ITBP Constable Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

Everything rests on one computer based paper: 80 questions, 160 marks, 60 minutes. No later stage adds a mark.

• Part A, General Intelligence and Reasoning, 20 questions, 40 marks
• Part B, General Knowledge and General Awareness, 20 questions, 40 marks
• Part C, Elementary Mathematics, 20 questions, 40 marks
• Part D, English or Hindi, 20 questions, 40 marks

Each part carries the same weight, so none can be dropped and none pays extra. Scoring is +2 for a correct answer and −0.25 for a wrong one, which is an eighth of the question's value and mild enough that guessing after elimination is worth it. Calculators are barred. The Commission sets the questions at Matriculation level and offers the paper in fifteen languages: English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Part D is attempted in English or Hindi.

The real pressure is arithmetic: sixty minutes across eighty questions leaves 45 seconds each.

Normalisation

The paper runs over weeks and many shifts, so raw marks are normalised by a published Commission formula. Every cut off you will see is a normalised score with NCC bonus added, which is why none of them can be reversed into a number of correct answers.

NCC bonus

NCC 'C' adds 5 per cent of maximum marks, here 8 marks; 'B' adds 3 per cent, or 4.8 marks; 'A' adds 2 per cent, or 3.2 marks. Two conditions bite. The box has to have been ticked on the application form, and the original certificate has to be produced at document verification or the bonus is withdrawn after the event. Ex-Servicemen are not eligible for it.

Objections, and how ties break

Objections against the tentative answer key cost ₹100 a question through the Commission's link; letters and e-mails are ignored, and no score is ever re-evaluated or re-checked. A tie is broken on Part A marks, then Part B marks, then date of birth with the older candidate placed higher, then alphabetical order.

The published syllabus is short, because the paper is school level and every part carries the same twenty questions and forty marks.

Reasoning (Part A) is described as a test of analytical aptitude and of the ability to observe and distinguish patterns, and the Commission says it works principally through non-verbal questions. In practice that means figures: spatial visualisation and orientation, visual memory, observation and discrimination, figural classification, non-verbal series. The verbal side is thinner, running to analogies, similarities and differences, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning, number series, and coding and decoding. Ties are settled here first, so the part repays drilling.

General Awareness (Part B) is pitched at what an educated person would know about their surroundings and about current events, plus everyday observation and experience on its scientific side. The named ground is India and its neighbours across sports, history, culture, geography, the economy, polity and the Constitution, and scientific research. The Commission adds that no special study of any discipline is expected, which is a caution against reading this part too deeply.

Elementary Mathematics (Part C) is a closed list, and the shortest route to marks for anyone short of time: number systems and the four operations on whole numbers, decimals and fractions; percentages, ratio and proportion, averages, ratio and time; interest, profit and loss, discount; mensuration; time and distance and time and work. There is no algebra, no trigonometry, no geometry proof and no data interpretation anywhere in it.

Language (Part D) is one sentence in the Commission's text: basic understanding of English or Hindi and basic comprehension, in whichever you nominated at application. Choose the one you read faster, because the binding constraint is 45 seconds a question.

The current wording is kept at ssc.gov.in syllabus.

Indian citizenship, class 10, an age window of five years, and physical standards that remove more candidates than the paper does.

Domicile

Posts are earmarked state, union territory and area wise, so a domicile certificate or Permanent Resident Certificate is required. The Commission takes your state and district from the domicile column of the form and not from any address field, neither can be altered after submission, and a certificate at the medical that does not match ends the candidature immediately.

Age

18 to 23 on 1 January of the exam year, which for the 2025 cycle meant a date of birth between 2 January 2002 and 1 January 2007, read off the Matriculation certificate and nothing else. The upper limit relaxes by 5 years for SC and ST, 3 years for OBC, and 3 years for Ex-Servicemen after military service is deducted from actual age. Children and dependants of those killed in the 1984 riots or the 2002 Gujarat riots get 5 years (UR and EWS), 8 years (OBC) or 10 years (SC and ST).

Education

Matriculation or class 10, with the result declared on or before the crucial date. A result still being processed does not count, and no higher qualification gains anything. Distance learning qualifications need UGC Distance Education Bureau approval for the relevant period, shown at verification.

Height and chest

Every chest figure is the unexpanded measurement and all of them require 5 cm of expansion. Chest is not measured for women, where the board satisfies itself that it is well developed, and weight must be proportionate to height and age for both. Relaxation claims are examined after the race and before measurement; apart from Scheduled Tribe candidates, who show an ST certificate, everyone must hand over a certificate in the Commission's own proforma on the day.

The race

5 km in 24 minutes for men and 1.6 km in 8 minutes 30 seconds for women, with Ladakh region candidates running 1.6 km in 7 minutes and 800 m in 5 minutes instead. Five kilometres in 24 minutes is a pace of 4 minutes 48 seconds a kilometre, held. A height or chest decision can be appealed the same day to the Appellate Authority at the centre, whose ruling is final. The race cannot be appealed. Ex-Servicemen don't run, though they still attend for measurement and the medical.

Women declare pregnancy status when they report. Anyone found pregnant is declared temporarily unfit with her post held in reserve, and is re-examined six weeks after confinement on a fitness certificate, keeping seniority if fit.

One paper produces the only marks in this recruitment. Four gates then decide whether those marks turn into a job, and ITBP runs none of them.

Clear the floor first

30 per cent for UR, 25 for OBC and EWS, 20 for SC, ST and Ex-Servicemen, out of 160, measured before NCC bonus is added. It admits you to consideration and nothing more.

Shortlisting, at eight times the posts

About eight times the vacancies are called to the ground, ranked on written merit including NCC bonus and separated by state, area, category and gender. The all India posts of SSF and NCB may draw more. Nobody competes nationally.

The ground

The CAPFs run the PST and PET under CRPF as Nodal Force, at venues the forces choose. Download that admit card from rect.crpf.gov.in roughly two weeks ahead; it does not come from the Commission. The sequence on the day is biometric verification, the race, then height, chest and weight.

Medical and documents

Survivors are re-ranked on the same written merit and called at about twice the vacancies for the Detailed Medical Examination and Document Verification, held together by the CAPFs. Bring the Matriculation and domicile certificates, the NCC certificate if you claimed it, the caste certificate in the Commission's proforma, and any relaxation certificate.

Force allocation

Rank all eight. Allocation runs on written merit cum preference against the posts available in your state, category and area, and the notice says in capitals that no change is entertained after submission. The Commission may also allot a force by suitability and availability. ITBP is 5.1 per cent of this cycle's posts, so placing it first is no guarantee of getting it.

Areas within a state

Posts are earmarked again for Border Guarding and for Militancy or Naxal affected districts. Candidates from a Naxal or militancy area are considered against those first, then general; border area candidates go to border posts first and general second; candidates from both in the order Naxal or militancy, border, general. SSF and NCB sit outside the arrangement entirely.

Reservation

Reserved category candidates who get through without any relaxed standard are counted against unreserved posts, and the reserved posts are filled separately; last cycle this moved 2,090 EWS, 1,913 SC, 998 ST and 8,902 OBC men across. Anyone who used a relaxation counts against reserved posts whatever their rank, except that age deducted for military service is not treated as one. Ex-Servicemen hold 10 per cent of posts, invisible in the vacancy tables.

Nothing is held in reserve afterwards: there is no waiting list, and unfilled or vacated posts go to next year's cycle. Debarment for malpractice runs two to seven years, three of them for carrying a phone that is switched off.

Seven of the eight pay identically. Dearness, house rent and transport allowance ride over the ₹21,700 entry cell, and the high altitude and remote posting allowances that matter most in ITBP follow the deployment rather than the rank.

ITBP's own pay matrix

The Force publishes the entry pay of every rank it recruits:

Head Constable moves you to Level 4 and ₹25,500; Sub-Inspector is Level 6 and ₹35,400. The specialist entries on that list, Pharmacist, Laboratory Technician, Radiographer, Staff Nurse, Overseer and Hindi Translator, are recruited directly by ITBP through its own portal, so a serving Constable who picks up the qualification can compete for them.

A recruit is liable to serve anywhere in India, which for ITBP can mean the Himalayan frontier or an internal security deployment run out of Lucknow or Bhopal. Appointment waits on training seats, so joining happens in phases under ITBP's own rules.

Apply online at the Commission's portal. There is no paper form, and ITBP's own recruitment site is the wrong address for this post.

A form submitted with no fee behind it is rejected summarily, and no representation against that is heard. The fee is ₹100 for general and OBC men and nil for every woman, for SC and ST candidates and for Ex-Servicemen eligible for reservation. Payment is by BHIM UPI, net banking or a debit card only, and nothing is refunded or transferred to another exam. Corrections cost ₹200 then ₹500, charged to everybody regardless of gender or category, with no third attempt; if the charge does not arrive, your earlier form stands.

Three entries that are locked on submission

1. Force preferences, all eight, in order.
2. Domicile state and district, taken from the domicile column.
3. The NCC claim. Unticked means the bonus cannot be claimed later.

Candidature is provisional until document verification, so nothing you enter is checked before then. A blurred photograph or signature is enough to get a form rejected.

Three bodies run this recruitment between them, and ITBP is none of the three until the very end.

ITBP's recruitment portal at recruitment.itbpolice.nic.in carries the notices for the cadres the Force fills itself, with their own fees. None of that applies here. A Constable (GD) candidate applies at ssc.gov.in and nowhere else.

What ITBP's doctors look for

The medical board is constituted by the CAPFs under the Home Ministry's uniform guidelines, but ITBP publishes its own guidance:

• No knock knee, flat foot, varicose vein or squint. These four are named first and are the commonest reasons a candidate who cleared the race is still turned away.
• Chest well formed and free of flat chest, pigeon chest or rickety rosary, expanding at least 5 cm with ease.
• Good hearing, no obvious ear, nose or throat disease, speech without impediment and no stammering.
• No perceptible glandular swelling anywhere.
• Limbs, hands and feet well formed, all joints moving perfectly, no old or malunited fracture.
• At least 14 dental points, meaning enough sound natural teeth to chew efficiently.
• On tattoos, ITBP follows the Army's approach: religious symbols or figures and a name are permitted, and otherwise a tattoo is acceptable only on traditional sites such as the inner forearm.

ITBP calls these guidelines rather than an exhaustive list and says they may change without notice. The Commission will not hear any appeal, RTI application or grievance against a board's decision.

Three centre choices, in order of priority, and all three must fall in one Commission region. The Commission tries to honour them, may allot elsewhere, and changes nothing on request afterwards. Your region also settles which regional office administers the paper, releases the admit card and takes any representation.

There are nine regions, each with its own office: Prayagraj (Central), Kolkata (Eastern), Bengaluru (Karnataka Kerala), Raipur (Madhya Pradesh), Guwahati (North Eastern), New Delhi (Northern), Chandigarh (North Western), Chennai (Southern) and Mumbai (Western). The notice lists the states each covers and the cities inside each, and the current lists are kept on the Commission's site. One quirk worth planning around: Haryana has no exam centre, so its candidates sit in Chandigarh, Mohali or Punjab.

Sitting the paper somewhere does not move you into that state's competition. Domicile decides which posts you go against; the centre is only about travel. For the ground and the medical there is no choice at all, those venues being fixed by the CAPFs under CRPF, and long journeys to the race are the norm.

The current cycle

The exam moved a day at five days' notice when the Department of Personnel and Training shifted the Id-u-Zuha holiday on 22 May 2026. Admit cards for the new date followed two or three days before the paper, so the only reliable warning was the website itself.

The previous cycle in full

Sixteen months end to end, five of them between the paper and its result. Keep the registered mobile number and e-mail alive throughout, and watch the examination calendar, which signals the next cycle before the notice does.

Two separate organisations issue the admit cards for this recruitment.

Cards are online only and never posted. Details missing from the site a week before the paper? Contact the regional office at once with proof you applied, or lose any claim to consideration. Trouble with the CRPF card? Call the Recruitment Cell on 011-26160255 at least a week ahead, because nobody is allowed onto the ground without a printout.

Bring to the exam: the printed certificate, two passport size colour photographs and an original photo ID showing your date of birth, plus a second original showing it if the ID does not. A date of birth that conflicts with the certificate keeps you out of the hall. The biometrics captured that day are matched at every later stage, and a phone in your possession, on or off, costs a three year debarment.

Four declarations punctuate the cycle, all of them read at ssc.gov.in: the tentative answer key, the written result that picks who goes to the ground, the physical test result, and the final select list carrying force allocation and the cut off annexures.

The last final result set down, for each combination of state, force, area and category, how many posts there were, how many were filled, the cut off to five decimal places, and the Part A marks, Part B marks and date of birth of the last candidate taken. Lists of recommended women, recommended men, withheld results and debarred candidates came with it, and everyone's detailed marks follow later.

The final list recommended 4,932 women and 45,115 men. Women's vacancies stood at 5,370, with 522 more for Ex-Servicemen; men's at 48,320, with 4,840 for Ex-Servicemen, 53,690 in all. Those 4,840 drew only 287 recommendations, roughly six per cent, and the remainder passed to non-Ex-Servicemen of the same categories.

Nothing is settled quickly: some results stay withheld for months on court orders or suspected malpractice. There is no reserve list, and no score is re-evaluated or re-checked at any point.

The qualifying mark and the cut off are different things. The qualifying mark, 30 per cent (48 marks) for UR, 25 per cent (40) for OBC and EWS and 20 per cent (32) for SC, ST and Ex-Servicemen out of 160, before NCC bonus, only admits you to consideration. The cut off is the mark of the last candidate actually taken for ITBP in your state, area and category.

ITBP, male, unreserved, general area, last cycle

Annexure IV of the Commission's final result, 15 January 2026.

Same paper, same force, same category, same year: 139.49 in Rajasthan against 52.95 in Arunachal Pradesh, 87 marks apart out of 160. Domicile does more to decide the outcome than anything a candidate controls, and it cannot be changed after submission.

Look at the second column as well. Sixteen of these thirty-one states offered ten posts or fewer and seven offered one, two or three. ITBP's unreserved general area intake in an ordinary state is a handful of posts, which is exactly why the cut off in Rajasthan or Haryana sits so high: the last candidate in is near the top of that state's field.

ITBP, female, unreserved, general area

Kerala is the row to study: 7 posts, 1 filled, at 99.45. A state can fail to fill its posts at a mark far below what Rajasthan demands, because candidates must also clear the race and the medical and the shortlist is drawn state by state.

Using these numbers

• They are normalised scores, not raw marks, so there is no route back to a count of correct answers.
• They include NCC bonus, which is eight marks for an NCC 'C' holder.
• They were set against ITBP's 3,017 posts last cycle. This cycle notifies 1,293, well under half, so expect ITBP cut offs to rise.
• They apply to ITBP in that state alone. Falling short may still leave you a place in another force from the same state at a lower mark, depending on your preference list.

Start running now

Of 3,94,121 candidates called to the ground last cycle, 95,575 survived it. Men face 5 km in 24 minutes, women 1.6 km in 8 minutes 30 seconds, and only Ladakh region candidates get easier marks. There is no appeal against the race. Nine weeks separated the written result from the physical tests last cycle, which is not enough to build the fitness from scratch.

Check the standards, and read ITBP's medical notes

170 cm with an 80 cm chest expanding 5 cm for a general category man, 157 cm for a woman. Then read ITBP's own published medical guidance, which is more detailed than most: knock knee, flat foot, varicose vein and squint are named first, and a minimum of 14 dental points is required. Those are the conditions that turn away candidates who have already cleared the race.

Time yourself from the first practice paper

Eighty questions in sixty minutes, Matriculation level throughout. The clock is the constraint, not the content, so a question answered correctly in ninety seconds is a question lost.

Guess, with elimination

With +2 for a right answer and only −0.25 for a wrong one, knock out what you can and answer. Candidates drilled on a one third penalty tend to leave too many blanks here.

Put the hours into Parts A and C

Part A settles ties and is mostly non-verbal, which is learnable. Part C is arithmetic with no algebra, trigonometry or data interpretation, so it has the shortest route from study to marks. Part B is unbounded and only the second tie breaker. Part D is comprehension in whichever of English or Hindi you read faster.

Know what a small force means for your odds

ITBP holds just 1,293 of this cycle's 25,487 posts, down from 3,017 last cycle, and sixteen of the thirty-one states with an unreserved general area vacancy last cycle offered ten or fewer. A small intake means a high cut off in a populous state. Women should note the other side of it: 15 per cent of ITBP's intake is female, the highest share in this exam.

Tick the NCC box

NCC 'C' is 8 marks, and it can only be claimed on the application form, never afterwards. Carry the original to document verification or it is withdrawn.

ITBP publishes no question papers for this post, because it does not set the paper. The material that does come from the examiner is on the Commission's site: previous year question papers under For Candidates, and a walk-through video and mock test in the Candidate's Corner.

• Previous year question papers
• Candidate's Corner, for the walk-through and mock test

SSC MTS and CHSL papers sit at a neighbouring level and fill the gap once you discard anything algebraic or trigonometric. Whatever you use, run it against a sixty minute clock without a calculator. And nothing you can practise prepares you for the race, which removes far more candidates than the paper does.

Where you apply

• Staff Selection Commission, the only application route for this post
• Scheme of examination and syllabus
• Tentative vacancy, where ITBP's 1,293 is broken down by state
• Previous year question papers
• Notice of the Constable (GD) Examination, 2025, the full rule book
• Final result, 15 January 2026, the source of the cut offs above
• CRPF Recruitment, for the physical test and medical admit cards

ITBP's own publications

• Scheme of Recruitment, the rank list that does not include Constable (GD)
• Pay matrix, rank by rank
• Medical standards
• Frontier Headquarters
• ITBP recruitment FAQs, for the cadres ITBP fills itself

Does ITBP recruit General Duty Constables itself?

No. ITBP's published Scheme of Recruitment covers Constable (Workshop), (Crew), (Animal Transport), (Tradesman), (Followers), (Telecommunication), (Pioneer), (Motor Mechanic) and (Driver), and General Duty is not on the list, because the Staff Selection Commission fills it. Apply at ssc.gov.in, not at recruitment.itbpolice.nic.in.

How many ITBP posts are there?

1,293 of 25,487 this cycle, 5.1 per cent, which makes ITBP fifth by size among the eight organisations. The Force notified 3,017 last cycle, so the figure has more than halved.

Is ITBP a good choice for women?

Proportionally it is the best in this exam. 194 of ITBP's 1,293 posts are female, 15 per cent, the highest share of any force here, against CISF's 10 per cent, CRPF's 2.3 per cent and SSB's nil. In absolute numbers CISF is far larger, at 1,460 female posts.

What marks do I need?

Last cycle the ITBP unreserved general area cut off for men ran from 52.95 in Arunachal Pradesh to 139.49 in Rajasthan, and for women from 49.88 to 138.08. Find your own state's row, then allow for ITBP notifying well under half as many posts this cycle.

What is the job like?

Expect high altitude postings on the Himalayan frontier, which no other force in this exam offers, alongside internal security deployments inside the country. You don't get to pick between them.

What is the pay?

Pay Level 3, ₹21,700 to ₹69,100, the same as a Constable (GD) in BSF, CISF, CRPF, SSB and SSF and a Rifleman (GD) in Assam Rifles; only the Narcotics Control Bureau's Sepoy is lower. ITBP's own pay matrix confirms it and shows the next steps: ₹25,500 at Head Constable (Level 4) and ₹35,400 at Sub-Inspector (Level 6).

What will the medical board check?

ITBP publishes its own guidance. Knock knee, flat foot, varicose vein and squint are named first. It also requires a well formed chest expanding at least 5 cm, good hearing, no stammering, no glandular swelling, well formed limbs with no malunited fracture, and at least 14 dental points. On tattoos it follows the Army: religious symbols or figures and a name are allowed, otherwise only on traditional sites such as the inner forearm.

Who runs the physical tests?

The CAPFs, under CRPF as Nodal Force, not ITBP. The admit card for the physical tests, the medical and document verification comes from CRPF about two weeks beforehand; the written exam card comes from your Commission regional office.