical. The Physical Endurance Test is marked out of 100 but only qualifying at 60. Scoring 95 rather than 65 buys nothing: the final merit list is on CBT marks alone. For the Office and HR streams, stage 2 is a qualifying Computer Literacy Test in MS Office and document verification.

The syllabus isn't in the advertisement. For Northern Region it came as a one-page notice on 27 March 2025, three weeks after applications closed on 5 March.

Junior Assistant (Fire Service)

So the technical half is pitched lower than the general half, even though the post accepts a three-year engineering diploma. AAI gives no topic list beyond that line.

Junior Assistant (HR) and (Office)

Both need only a degree, so the subject half has no named discipline. The same 50:50 split applies, plus a qualifying Computer Literacy Test. AAI's Computer Literacy Test syllabus for Senior Assistant posts runs two hours:

Northern Region held it in Hindi for the Official Language post and English for Accounts.

Domicile

You can apply only to the region covering your state of domicile. Western, Eastern, North Eastern and Southern Regions want a domicile, residence or nativity certificate in the state's computerised format at document verification.

Age

Up to 30 years on the crucial date, normally the closing date. Northern Region's relaxations:

Date of birth is taken only from your Matriculation certificate, and can't be changed later.

Fire Service: qualification and licence

Class 10 plus a three-year regular full-time diploma in Mechanical, Automobile or Fire engineering, or Class 12 through regular study. You also need, when you apply, a valid Heavy Vehicle licence, a Medium licence at least one year old, or a Light Motor Vehicle licence at least two years old on the crucial date. Temporary and learner licences don't count. Join on a Light or Medium licence and you must get a Heavy Duty licence within one year; otherwise probation is extended a year, and after that your services are terminated.

Fire Service: physical and medical standards

Distant vision 6/6 in each eye without glasses, with no refractive error accepted; near vision N-5; normal colour vision on Ishihara plates; no night blindness. Colour or night blindness means rejection. Persons with Benchmark Disabilities aren't eligible for Fire Service because of the nature of the job.

HR and Office streams

A graduate degree from a recognised university. No physical or medical standard, no licence, and open to Persons with Benchmark Disabilities.

Ex-Servicemen and Ex-Agniveers

Ex-Servicemen already in a regular Group C or D civil post through ESM reservation can't use it again, though they keep the age relaxation. Their dependants get neither. Ex-Agniveers skip the Physical Endurance Test and nothing else.

Stage 1

The CBT. Candidates are shortlisted in merit order at several times the vacancies: 955 for 152 posts in Northern Region, a little over six per post, and 481 for 89 in Eastern Region.

Stage 2, in this order (Fire Service)

1. Biometric attendance.
2. Document verification, including the original driving licence.
3. Physical Measurement Test.
4. Medical test, including vision.
5. Driving test in a Light Motor Vehicle, for those who cleared the medical.
6. Physical Endurance Test, for those who passed the driving test.

Failing any step ends your candidature, so an eye test or licence problem stops you before the endurance events.

Physical Endurance Test

Five events in sequence, 20 marks each. You need 60 of 100. Marks don't interpolate: a man doing the sandbag carry in 35 seconds gets 12, not something between 12 and 16.

• The sandbag goes 25 metres out and 25 back, then is put down safely.
• Pole and rope heights include an added 2 metres: 6 becomes 8 for men, 4 becomes 6 for women.
• The ladder is pitched at 6 metres; the time is up and down combined.
• The rope is jute or manila, 5 cm thick, climbed any way you like.
• No second attempt in any event.

Training before appointment

Selected candidates go on a Basic Training Course, and the appointment order comes only after it. Two weeks are on heavy vehicle driving and maintenance. The Northern Region advertisement calls the course 18 weeks in one place and 16 in another; the batch from 14 September 2026 to 16 January 2027 runs eighteen. Trainees draw a stipend and sign a bond first (see pay).

The 3 per cent is the yearly increment. The scale follows the industrial dearness allowance pattern, not the central pay matrix. On top come dearness allowance, perks at 35 per cent of basic pay, house rent allowance, contributory provident fund, gratuity, social security schemes and medical benefits, as AAI's rules allow.

During the Basic Training Course you're not yet an employee and get a stipend of ₹25,000 a month. (Senior Assistant (Electronics) gets the same during twelve weeks of training and four on the job.)

The bond

Signed before training, enforceable after one month of service, wherever you're sent.

Leaving is cheapest in the first month and dearest the day after training ends. AAI releases you only once dues are settled. Candidates joining from another CPSE, state PSU or government department through proper channel get pay protection under DPE guidelines, as for every direct recruit since the 2015 advertisement.

Apply online only, through the Careers tab on the AAI recruitment dashboard. Don't post anything to the regional office.

Bank charges and tax are extra. Pay by net banking, card, UPI or wallet. The fee isn't refunded or moved to another application.

What you need

• An email and mobile number that stay active throughout.
• A colour photo under three months old, white background, 3.5 cm × 4.5 cm, 200 dpi, JPG, 50 KB to 100 KB. Use the same photo throughout.
• Your signature in black ink on white paper, JPG, 50 KB to 100 KB.
• Self-attested certificates in PDF or JPG, up to 1 MB each.

Sign up with post, category, name, mobile and email to get an application sequence number and password, then log in again to fill the form. It can't be edited or withdrawn after you submit, and your category can never change.

Certificates at verification

• OBC: Non-Creamy Layer certificate in the central format, issued this financial year, plus a declaration. Certificates for educational admission don't count.
• EWS: Income and Asset Certificate valid for this financial year.
• PwBD: certificate from a medical board under the RPwD Act, 2016.
• Ex-Agniveers: the armed forces' Ex-Agniveer certificate, uploaded and produced.
• Government or PSU staff: an NOC from your employer. An undertaking, an applied-for NOC, a resignation letter or an experience certificate won't do.

CGPA marks need the university's percentage conversion.

AAI, a Schedule A Miniratna Category-1 public sector enterprise, recruits directly. Five regional headquarters advertise for their own airports and establishments:

Corporate headquarters recruits only executives, such as Junior Executives through GATE. Fire Service training is at the Fire Training Institute, Rangpuri, Gurgaon Road, New Delhi 110037 (Northern Region's 2026 batches), or the Fire Training College, New Delhi, and Fire Staff Training College, Kolkata, named by Western Region. You're posted within the region you applied to; Western Region lists the airport with its selection list.

Test centres are regional. Northern Region listed twenty-four cities, tentatively:

AAI can add, drop or reassign centres, and won't change your date or venue on request. You travel at your own cost; no allowance is paid for any test. Misbehaviour in the hall can bar you from future AAI exams too. Stage 2 is run by the regional headquarters wherever it chooses; Southern Region held its endurance tests at Trivandrum in February 2026.

There's no annual calendar. Regions advertise when they have vacancies, with about a month to apply, so watch the AAI recruitment dashboard.

North Eastern Region counts eligibility on the advertisement date, 6 December 2025, not the closing date.

Northern Region, start to finish

The result took four and a half months, and stage 2 began four months later.

Nothing is posted. Download the e-admit card from the AAI site using your application sequence number and password; you're told by email and SMS when it's out. It shows your details, photo, signature, venue, date, time and instructions. Download it early, and keep your printed form and payment slip.

Stage 2 call letters come the same way, with individual dates. Northern Region published its schedule on 25 November 2025; Eastern Region opened its link on 30 March 2026. All announcements appear only on the AAI recruitment dashboard.

Results are PDF notices on the AAI recruitment dashboard, by roll number, stage by stage.

Replacements come in CBT merit order from candidates who cleared every stage 2 test, so the wait list is real. Eastern Region issued score cards on 17 March 2026, its selection list on 25 May 2026 and endurance test marks on 27 July 2026; Western Region published its selected candidates with postings on 18 August 2026.

Every Northern Region result since 23 April 2026 is provisional, subject to W.P. (C) No. 663/2026 in the Delhi High Court.

AAI publishes cut-offs. Northern Region's, for the CBT out of 100:

A blank cell means the notice didn't restate it. The UR floor is 50 but the list closed at 84, and reserved categories were within nine marks of that. Sixteen posts were earmarked for Ex-Agniveers, with no cut-off recorded. Cut-offs apply to one region and one cycle only. Source: final result and third list.

Check the three filters first

1. Domicile. Get the state-format certificate made before the window opens.
2. Driving licence. A Light licence must be two years old on the crucial date, a Medium one a year. If you have none, get one now.
3. Eyes. 6/6 without glasses, normal colour vision. Get tested before months of preparation.

The written paper decides your rank

The endurance test only has to be passed. Plenty of candidates train hard, study lightly, and then meet a cut-off of 84. Arithmetic and science are at class 10, so school textbooks are the right level; reasoning and general knowledge at class 12 are the harder half. Answer every question, as nothing is deducted.

Train for the events as set

• Practise the sandbag turn and controlled set-down.
• Train on a pole and rope at the true height, and on a 5 cm jute or manila rope if you can.
• The ladder counts the descent too.
• Run the five events back to back, not one at a time.
• Build a margin: there's no second try, and below one-third height on pole or rope, or over 90 seconds on the ladder for men, scores zero. Sixty over five events averages 12 each.

Before you accept

Read the bond. Leaving in the year after training costs ₹3 lakh, and 22 of Northern Region's 152 dropped out before or during training.

No previous year papers or answer keys are available for this exam. AAI doesn't publish them. After the CBT, each candidate can download a score card from the admit card login, and an objection link on the AAI recruitment dashboard lets you challenge questions. Eastern Region issued score cards for its 29 May 2025 test on 17 March 2026; North Eastern Region for its 28 March 2026 test on 11 May 2026.

For the Office and HR streams, the Computer Literacy Test syllabus issued on 21 August 2025 is the closest thing to a specimen.

• AAI recruitment dashboard: live advertisements with registration, objection, syllabus, admit card and result links
• Airports Authority of India
• Advertisements: Northern 01/2025/NR (224 posts), Western DR-01/02/2025/WR (206 posts), Eastern ER/01/2024, North Eastern 01/2025/DR/NER (14 posts), Southern SR/01/2023 (119 posts)
• Northern Region results: CBT result, final result, third list, fourth list
• Eastern Region: CBT result, endurance test marks

Is AAI Junior Assistant an all-India exam?

No. Each region advertises separately for domiciles of its own states.

Do I need a heavy vehicle licence to apply for Fire Service?

No. A Medium licence a year old or a Light licence two years old also works, but you must get a Heavy one within a year of joining.

Is there negative marking?

No.

The qualifying mark is 50 per cent. Why was the cut-off 84?

Fifty is a floor. Candidates are ranked and only as many as there are posts are picked, and with no negative marking on a school-level paper, scores bunch high.

Does the endurance test count towards merit?

No. You need 60 of 100; merit is on CBT marks alone.

Can I wear glasses for Fire Service?

No. It's 6/6 in each eye without glasses, with no refractive error accepted.

Are Ex-Agniveers exempt from the physical stage?

Only from the endurance test. Every other standard applies.

Can women apply?

Yes, with separate physical standards and events, and no fee.

Is not being selected in the first list the end?

Not necessarily. Northern Region filled 22 places from its wait list in 2026.