CPRI Assistant Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

One computer based test, run by an independent government agency, decides merit.

Section split by post

Four of the six posts carry a 40-mark subject section. Assistant Grade II doesn't: it's four equal blocks of general ability.

At 0.25 a wrong answer, four wrong answers cancel one right one. Ninety minutes for 100 questions is 54 seconds each.

After the test CPRI opens an answer key cum objection portal. In 2025 it ran from 28 to 31 July, and it's the only chance to challenge a question.

The pattern is in CPRI's exam pattern notification of 16 May 2025.

CPRI publishes the section counts, not a topic list. For Assistant Grade II:

These are the standard central-government graduate clerical sections, so the usual topics apply, at the level of a first class bachelor's degree.

General Intelligence and Reasoning

• Analogies, similarities and differences, classification and odd one out
• Series: number, alphabet, figural and mixed
• Coding and decoding
• Blood relations, direction sense, ranking and ordering, seating arrangement
• Syllogism, statement and conclusion, statement and assumption
• Venn diagrams, drawing inferences, data sufficiency
• Non-verbal reasoning: mirror and water images, paper folding and cutting, embedded figures, figure completion
• Arithmetical reasoning and puzzles

General Awareness

• Current affairs, national and international
• Indian polity and the Constitution
• Indian history and the freedom movement
• Geography, Indian and world
• Indian economy and the Budget
• General science: physics, chemistry, biology and everyday science
• Books, awards, sports, important days and organisations
• The power sector: the Ministry of Power, generation, transmission and distribution, the main central utilities, and what CPRI does

Quantitative Aptitude

• Number system, simplification, LCM and HCF, surds and indices
• Percentage, ratio and proportion, average, partnership, mixture and alligation
• Profit and loss, discount, simple and compound interest
• Time and work, pipes and cisterns, time speed and distance, boats and streams, trains
• Mensuration: areas and volumes of the standard plane figures and solids
• Algebra, elementary trigonometry, heights and distances, coordinate geometry basics
• Data interpretation: tables, bar charts, pie charts and line graphs

English Language and Comprehension

• Reading comprehension
• Spotting errors and sentence improvement
• Fill in the blanks, cloze test
• Synonyms and antonyms, one word substitution, spelling
• Idioms and phrases
• Active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech
• Para jumbles and sentence rearrangement

Assistant Grade II

First class, not a pass. And the BCC must be NIELIT's, at Grade B or better: a BCA degree or a private computer diploma doesn't count. No experience is needed.

The other posts

The crucial date

Age, qualification, certificates and category are all judged on the closing date for online applications: 25 May 2025 for CPRI/06/2025. A certificate dated later doesn't count.

Reservation and category

• Reservation and age relaxation apply only to the reserved posts.
• The category you enter can't be changed, and a wrong entry disqualifies you.
• OBC candidates need a current OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) certificate. Without it you're treated as unreserved.
• EWS candidates need a current certificate in the DoPT format of Office Memorandum No. 36039/1/2019-Estt(Res) of 31 January 2019.

Documents to upload

• Matriculation certificate and mark sheet
• Degree certificate and all mark sheets
• The BCC certificate from NIELIT
• Caste, OBC (NCL) or EWS certificate as applicable
• Ex-Servicemen identity card or discharge certificate, if applicable
• A No Objection Certificate if you work in central or state government, quasi government, a public sector undertaking or an autonomous body

A missing document or a hazy scan makes the application invalid.

1. Online application with the fee and documents.
2. Computer Based Test, 100 questions in 90 minutes.
3. Answer key and objection window, three days.
4. Cut-off, fixed by CPRI post by post.
5. Document verification for those above it.
6. Provisional selection, published as a notification.

CPRI's words: "Selection of the candidates will be purely on the merit basis of all India rank of the Computer Based Test (CBT) conducted by an independent Government Agency." No post in the advertisement has an interview.

Document verification is where Assistant Grade II was decided

The shortlist notice warns that being called "does not confer any right to final selection", which is subject to "fulfilment of all requisite eligibility criteria".

CPRI reserves to itself eligibility, acceptance or rejection of applications, the mode of selection, the cut-offs and the conduct of the test. Its decision is final, with no correspondence entertained.

What ends a candidature

• False, tampered or suppressed information, found at any stage
• Impersonation, misconduct or unfair means
• Canvassing in any form
• More than one application for the same post: all are rejected
• No fee, missing documents or blurred scans
• A signature at the test that doesn't match the uploaded one

The advertisement doesn't itemise allowances. It says the posts carry leave, LTC, medical benefits and allowances as per Government of India norms for the Institute's employees, so DA, HRA by city class and transport allowance apply on the Level 4 basic. CPRI publishes the level, not an in-hand figure.

Probation is two years for all posts. You can be posted to any CPRI office in India, not just Bengaluru.

What the recruitment doesn't promise

• Vacancies are provisional and may change, with the reservation changing too.
• CPRI can fill the posts or cancel the advertisement in whole or in part without giving a reason. If it cancels, it refunds only the fee.
• You attend every stage at your own expense.

Apply only online, through the Careers section of cpri.res.in.

SC, ST, PwBD, Ex-Servicemen and women candidates pay nothing. Bank charges are yours. An application without the fee is summarily rejected. The fee isn't refunded or carried over, and a registered application can't be withdrawn.

Have ready

• An email address and mobile number that will stay the same. CPRI isn't responsible if a notice doesn't reach you because they changed.
• A colour photograph no more than three months old.
• A signature in black ink on white. Sign the same way on the attendance sheet at the test.
• The scanned documents listed under Eligibility.

Rules that catch people out

• One application per post. Applying for two posts means two applications and two fees.
• Screening is done on what the form says, and wrong information disqualifies you.
• If you hold dual qualifications, you must show at verification that your major specialisation matches the prescribed one.

Keep the registration form the system generates. CPRI publishes shortlists and selections by registration and roll number, not by name.

CPRI recruits for itself, with the exam run by an independent government agency. No commission is involved.

Its testing and certification work is why most of its posts are technical and why it keeps laboratories at nine locations. An Assistant Grade II supports that work and can be posted to any of them.

CPRI advertises when vacancies build up, not on a calendar. Its archive shows advertisements from 2022 to 2026, mostly for one or two officer or contract positions. CPRI/06/2025, at 44 posts, is the large regular recruitment of the period.

The CBT is held at centres across India. CPRI doesn't list the cities in the advertisement. You see your allotted city by logging in after the exam city notification, and the admit card follows with the venue.

So you know the city thirteen days ahead and the venue four. Book travel on the city notice. No travelling allowance is paid for any stage.

In 2025 the Kolkata morning session on 29 June (Junior Hindi Translator and Technician Grade 1) was cancelled for server and technical issues. CPRI notified a re-examination for 20 July 2025 on 7 July and opened a fresh admit card link on 14 July, all only on its website.

CPRI has no annual calendar. It advertises when vacancies build up, on its Current Openings page. On 12 September 2026 that page carried one advertisement, CPRI/09/2026, hosted 1 September 2026 for a single administrative post with a window from 1 to 15 September 2026. No Assistant Grade II recruitment was open.

CPRI/06/2025, end to end

The application window was three weeks, too short to get a NIELIT certificate after the advertisement appears. The whole cycle took a little over a year.

Two steps, through the exam portal, with the username and password you set at registration:

• Exam city notification: your allotted city (16 June in 2025).
• Admit card: venue address, date and time (from 25 June in 2025).

The link is posted on cpri.res.in. Without both the admit card and an original photo ID you won't be allowed in. The name on the ID must exactly match the application.

Assistant Grade II has no skill test, so after the cut-off the next letter is the document verification call.

CPRI posts every notice on its Career Results page as a dated PDF, identifying candidates by registration and roll number. The order is a cut-off notice, then post-wise shortlists, then post-wise selection notices with each selected candidate's category.

CPRI doesn't publish candidate-wise marks or a scored merit list, and doesn't explain why a shortlisted candidate wasn't selected.

CPRI publishes its cut-offs. The notification of 12 January 2026 gave the CBT cut-off for every post in CPRI/06/2025:

The highest bar fell on the lowest-paid post. Technician Grade 1 had six posts and an ITI entry qualification, which draws a deep field, so the threshold had to rise.

These are the thresholds CPRI fixed for moving people forward, not closing merit marks. For Assistant Grade II, 50 per cent put 35 candidates into document verification for 23 posts. Each advertisement sets its own, so these predict little about the next one.

1. Get the NIELIT BCC certificate (Grade B or better) first. The application window is three weeks, too short to get it once an advertisement appears. Check you have a first class degree too.
2. Prepare all four sections evenly. Each is 25 marks and there's no subject section to make up a weak one.
3. Practise at 54 seconds a question. Timed sectional practice beats deep study of one topic here.
4. Answer what you can narrow to two options and leave the rest. Four wrong answers cancel a right one.
5. Use SSC CGL Tier 1 papers for practice. Same four sections and 100 questions, but SSC gives 60 minutes for 200 marks with 0.50 off a wrong answer, where CPRI gives 90 minutes for 100 marks with 0.25 off. Take the content from SSC and the timing from CPRI. SSC publishes papers and keys on ssc.gov.in.
6. Read up on the power sector for General Awareness.
7. Watch the objection window in the weeks after the paper.
8. Get the form right first time. Category can't be changed, duplicate applications are all rejected, and OBC candidates without a current non-creamy-layer certificate are treated as unreserved.

CPRI releases no previous question papers or sample papers. After each test it opens an answer key and objection portal for a few days (28 to 31 July in 2025), visible only to candidates who sat the paper.

The closest official guides are the exam pattern notification and the 10-page advertisement. Notices for the next recruitment will appear on Current Openings, with closed ones kept in the Career Archive.

• Central Power Research Institute
• Current Openings: live advertisements
• Career Results: cut-offs, shortlists and selections
• Career Archive: closed advertisements and their documents
• Advertisement No. CPRI/06/2025 (10 pages)
• Exam pattern and syllabus
• Exam city notification
• Kolkata re-examination notice
• Answer key and objection window
• CBT cut-off marks, 12 January 2026
• Assistant Grade II selection, 29 January 2026
• Junior Hindi Translator and Assistant Librarian selection
• Engineering Assistant selection, 16 March 2026
• Technician Grade 1 selection, 18 May 2026
• NIELIT, which runs the Basic Computer Course
• Ministry of Power

Who conducts the CPRI Assistant recruitment?

CPRI itself, with the CBT run by an independent government agency. There is no interview.

What is the pay?

Level 4, ₹25,500 to ₹81,100, plus allowances. Probation is two years.

How many posts were advertised?

23 Assistant Grade II posts in CPRI/06/2025: 11 UR, 7 EWS, 2 ST, 2 OBC and 1 SC, two of them for Ex-Servicemen.

Does a BCA degree count instead of the NIELIT certificate?

No. A BCA is an accepted degree, but you still need Grade B or better in NIELIT's Basic Computer Course.

What is the age limit?

18 to 30, relaxable per Government of India norms, on the closing date.

Is there a typing or skill test?

Not for Assistant Grade II. You go straight from the CBT to document verification.

Is there negative marking?

Yes, 0.25 for every wrong answer.

What was the cut-off?

50 per cent and above for Assistant Grade II in 2025.

What is the application fee?

₹700 per post. SC, ST, PwBD, Ex-Servicemen and women candidates are exempt.

Where will I be posted?

Any CPRI office: Bengaluru or one of the eight units.

How often is this post advertised?

Irregularly, when vacancies build up. Watch Current Openings.