CISF Fireman Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

CISF conducts the Constable (Fire) written exam itself, and publishes very little about it. Here is the part that is on the record.

The paper comes last

CISF's order for this post is height bar test; then PET, PST and document verification; then the written exam; then the medical; then the final merit list. Constable (General Duty), the same Force's largest constable entry, runs the other way round, because the Staff Selection Commission conducts that one.

So a candidate who cannot run 5 km in 24 minutes never sits the paper. Months of book work buy nothing until the run is inside the standard, and candidates get this wrong all the time because they generalise from Constable (GD).

What the paper probably holds

No section split is published for Constable (Fire). For its paramedical posts CISF says the paper is set "to test their knowledge in their respective trades", and this post asks for 12th pass with science, which the draft revised rules read as Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics or Biology. Put those together and a 12th standard paper with a science and fire component, alongside general awareness, elementary mathematics, reasoning and language, is the reasonable expectation. It is an inference from the eligibility and from CISF's practice at other posts, not a published pattern.

Read the notification for the cycle. It is the only document that states the marks, the duration and the sections.

Sub-Inspector (Fire) is a different exam

The Commission publishes that one in full, two papers, with category-wise cut-offs after every cycle. If a science degree or an engineering diploma makes you eligible for it, you are following the Commission's calendar and not CISF's.

CISF publishes no topic list for the Constable (Fire) paper. The list below is built from the eligibility it does publish, 12th pass with science, which the draft revised rules read as Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics or Biology, and from the trade itself. It is a working list, not a published one, and the notification for a cycle is the authority.

General awareness

History in outline and the freedom movement. Geography: states and capitals, rivers, ranges, mineral belts, and the places this Force cares about, meaning refineries, ports, power plants and the major airports. Polity, economy and the big central schemes. Current affairs of roughly the last year, weighted towards disaster management, industrial accidents and internal security. The NDMA, the NDRF and the National Building Code. And CISF's own history, which is in the Overview above and is the cheapest set of marks in any CISF paper.

Science, at 12th standard

Fire and safety

The trade itself, and the part a science 12th will not have covered. Published Indian standards and National Fire Service College material teach it.

• The fire triangle and tetrahedron, and the four ways of putting a fire out: cooling, smothering, starvation and chain reaction inhibition
• Classes of fire, A to D and electrical, with the right medium for each and the ones that must never go near them
• Extinguishers: water, foam, dry chemical powder, carbon dioxide, clean agent. Construction, operation, capacity, rating
• Fixed installations: hydrants, sprinklers, wet and dry risers, foam systems, gas flooding, alarms and detectors, the pump house with its jockey and standby pumps
• Appliances: water, foam and DCP tenders, hydraulic platforms, hose and fittings, branches and nozzles, standpipe, breeching, ladders, breathing apparatus
• Technique: approach, water supply and relay pumping, ventilation, salvage, search and rescue in smoke, ladder drills, knots and lashings
• Industrial risks: refinery fires, boilover and slopover, LPG and BLEVE, tank farms, substations, coal and dust fires, warehouses
• Prevention: means of escape, exit width and travel distance, compartmentation, fire load, hot work permits, National Building Code Part 4, inspection and audit
• Rescue: first aid, resuscitation, burns management, collapsed structure search and rescue, and the CBRN and disaster ground FSTI covers

Maths, reasoning and language

Standard constable fare. Percentage, ratio, average, profit and loss, interest, time and work, speed and distance, mensuration. Series, analogy, coding, blood relations, direction sense. Grammar, vocabulary and comprehension in English and Hindi.

From CISF's recruitment page and the draft revised Recruitment Rules for the Fire Wing. Where they differ, both are given.

Age and education

18 to 23 years, with the usual category relaxations and "relaxable for Government servant up to forty years". The crucial date is the closing date for applications in India, expressly not the later closing date allowed to candidates in the North-Eastern states, Sikkim, Ladakh, the island territories and the remote Himachal districts.

12th pass or equivalent with science, from a recognised board or university. The revision spells out what science means, "(i.e. Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics / Biology)", which CISF's note calls "no change in educational standard except mentioning the subject of Science".

Physical standards

The male figures are in force. The female ones are proposed and not notified, and CISF's live page still shows no female standard here.

No chest measurement applies to women. Weight is proportionate to height and age, and the Director General, CISF may relax any criterion. The authority for the female standard is on record: approval by the Director General, conveyed by the Recruitment Directorate "vide their ION No.(879) dt. 23.03.2023 in compliance with the direction of MHA vide UO dated 31.05.2011 to raise the representation of women in CAPF".

Physical efficiency test

A 5 km race in 24 minutes. That is the whole published standard: no jump, no shot put, no second event. It works out at 4 minutes 48 seconds a kilometre for five kilometres, which is a distance-running standard rather than a fitness check and the hardest physical requirement in CISF's constable recruitment. ITBP asks its constables for 1.6 km in 7 minutes 30 seconds, a pace of 4 minutes 41 seconds a kilometre over less than a third of the distance.

Medical and vision

Distant vision uncorrected 6/6 in the better eye and 6/9 in the worse; near vision unaided N6 and N9.

• "Visual correction of any kind is not permitted even by glasses." If you need spectacles to reach the distance standard, you are not eligible.
• Colour vision CP III by Ishihara, with binocular vision. For a right handed candidate the right eye counts as the better eye. Hazard placards, cylinder codes and signal lamps are colour-coded, so a fireman has to read colour.
• No knock knees, flat foot, varicose veins or squint, and no defect likely to interfere with the duties.

MHA's uniform CAPF medical guidelines apply on top, with CISF's tattoo rule: only a religious symbol or figure or a name, only on the inner aspect of the left forearm or the back of the hand, and smaller than a quarter of it.

Probation and nationality

Two years, and the revised rules add a line the old ones did not carry: "Successful completion of the basic training is pre-requisite for completion of probation." Indian citizenship, and a character and antecedents check before appointment.

CISF runs this recruitment itself, in six stages.

1. Height Bar Test, screening
2. PET, PST and Document Verification, qualifying
3. Written Examination, the only stage that produces marks
4. Detailed Medical, with a Review Medical if needed, fit or unfit
5. Final Merit List
6. Offer of appointment

The height bar

A gate at the entrance to the ground, applied in seconds. The relaxed 165 cm and 162.5 cm standards are given only against proof of category, so anyone who arrives without the certificate is measured against 170 cm.

The run, and the documents, on one day

5 km in 24 minutes. One event, qualifying only. A 19 minute runner and a 23:59 runner stand in the same place afterwards.

The PET, the physical standards and document verification are one appearance, so bring originals: educational certificates, the matriculation certificate for date of birth, and the category certificate in CISF's prescribed Appendix format. Another format is refused, and anyone who cannot produce an original leaves with a rejection slip. A candidate failed on height or chest can appeal the same day, through the Presiding Officer, to the Appellate Authority for the centre, whose decision is final.

The written exam

The only stage that produces marks, so it is the whole merit list. Objective, bilingual, no negative marking, normalised across shifts. A tentative answer key follows with a short online objection window, and there is no re-evaluation.

The medical, and a 24 hour clock

Fit or unfit, no temporary category, against the strict vision standard under Eligibility criteria. A candidate declared unfit can take the review medical, but only on written consent given within 24 hours, and it is usually held the next day.

Half your seniority is decided after you join

The draft rules insert a Rule 4 ranking firefighters against each other for the rest of their careers: a direct recruit's seniority is the recruitment test marks and the basic training marks added in the ratio of 50:50. The paper decides who gets in; the training course decides where you stand.

How the posts are filled

90 per cent by direct recruitment, failing which by deputation from fire trained personnel of other fire service organisations; 10 per cent by absorption, which the revision moves from industrial undertakings to central and state government departments.

Sub-Inspector (Fire) runs the other way round

Written exam first, then PET, PST and the medical, under the Staff Selection Commission. Its physical test is 100 m in 16 seconds, 1.6 km in 6 minutes 30 seconds, a 3.65 m long jump, a 1.2 m high jump and a 16 lb shot put to 4.5 m, with height 170 cm and chest 81 to 86 cm.

Constable (Fire) is Pay Level 3, ₹21,700 to ₹69,100, migrated from the old PB-1 scale of ₹5,200 to ₹20,200 with ₹2,000 grade pay.

Those eight ranks are the wing's whole Group B and Group C structure.

On top of basic pay: dearness allowance revised each January and July, house rent allowance by city class or unit accommodation, transport allowance, ration money, uniform upkeep, and risk and hardship allowance at the rate notified for the posting. Then quarters, canteen, family medical cover, leave travel concession and group insurance. Pension is the National Pension System, which covers everyone who joined central government service on or after 1 January 2004: 10 per cent of basic and DA from you against 14 from the government, with gratuity and leave encashment separate. The revised rules also drop the old benefit of added years of service under rule 30 of the Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 1972, because Rule 30 was itself omitted in December 2012.

Promotion runs Constable to Head Constable to ASI to SI to Inspector (Fire), on seniority, a departmental exam and the promotion cadre course. Inspector (Fire) has no direct recruitment: it goes 90 per cent by promotion and 10 per cent by absorption, so every Inspector came up through the wing. MACP gives financial upgradation where a promotion has not arrived.

Constable (Fire) is CISF's own recruitment, applied for at cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in. So are eleven other ranks, twelve of the seventeen the Force fills by direct recruitment. UPSC runs Assistant Commandant (Executive), SSC runs SI (Executive), SI (Fire) and Constable (General Duty), and BSF as nodal force runs ASI (Stenographer). Watch only SSC's calendar and you miss most of what this Force advertises.

Register once, apply many times

CISF calls the one-time registration "a permanent database for candidate" and reuses the same ID and password for every exam it conducts. Register with a working mobile number and e-mail, fill the application, then pay. Nothing can be corrected after submission: "no change / correction / modification will be allowed under any circumstances."

The fee

₹100 from unreserved, EWS and OBC candidates. Exempt: every woman candidate whatever her category, and SC and ST candidates and ex-servicemen eligible for reservation. Pay by net banking, card, RuPay or UPI, or in cash at a State Bank of India branch against a challan generated on the portal. A challan generated before the closing date can be paid in cash for two days after the window shuts. No refund, and no adjustment against another exam.

Three things that catch people out

• Where a notification covers several posts, send one application. CISF processes the "first application only, so received".
• A bigamous marriage disqualifies, subject to the central government exemption where personal law permits it.
• Dismissal from government service disqualifies.

Recruitment helpline 011-24366431 and 011-24307933, 10:00 to 18:00 on working days.

CISF was raised to guard industrial undertakings owned by the central government, was later declared an Armed Force of the Union, and now also holds airport security, VIP security and a security and fire safety consultancy practice. Its vision is "to be a premier multifaceted Force upholding internal security and securing the Nation's critical infrastructure and assets", its motto Protection and Security, its ethos Abhedya Suraksha.

No other Central Armed Police Force has a full-fledged fire service, which is why no other one recruits firemen. The wing runs to 115 installations and 9,306 personnel, and its consultancy arm advises outside bodies on fire safety as well.

Where the training happens

FSTI is where a fireman's basic course runs. CISF describes it as having an industrial fire tower for simulation, a drill tower for rescue drill, a breathing apparatus gallery, a model fire station and CSSR, ASAR and USAR prop areas, plus a Disaster Management Cell. Probation is two years and passing the basic course is a condition of finishing it.

CISF organises its own recruitments by recruitment sector, not by state, and where you live fixes your sector. Eight of them cover the country.

Odisha and West Bengal sit in North Eastern Sector 2 with Sikkim and the Andamans, and Delhi has its own NCR sector.

The written exam runs at a commercial test centre CISF allots, and a request to change the date or the centre "will not be considered under any circumstances". The physical, documentation and medical stages run at a CISF recruitment centre in your sector, which can be several hundred kilometres off. Budget for it: CISF asks candidates to "come duly prepared for 2-3 days stay under their own arrangements" and pays no travelling or daily allowance.

Carry the admit card, four passport size colour photographs printed with the date they were taken and no more than three months old at the date of the notification, and an original photo ID showing date of birth.

No Constable (Fire) advertisement is live as at 12 September 2026, and the rules the next one runs under are being rewritten.

The rules are out for comment

CISF has published a document headed "Framing of revised Recruitment Rules for Group B and Group C (subordinate ranks) of Fire Wing", setting the existing provision against the proposed one for all eight ranks with a reason for each change. It is public because DoPT requires it: a proposal to amend Recruitment Rules goes up for 30 days of stakeholder comment under OM No. AB-14017/612008-Estt.(RR) of 13 October 2015. It would replace the rules notified by G.S.R. 79(E) of 8 February 2011, under the requirement to revisit Recruitment Rules every five years.

So, as things stand: no live advertisement, and women cannot yet apply, because the female standard is proposed and not notified.

Other CISF notices from the same period

• Revised Recruitment Rules for Constable (General Duty), out for comment in October 2025 and again in April 2026. That post is an SSC recruitment, so any change reaches candidates through SSC's notification.
• A vacancy notice for Assistant Commandant (Fire) in July 2026, a deputation vacancy rather than a direct entry.
• Para Medical Staff 2026, applications 8 June to 7 July 2026. Nothing to do with the fire wing, but it shows the shape a live CISF recruitment takes.

There is no annual calendar

CISF publishes none for the recruitments it runs itself. An advertisement appears at cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in when a cadre needs filling, the window runs about a month, and each stage is announced on the portal as it comes.

Admit cards come from one place: cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in. Every notification says the same thing, "Admit Card for any stage of examination will not be sent by post."

You download one per stage, not one per recruitment, and each is released only to candidates who cleared the stage before it. CISF also reserves the right to interchange the order of the stages for administrative reasons, so do not assume the written exam comes first. For Constable (Fire) it does not.

If the card will not download, contact CISF at least a week before the stage rather than on the day, on 011-24366431 or 011-24307933. Quote the registration number, the registered e-mail and mobile, the name, the date of birth and the name of the exam; without those a message "shall not be entertained".

Phones, calculators and other electronic devices are barred from the hall, and the rule bites on possession rather than use: having one, in use or not, counts as "Use of unfair means" and the candidature is cancelled.

Answer keys, stage results and select lists go up at cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in.

A tentative answer key follows the written exam, open to online representations inside a stated window. Anything sent by letter is ignored, a panel of experts scrutinises the rest, and "the decision of the experts in this regard will be final". No re-evaluation, no re-checking, no re-conduct. Where the exam ran in more than one shift the normalised score draws both the merit list and the qualifying mark.

For its paramedical recruitment CISF shortlists about five candidates per vacancy: the paper ranks, it does not merely pass.

Ties break on four criteria in order: age, older preferred; then height, taller preferred; then educational qualification; then alphabetical order of the name in English. Merit is drawn category-wise, and a reserved-category candidate who makes the unreserved list without a relaxed standard counts against the unreserved vacancies. "No waiting list will be kept / maintained", and the select list equals the vacancies notified.

CISF publishes no cut-off marks for Constable (Fire), or for any recruitment it runs itself; its portal cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in carries only the answer key, stage results and select list. Cut-offs exist for the CISF ranks SSC fills, on ssc.gov.in, two to three months after each paper.

1. The run is the gate. Start there, and start early

Twenty four minutes for 5 km is 4 minutes 48 seconds a kilometre, and it comes at stage two, before the paper. From an ordinary base that is three to six months of structured running, not a fortnight of intent: one time trial a week at target pace, easy running on three or four other days, one interval session such as six to eight repeats of 800 m. Use a measured course and a watch, or you will discover a month out that your pace is thirty seconds a kilometre adrift.

2. Do not prepare in the Constable (GD) order

SSC runs Constable (General Duty) with the paper first. CISF runs this post with the height bar, PET and PST first. The mix-up costs a whole cycle, because it sends candidates to their books when they should be on a track.

3. Learn the trade, because no constable guide covers it

The fire and safety block under Syllabus belongs to this post alone, and a science 12th will not have taught any of it. Published Indian standards and National Fire Service College material cover that ground for nothing.

4. Answer every question

CISF's written exams carry no negative marking. A blank is a certain zero and a guess is one chance in four, so leave nothing unmarked.

5. Settle your eyes before anything else

Distance vision has to be 6/6 and 6/9 without correction of any kind, glasses included, with CP III colour vision by Ishihara. Training cannot move that. An optician will tell you in an afternoon whether you are wasting a year.

6. Check the Sub-Inspector entry first

A science degree with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, or a three year engineering diploma, puts you in for Sub-Inspector (Fire) at Pay Level 6 through SSC, three ranks and ₹13,700 a month up. Do not enter at constable level if that door is open.

7. Women: go by the advertisement

The post has been male-only under the 2011 rules and CISF's page still shows a male standard alone. The draft revision adds a female standard but is not notified, so only the advertisement for the cycle settles it.

8. The competition does not end on results day

Basic training marks are half your seniority for the whole of your career. And plan for the travel: the physical stages run at a sector recruitment centre, over two to three days, with no allowance for either.

No sample papers are available for Constable (Fire). CISF releases no previous papers for any rank it recruits itself. It posts a tentative answer key after each written exam on cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in and takes it down once the key is final.

Helpline 011-24366431 and 011-24307933, 10:00 to 18:00 on working days. Headquarters: Block 13, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110003. Report anyone demanding money for a selection to ac-rectt@cisf.gov.in; CISF charges nothing for recruitment, and says so at the foot of every notification.

Its information site is cisf.gov.in and its portal is cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in. A site that does not end in .gov.in is not CISF, whatever it calls itself.

Does any other Central Armed Police Force recruit firemen?

No. CISF is the only one with a full-fledged Fire Service Wing, which is no accident: the Force was set up in 1969 after a Commission of Inquiry into the 1964 fire at Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi. The wing covers 115 installations with 9,306 personnel and attends about 3,300 calls a year.

Who conducts CISF Constable (Fire)?

CISF itself, at cisfrectt.cisf.gov.in. Not SSC, which conducts Constable (General Duty) and Sub-Inspector (Fire) for the Force.

What is the physical test?

A 5 km race in 24 minutes. One event, no jump and no throw, qualifying only, so running it faster gains you nothing.

Does the written exam come before or after the physical test?

After. Height bar, then PET, PST and document verification, then the written exam, then the medical, then the merit list. Fail the run and you never sit the paper. That is the reverse of the SSC-conducted Constable (GD) exam, and generalising from it is the commonest mistake at this post.

Can women apply?

Not under the rules in force. The 2011 Recruitment Rules and CISF's live page give a male standard only. The draft revision adds 157 cm generally, 155 cm for the hill and North-Eastern categories and 150 cm for tribal candidates, on the Director General's approval and an MHA direction to raise women's representation in the CAPFs, but it has not been notified. Read the advertisement for the cycle.

What qualification and age?

12th pass with science, which the revision reads as Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics or Biology. Age 18 to 23.

What is the salary?

Pay Level 3, ₹21,700 to ₹69,100. Head Constable (Fire) is Level 4, ASI Level 5, Sub-Inspector Level 6 and Inspector (Fire) Level 7 at ₹44,900 to ₹1,42,400.

Will glasses disqualify me?

For distance vision, yes. The revised rules say "visual correction of any kind is not permitted even by glasses". You need 6/6 and 6/9 uncorrected, near vision N6 and N9, and colour vision CP III by Ishihara with binocular vision.

Is there a higher entry than constable in the fire wing?

Sub-Inspector (Fire), at Pay Level 6 and ₹35,400 at entry, for candidates below 30 with a science degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, or matriculation plus a three year diploma in Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Automobile, Chemical, Mining, Aeronautical or Telecommunication Engineering. SSC conducts it. That is three ranks and ₹13,700 a month above the constable entry, so check your eligibility for it first.

How big is the cadre, and how much of it is open?

4,356 sanctioned posts on the Manpower Sanction Register of 1 August 2025, against 1,915 in 2011. Ninety per cent of vacancies go to direct recruitment and ten per cent to absorption.

What happens after selection?

Two years of probation and a mandatory basic course at the Fire Service Training Institute on the NISA campus at Hyderabad, which you have to pass to complete probation. Your marks there are also half your seniority for the rest of your service, the other half being the recruitment exam.