Assam Rifles Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

One computer-based paper: 80 questions, 160 marks, 60 minutes. It's the only stage that produces marks, so it decides the whole merit list.

• 2 marks for a correct answer, −0.25 for a wrong one.
• 45 seconds a question. The clock is the hard part.
• Matriculation level questions.
• No calculators or other electronic devices.

The paper is set in English, Hindi and thirteen regional languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Part D is in English or Hindi, your choice.

Normalisation

The exam runs over weeks in many shifts, so raw marks are normalised using the formula in SSC Notice No. 1-1/2018-P&P-I of 7 February 2019. Merit and every cut-off use the normalised score plus any NCC bonus, which is why cut-offs carry five decimal places.

NCC bonus

• You only get it if you ticked the NCC box on the application. You can't claim it later.
• It's withdrawn if you don't produce the original certificate at document verification.
• Ex-Servicemen don't get it.

Answer keys

Tentative keys go up after the exam. Objections cost ₹100 per question, online only, within the window. There's no re-evaluation or re-checking.

Tie-break

1. Marks in Part A, Reasoning
2. Marks in Part B, General Awareness
3. Date of birth, older first
4. Alphabetical order of names

SSC publishes a short indicative syllabus, one paragraph per part, at Matriculation level.

Part A: General Intelligence and Reasoning, 20 questions, 40 marks

Tested mainly through non-verbal questions:

Part B: General Knowledge and General Awareness, 20 questions, 40 marks

Awareness of current events and everyday science as may be expected of any educated person; SSC says the questions "do not require a special study of any discipline". Areas, especially for India and its neighbours:

• Sports
• History
• Culture
• Geography
• Economic scene
• General polity and the Indian Constitution
• Scientific research

Part C: Elementary Mathematics, 20 questions, 40 marks

No algebra, trigonometry, geometry proofs or data interpretation. It's class 8 to 10 arithmetic.

Part D: English or Hindi, 20 questions, 40 marks

Basic understanding and comprehension of English or Hindi, whichever you pick at application.

Nationality and domicile

You must be an Indian citizen. Vacancies are by state, union territory and area, so you need a domicile certificate or Permanent Resident Certificate for your state.

• Your domicile state and district are taken from the domicile column of the form, not from your address.
• They can't be changed after submission. If the certificate at the medical doesn't match, your candidature is cancelled on the spot.

Age

18 to 23 years on 1 January of the exam year. For the 2025 cycle: born not before 2 January 2002 and not after 1 January 2007.

Date of birth is taken only from your Matriculation certificate. A mismatch with the form can get you rejected at any stage.

Education

Matriculation (class 10), passed by the cut-off date. The result must actually have been declared by then; mere processing of the result by that date does not satisfy the requirement. Open and Distance Learning qualifications count only if the university had UGC Distance Education Bureau approval for that period, and you must produce it at document verification.

Height

Chest (men) and weight

Chest isn't measured for women. Weight must be in proportion to height and age.

• Relaxation claims are checked after the race and before measurement. Except for ST candidates (who show an ST certificate), you need a certificate in SSC's own proforma from the competent authority.
• Failed on height or chest? You can appeal the same day to the Appellate Authority at the centre; its decision is final. There's no appeal against the race.

Physical efficiency test

Five km in 24 minutes is 4 minutes 48 seconds a kilometre, held all the way. Ex-Servicemen are exempt from the race but still attend the PST and the medical.

Women give a self declaration of pregnancy status. A pregnant candidate is temporarily unfit; her vacancy is held, she's re-examined six weeks after confinement, and if fit she's appointed with seniority.

Medical

By CAPF Medical Boards under the MHA's Uniform Guidelines for the CAPFs and Assam Rifles. The physical tests and medical are solely the CAPFs' responsibility, and SSC won't take representations, appeals, RTI applications or CPGRAMS grievances about them.

1. Qualifying marks

The minimum in the written paper, before NCC bonus:

That's a floor. Nobody gets to the physical tests on 48.

2. Shortlisting for the physical tests

Done state-wise, area-wise and category-wise, men and women separately, on written marks plus NCC bonus, at about eight times the vacancies (more for the all-India SSF and NCB posts). You compete with candidates of your own state, category and area, not the whole country.

3. PST and PET, run by CRPF

The CAPFs run them with CRPF as Nodal Force, so the admit card comes from the CRPF recruitment site, not SSC, about two weeks before. If you can't download it, contact CRPF at least a week ahead or call the CRPF Recruitment Cell on 011-26160255. Order on the day: biometrics, the race, then height, chest and weight.

4. Medical and document verification

Those who pass are shortlisted again, same basis, at about twice the vacancies. Bring your Matriculation certificate, domicile or PRC, NCC certificate if claimed, caste certificate in SSC's proforma, and any height or chest relaxation certificate.

5. Force allocation

On written merit cum preference, against your state, category and area vacancies. All eight preferences are compulsory and can't be changed after submission. Putting Assam Rifles first doesn't guarantee it: it's 6.7 per cent of this cycle's vacancies, and SSC can allot by suitability and availability regardless.

Areas within a state

Some vacancies are earmarked for Border Guarding districts and Militancy or Naxal affected districts:

1. A Naxal or militancy area candidate is considered for those vacancies first, then general.
2. A border area candidate: border vacancies first, then general.
3. Both: Naxal or militancy, then border, then general.

SSF and NCB are all-India and skip this.

Reservation

• A reserved candidate selected on their own merit without relaxed standards takes an unreserved vacancy.
• Anyone using a relaxed standard (age, height, chest, extended zone) counts against reserved vacancies only. An Ex-Serviceman's service deduction isn't a relaxed standard.
• 10 per cent of vacancies are reserved for Ex-Servicemen, not shown separately in the vacancy tables.

After the result

No reserve or waiting list. Unfilled posts carry forward to next year. If the force hasn't contacted you within six months, take it up with the force. If you scored above a stage cut-off but weren't taken forward, write to SSC's regional office within two months of the result, or two weeks before the next stage, whichever is earlier.

Debarment

SSC debars from all its exams for two to seven years. A mobile phone, on or off, is three years, as is sitting the same exam more than once. Leaving the venue without telling anyone is two years; a forged admit card or a weapon, five; assaulting or threatening staff with a weapon, seven.

A Rifleman and a Constable are the same grade. Only the NCB Sepoy is a level lower, ₹3,700 a month less at entry. DA, HRA and transport allowance come on top, plus allowances for remote, high-altitude and field postings, which is most of where Assam Rifles serves.

Welfare schemes

There's also a Welfare and Rehabilitation Board set up in 2006 on the model of the Army's Sainik Welfare Board, for ex-servicemen, Veer Naris, widows and dependants, plus ARESA (ex-servicemen) and ARWWA (wives' welfare).

• You're liable to serve anywhere in India, though in practice mostly the north east.
• Appointment depends on training seats, so selected candidates may join in phases, under Assam Rifles' own rules.

Online only, on ssc.gov.in. You don't apply to Assam Rifles.

Last completed cycle's window

The form closes a day before the fee deadline. A form without the fee is rejected.

Fee

BHIM UPI, net banking, or Visa, Mastercard, Maestro or RuPay debit card. Never refunded or carried to another exam.

Corrections

You can re-submit twice at most, and only if your original form and fee arrived on time. If the correction charge doesn't reach SSC, your earlier form stands. Nothing can be changed after the window.

Get these right first time

1. Force preferences: all eight, in order. No change after submission.
2. Domicile state and district, in the domicile column. No change after submission.
3. NCC claim: tick it or lose the bonus.

You also pick the exam language and the Part D language here.

Candidature is provisional until document verification; any unproven claim cancels it then. Blurred photographs or signatures get the form rejected.

Chain of command

Every other central armed police force has its headquarters in Delhi. Assam Rifles keeps its Directorate General at Shillong.

SSC regional office

The regional office for your centre runs your written exam, posts your admit card and hears representations. The North Eastern Region office at Guwahati covers Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

Assam Rifles establishments

46 battalions (up from 17 in 1960), a Training Centre, logistics units, and Maintenance Groups with workshops supporting the battalions. Its insignia is the Dhai Murti, standing for the bond between the force and the people of the North East. Dr Verrier Elwin, adviser to the Governor of Assam, called the force "the custodians of law and order, pioneers of every advance into the interior, the guardians of our border, and above all, the friends of the Hill People".

You give three centre options in order, all in the same SSC region. SSC tries to honour them but may allot another, and won't change it later.

Haryana has no centre of its own; its candidates sit in Chandigarh, Mohali or Punjab. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh share one region.

Your centre doesn't decide your vacancy. A Bihar-domiciled candidate who sits in Delhi still competes for Bihar's posts.

Later stages

None of these centres are changed on request. Expect to travel a long way for the race.

Current cycle

The exam moved from 28 to 27 May after DoPT shifted the Id-u-Zuha holiday on 22 May 2026; admit cards for the new date were issued two or three days ahead. Watch ssc.gov.in.

Last completed cycle

Sixteen months from notice to final result. Keep your registered mobile and email working throughout.

The notice has come out in the second half of the year (September in one cycle, early December in the next), applications close about six weeks later, the paper falls in the first half of the next year, physical tests during and after the monsoon, and the final result the following January. The SSC Examination Calendar gives the earliest warning.

Two different issuers:

• Written exam: the exam city shows in your ssc.gov.in login well in advance (19 April 2026 for the 27 May paper); centre details about two weeks before, and the admit card about 3 to 7 days before, on the regional office website. Online only. If your details aren't up a week before, contact the regional office immediately with proof of applying.
• PST, PET, medical and DV: from the CRPF recruitment site about two weeks before. Can't download it? Contact CRPF at least a week ahead or call 011-26160255. No printed card, no test.

For the written exam, carry

1. The admit card printout.
2. Two recent passport size colour photographs.
3. An original photo ID showing your date of birth (Aadhaar, voter ID, driving licence, PAN, passport, institution or employer ID, ESM discharge book, or other government photo ID). If it has no date of birth, also bring your Matriculation certificate, a board marksheet, birth certificate or category certificate. If the date doesn't match the admit card, you can't sit.

Biometrics taken at the written exam are checked at every later stage; a mismatch marks you as a suspected or mismatched candidate. A mobile phone, even switched off, means a three-year ban.

All results are on ssc.gov.in. The last cycle's final result ran to 87 pages, with vacancies, posts filled, cut-offs to five decimals, and the Part A and B marks and date of birth of the last selected candidate for every state, force, area and category. SSC also uploads every candidate's marks later.

Last cycle's final result

Only 287 male Ex-Servicemen were recommended against 4,840 ESM vacancies; unfilled ESM posts go to other candidates of the same category.

• 2,003 results were withheld (court orders or suspected malpractice), 345 not processed because of debarment, 84 vacancies kept reserved for court cases, and nine recommendations made subject to court outcomes.
• No reserve or waiting list. Unfilled posts carry forward.
• No re-checking. The only challenge is the paid answer key objection.

SSC publishes cut-offs for every state, force, area and category in the final result. The qualifying marks in the selection process are only a floor.

Assam Rifles, male, unreserved, general area, last cycle

From Annexure IV of the final result of 15 January 2026. Every row was filled.

The spread is 82 marks out of 160, so your state matters more than anything you control. Assam Rifles filled every unreserved general-area post in every state; BSF fell short in four states, CRPF in seven, ITBP in two and SSB in one. Twenty-two of these thirty states had ten posts or fewer, and seven had exactly one.

Against the other forces

Female, Assam Rifles, unreserved, general area

Sixteen of these twenty states had a single post. This cycle there are 150 female posts, against CISF's 1,460, ITBP's 194 and CRPF's 124.

These are normalised scores including NCC bonus, from a cycle with 1,248 Assam Rifles vacancies against 1,706 now. Missing the Assam Rifles cut-off in your state can still leave you in another force with a lower one, if your preferences allow.

1. Train for the race from day one. Last cycle 3,94,121 were called to the ground and 95,575 came through. Men run 5 km in 24 minutes, women 1.6 km in 8 minutes 30 seconds, and there's no appeal. The 2025 tests ran 20 August to 15 September, about nine weeks after the written result.
2. Check height and chest now. 170 cm and 80 cm (expanding 5) for a general male, 157 cm for a female. If you qualify for a relaxation, get the certificate in SSC's proforma and carry it. Relaxations are widest for the north eastern states, the Gorkha Territorial Administration and LWE districts.
3. Practise against the clock. 45 seconds a question at Matriculation level; sit every practice paper in sixty minutes with no calculator.
4. Attempt rather than leave blank. A blind guess is worth +0.3125 marks on average (roughly +0.31), more if you can rule out an option.
5. Use your fastest language. Assamese, Bengali, Manipuri and Odia are among the thirteen regional options.
6. Prioritise Part A and Part C. Reasoning breaks ties and is mostly non-verbal; Maths is closed arithmetic. Part B is open-ended; Part D is basic comprehension.
7. Claim NCC if you have it. A 'C' certificate is 8 marks, four questions. Tick the box and bring the original.
8. Look at your state's Assam Rifles posts before ranking it. They're few, but every one was filled last cycle.
9. Watch two websites: SSC's regional office for the written admit card, CRPF for the rest. Assam Rifles' own site is for its directly recruited cadres, not the GD Rifleman.

SSC publishes previous year question papers for Constable (GD), and a walk-through video and mock test in the Candidate's Corner of ssc.gov.in. Tentative answer keys go up after each paper, usually within a few weeks of it.

For extra practice, the reasoning, general awareness, maths and English sections of SSC MTS and CHSL papers are close in level, minus anything with algebra, trigonometry or data interpretation.

The examination

• Staff Selection Commission
• Examination Calendar
• Scheme of Examination and Syllabus
• Tentative Vacancy
• Previous Year Question Papers
• Normalization Method
• Format of Certificates, including the caste and height relaxation proformas

The cycle's documents

• Notice of the Constable (GD) Examination, 2025, 73 pages
• Tentative vacancies for the 2026 cycle, force wise and state wise
• Schedule of the 2026 examination

The last cycle's results, with the cut off annexures

• Shortlisting for the physical tests
• Result of the physical tests
• Final result, 15 January 2026, 87 pages, with the Assam Rifles cut-off annexures

The physical tests and medical, which are CRPF's

• Central Reserve Police Force, the Nodal Force for the physical and medical stages
• CRPF Recruitment, for the physical test and medical admit cards

Assam Rifles

• Assam Rifles, for its own rally notices (not where a Rifleman (GD) applies)
• History
• Role and Functions
• Organisational Structure
• Assam Rifles Group Insurance Scheme
• Assam Rifles Recruitment

The other forces this one examination fills

• Border Security Force
• Central Industrial Security Force
• Sashastra Seema Bal
• Indo-Tibetan Border Police

Why is the post called Rifleman and not Constable?

Assam Rifles is commanded by Army officers and uses Army rank titles. The grade and pay are the same as a Constable (GD): Pay Level 3, ₹21,700 to ₹69,100.

Does Assam Rifles hold its own exam for this post?

No. Riflemen (GD) come through SSC's Constable (GD) exam. Assam Rifles' own rallies are for other cadres.

If I put Assam Rifles first, will I get it?

Not necessarily. Allocation is merit cum preference against your state, area and category vacancies, and Assam Rifles is 1,706 of 25,487 posts this cycle.

What marks do I need?

The qualifying floor is 30 per cent UR, 25 OBC and EWS, 20 SC, ST and ESM. Last cycle's Assam Rifles UR male cut-offs ran from 58.35 in Puducherry to 139.88 in Rajasthan.

Is it a good choice for women?

Third of the eight, with 150 female vacancies. Most states have just one post, and all were filled last cycle.

Where will I be posted?

Almost certainly the north east. You're liable to serve anywhere, but the force's role is counter-insurgency there and the Indo-China and Indo-Myanmar borders.

Who will I serve under?

Army officers: a Lieutenant General at the top in Shillong, Major Generals, Brigadiers and Lieutenant Colonels below.

How hard is the physical test?

5 km in 24 minutes for men, 1.6 km in 8 minutes 30 seconds for women, with easier standards only for Ladakh. About three in four candidates on the ground failed last cycle. Height and chest can be appealed the same day; the race can't.

Can I take the paper in Assamese or Manipuri?

Yes. It's in English, Hindi and thirteen regional languages. Part D is English or Hindi only.

Where do I download my admit card?

Written exam: your SSC regional office website, 3 to 7 days before (Guwahati for the north east). Physical tests and medical: the CRPF site, about two weeks before.