CBSE Assistant Secretary Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

Two written tiers and an interview, shortlisting at 1:10 after Tier-1 and 1:5 after Tier-2. Group A posts get an interview; Group B and C posts get a skill test instead.

Tier-1: objective, on OMR, 2 hours

+3 right, −1 wrong, 0 for a blank; two bubbles darkened counts as wrong. Graduation level.

Post codes 01/25 to 05/25 and 07/25 (Assistant Secretary, the three Assistant Professor and Assistant Director streams, Accounts Officer and Junior Translation Officer) sat one common Tier-1 paper. One score counts for each, but only if you filed and paid for each separately.

Tier-2: objective and descriptive, 3 hours

Interview and final merit

The interview is about 14 per cent of the total. It has no published breakdown and no bonus for qualifications. (The academic streams' 30-mark interview does add points for B.Ed., NET, SLET and a Ph.D.; that doesn't apply here.)

Floors and category cut-offs

• Below 30 per cent in any tier, you're out: 90 out of 300.
• Category cut-offs are set 5 per cent below UR for OBC and EWS and 10 per cent below for SC, ST and PwBD, and can go lower if there aren't enough candidates.

The advertisement gives a component-and-marks table for each tier (see the exam pattern), both at graduation level.

Tier-1

A six-part aptitude screen: current affairs, reasoning, numerical ability and computer proficiency at 60 marks each (20 per cent), Hindi and English comprehension at 30 each (10 per cent). No essay, no subject paper, no public administration.

Tier-2

Current Affairs at 50 marks is the heaviest part. Public Administration and Management and Constitution, Polity and Governance are 44 each, 88 of 300 together. History, economy, geography and science are 32 each, English 34.

Part VI, Public Administration and Management, is a real academic subject: public organisation, delegation and control, personnel and financial administration, accountability, managing public bodies. Nothing in Tier-1 or ordinary general knowledge covers it.

The paper is in Hindi and English, except the Hindi and English comprehension parts. The previous cycle's Tier-2 printed every question in both. Where they differ, English prevails.

Not in this syllabus

• No education or Board-specific paper; that's for the academic streams (NEP and NCF for 30 marks, plus a 60-mark descriptive section).
• No accountancy; that's Accounts Officer.
• No essay; Accounts Officer has a 30-mark one. Here the descriptive half is thirty short answers.
• No re-evaluation of OMR sheets or scripts. The only challenge is the paid Tier-1 answer-key window.

From the Recruitment Rules of 15 June 2023, reckoned on 22 December 2025. The deadline moved to 27 December; the eligibility date didn't.

Any degree, any class, no experience: that's why 41,798 people applied for eight posts. Every other Group A post in the notice asks for more. The academic streams need a PG degree with 55 per cent; Accounts Officer needs a commerce-side degree, SAS or JAO(C), a relevant PG, an MBA (Finance), CA or ICWA.

Age relaxation

The women's relaxation and fee waiver show: 24,730 women registered against 17,068 men, and 13,709 against 5,194 in the unreserved category.

Certificates

• OBC must be on the Central List, with a Non-Creamy Layer certificate valid on 22 December 2025 and renewed if more than a year old by document verification.
• EWS: a certificate for financial year 2024-25, valid for 2025-26.
• PwBD: 40 per cent or more, in Forms V, VI or VII under rule 18(1) of the RPwD Rules 2017. The one PwBD vacancy is for deaf and hard of hearing; the post also suits blindness and low vision, many locomotor disabilities, mental illness and multiple disabilities.
• Without a valid certificate you lose the claim, not the candidature, and are considered as UR.
• Date of birth comes from your Class 10 certificate.
• Government employees need a No Objection Certificate at document verification.

1. Tier-1: 100 MCQs, 300 marks, 2 hours, common with five other posts.
2. Tier-2: 80 questions, 300 marks, 3 hours, at 1:10 on Tier-1 marks.
3. Interview: 50 marks, at 1:5 on Tier-2 marks.

Final merit is Tier-2 plus interview, out of 350.

DRQ2026 so far

About 23,000 wrote Tier-1 and 97 got through: 0.4 per cent, the lowest of any post. Of the 82 at Tier-2: OBC 43, UR 18, SC 12, EWS 9, PwBD 9, no ST (the post had no ST vacancy). All eight vacancies had enough eligible candidates for interview. Two academic streams lost twelve between them, seven in Training and five in Skill Education.

Ties go to the older candidate, then alphabetical order.

What ends a candidature

• Unfair means (eighteen sub-clauses, from impersonation to a morphed photo): disqualification, a two-year debarment and possible prosecution.
• Two applications for the same post: rejected, and a rejection under the 2024 notice can bar you from DRQ2026.
• Moving to a different room or seat.
• Answer patterns matching other candidates', which the Board analyses.

Selection stays provisional until documents are verified, and false information can end your service even after confirmation. The Board's Recruitment page shows it does cancel, including from a reserve panel.

Level-10, Group A; pre-revised Pay Band-3, ₹15,600 to ₹39,100 with grade pay ₹5,400. Service follows the CBSE Service Rules 1985 and Government of India rules. Probation is 2 years, during which you can be let go on 30 days' notice or a month's pay.

The rules require direct recruits to be chosen by an "All India basis written examination followed by interview". The promotion side draws on Section Officers (Level-7) with four years' regular service and a degree.

The cadre (restructured 15 June 2023, 1,316 posts)

There's no Level-8 or Level-9 post, so a direct recruit enters three levels above Section Officer. Above, everything is promotion until Level-13. Under Secretary (Legal) and Section Officer (Legal), one each, are filled only by deputation.

Promotion to Assistant Secretary goes through a committee chaired by the Chairman, CBSE, with a Ministry of Education Joint Secretary, an NVS, KVS or Education Director, the Board's Secretary and Joint Secretary (Administration and Legal), and an SC, ST or minority representative.

Online only, through the link on the Recruitment page. Postal or hand-delivered forms are rejected.

Group B and C posts cost ₹1,050. Apply for Assistant Secretary and an academic stream as a general male candidate and you pay ₹3,500, though one Tier-1 serves both.

Applicants for the old Assistant Secretary (Academics), (Training) or (Skill Education) posts under the 2024 notice registered basic details on the DRQ2026 portal with their old application number instead of reapplying. Design and Mass Communication applicants from a cancelled earlier recruitment could join but had to pay again.

• Nothing can be edited after submission. The one correction window (notice of 27 December 2025) was a one-off.
• No confirmation page means your payment failed; take it up with the bank.
• List every qualification you hold, not just the minimum; the Board can add shortlisting criteria.
• The Board won't advise on eligibility, and disputes go to Delhi courts.

CBSE recruits only for itself and shares no merit list. Its Recruitment Cell issues the advertisement and select panels; the Professional Examination Unit issues the result notices. The office is at Sector-23, Phase-1, Dwarka, New Delhi 110077.

Where you can be posted

The posts carry all-India transfer liability, Dubai included. No posting is a right, and lobbying for one cancels your candidature.

DRQ2026 covered nine posts and 124 vacancies. Superintendent had its own Tier-1, and Junior Accountant and Junior Assistant shared another. Of the five Group A posts, Assistant Secretary is the only one with no subject requirement.

Tier-1 runs in nineteen cities; Tier-2 and the interview are in Delhi.

Preferences are considered, but the Board can allot any city, merge or cancel cities, and its allotment can't be changed. Expect two trips to Delhi at your own cost if shortlisted.

In DRQ2026 the common Tier-1 ran on Saturday 31 January 2026, 09.30 to 11.30; Superintendent's paper was that afternoon and the Group C posts on Sunday morning. You could sit three different papers in two days, each needing its own application and fee.

On the day

• Arrive two hours early; there may be biometric checks.
• Bring the printed admit card, one original photo ID (PAN, driving licence, voter ID, passport, Aadhaar or e-Aadhaar, or ration card with photo), and a passport photo matching your upload.
• Nothing else: no stationery, bags, food or water, phones, earphones, calculators, slide rules, log tables, cameras, electronic watches or metal items.
• Sit where you're allotted. Check the paper matches your post before you start.
• No re-exam if you miss the date.

DRQ2026

The window was twenty-five days, stretched to thirty, and only six and a half weeks separated the Tier-1 result from Tier-2.

Previous cycle

CBSE publishes no recruitment calendar, and the last two advertisements were twenty-one months apart. Watch the Recruitment page.

Download it from the CBSE site with your application login; nothing is posted. A city intimation comes first (15 January for the 31 January Tier-1; 7 April for the 18 April Tier-2), then the admit card with date, session and centre. Carried-over 2024 applicants use their DRQ2026 portal login.

• No admit card for an incomplete application or a doubtful photo.
• An admit card doesn't confirm eligibility; you can be rejected at any stage, even after joining.
• Name, photo, signature and category on the card can't be corrected. Date, centre or city errors go to the phone or email the Board publishes for the cycle.
• Don't alter it; tampering counts as unfair means. Keep it: answer sheets are kept only two months after the result.
• PwBD candidates claiming relaxation bring the disability certificate, writing-limitation certificate and scribe undertaking in the bulletin's formats.

Each result is a signed notice on the Recruitment page with the data printed inside, and you can see your own marks through a login.

Tier-1 result, 2 March 2026

Across all nine posts 179,656 registered and 94,090 appeared. Assistant Secretary:

The 711 men registering as PwBD was the biggest PwBD field in the notice, for one vacancy.

Tier-2 result, 15 May 2026

97 registered and 82 appeared for 8 vacancies, and candidates were shortlisted for interview. Across the notice, 101 of 124 vacancies had candidates shortlisted and 23 couldn't be filled under the 30 per cent floor and 1:5 ratio; none were Assistant Secretary posts. Interview dates come later on the website.

After that

In the last cycle a result notice came on 28 March 2025, a cancellation on 16 June 2025, and a reserve panel result the next day, as candidates moved up when others' documents failed.

Being shortlisted gives no right to appointment. No re-evaluation. Dropped questions are prorated. Appointment needs medical fitness.

Cut-offs are printed post by post and category by category in each result notice. They're shortlisting marks, not selection marks.

DRQ2026 Tier-1, out of 300

Six posts sat the same paper and closed between 236 and 161, because cut-offs follow the field and the vacancies. Assistant Secretary drew 41,798 for 8 posts; Junior Translation Officer 1,270 for 9. 236 is 79 per cent: about 80 right with four or fewer wrong.

DRQ2026 Tier-2, out of 300

156 (52 per cent) was the highest Tier-2 cut-off in the notice. Superintendent's Tier-2 is the same paper, so the 12-mark gap to 144 is a straight comparison. Every reserved figure sits below its formula floor (about 148 for OBC and EWS, 140 for SC and PwBD), with EWS 51 marks under UR. With 97 candidates, one or two scores move these numbers.

1. Do enough at Tier-1, then go all in on Tier-2. Tier-1 marks are discarded; Tier-2 is 300 of the 350 that count.
2. Don't guess blind at Tier-1. With +3/−1, a blind guess among four averages 0.00, one option eliminated +0.33, two eliminated +1.00. Eliminate, then guess. About 84 attempts at 95 per cent accuracy cleared 236.
3. Start Public Administration before the shortlist. Parts VI and VII are 88 marks and Part VI appears nowhere in Tier-1. You get six and a half weeks after the result.
4. Keep current affairs notes you can write out. It's 110 marks across both tiers, and the descriptive questions want short facts: which body publishes a report, which ministry runs a corporation.
5. Split Tier-2's three hours in advance between the OMR half and thirty short written answers.
6. Don't skip English: 34 marks, more than history, economy, geography or science.
7. Prepare the interview as a conversation about the Board, its work and your own form. There are no bonus points to collect.
8. List every qualification on the form.
9. Check the Tier-1 key the day it opens. The OMR sheet and keys are up for two to three days and challenges cost ₹1,000 per question, non-refundable, online only.

CBSE publishes its actual recruitment papers, both tiers. On 28 February 2025 it released the Tier-1 papers (Assistant Secretary (Administration) sets A1 to A4, plus other posts) and the Tier-2 papers, including a full bilingual copy of this post's paper. Both are still on the Recruitment page.

The Tier-1 papers follow the 2024 scheme: 150 questions in two and a half hours, +2 and −0.5, parts at questions 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, 91 to 105, 106 to 120 and 121 to 150. Use them for content and level; use DRQ2026's 100 questions, two hours and +3/−1 for timing. The Tier-2 paper (same structure as Superintendent's) shows a CBSE descriptive answer is short and factual. Final answer keys and the DRQ2026 Tier-1 key are also published.

Corrections and changes are posted only on the CBSE website.

Who conducts it?

CBSE itself, through its Recruitment Cell and Professional Examination Unit. Not SSC or UPSC.

Is it the same as Assistant Secretary (Academics)?

No. Those streams are now Assistant Professor and Assistant Director. Assistant Secretary is the administrative post, code 01/25.

Do Tier-1 marks count?

No. Final merit is Tier-2 plus interview, out of 350.

What qualification and age?

Any bachelor's degree, up to 35, with relaxations including 10 years for women.

What was the cut-off in DRQ2026?

Tier-1 UR 236 of 300; Tier-2 UR 156 of 300, the highest in the notice.

Is there a minimum mark?

Yes, 30 per cent in each tier, regardless of category.

How much does it cost?

₹1,750 for UR, OBC and EWS; ₹250 for SC, ST, PwBD, ex-servicemen and women. Never refunded.

Where will I be posted?

Any CBSE office, Dubai included, on two years' probation.

Are previous papers available?

Yes, both tiers from the 2024 cycle, on the Recruitment page.