RRB CMA Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility, Important Dates

The pattern is Para 13.0 of the CEN, as amended. It's the same for every post in the CEN except the Technical Abilities section, which for CMA candidates comes from the CMA Exam Group syllabus.

1st Stage CBT

General Science is Physics, Chemistry and Life Sciences up to 10th standard CBSE. There's no calculator in this paper.

2nd Stage CBT

A virtual calculator appears on screen in this paper only. The CEN calls the section-wise split in both tables indicative, so actual papers may vary a little.

Marking

Each wrong answer loses one third of the marks for that question, in both papers. On a 1-mark question that's 0.33, so three wrong answers wipe out one right one. Most Indian recruitment uses 0.25. You get about 54 seconds a question in the first paper and 48 in the second.

Where a CBT runs in several sessions, raw marks are normalised. The qualifying percentages are under cut-offs, and the Merit Index that ranks you is under the selection process.

From Para 13.0 of the CEN and Annexure-VIII (E), the CMA syllabus added by Corrigendum No. 1.

1st Stage CBT (nothing above 10th standard)

2nd Stage CBT, non-technical part

General Awareness (15) and Physics and Chemistry up to 10th standard CBSE (15), plus:

• Basics of Computers and Applications (10): computer architecture, input, output and storage devices, networking, operating systems such as Windows, Unix and Linux, MS Office, data representation, internet and email, websites and browsers, computer virus.
• Basics of Environment and Pollution Control (10): adverse effects of pollution and control strategies, air, water and noise pollution, waste management, global warming, acid rain, ozone depletion.

Technical Abilities (100 marks): Annexure-VIII (E)

Only CMA candidates sit this paper. The corrigendum amended Note (b) of Para 13.3 so a Depot Material Superintendent candidate picking an Exam Group must pick one other than CMA.

Age

18 to 33 years as on 1 January 2027. That date falls after applications close.

• If you qualify on more than one ground you get the largest single relaxation, not the sum.
• SC, ST and OBC (NCL) candidates applying against UR vacancies get no age relaxation.
• PwBD candidates against UR vacancies get only the PwBD (UR) relaxation.
• Your date of birth must match your Matriculation or SSLC certificate. Any difference means disqualification, and changes aren't allowed later.

Qualification

A B.Sc. degree in Physics and Chemistry with at least 45 per cent marks, in one of the three combinations listed in Corrigendum No. 1. It maps to the CMA Exam Group, the only non-engineering group in the CEN. You must hold the degree by 13 September 2026; if you're still waiting for final results, don't apply.

If your certificate is dated after the closing date, bring the consolidated marks sheet showing when the final result was declared, or every semester's marks sheet with its result date. If none of them carry a date, you need a certificate from the board or university stating it.

Medical standard and PwBD suitability

CMA needs medical standard B1. Junior Engineer posts in the same CEN range from A3 through B1, B2 and C1. The corrigendum also added a B-2 standard: distance vision 6/9 and 6/12 with or without glasses (lens power not over 4D), near vision Sn 0.6 and 0.6 where close work is needed, and a binocular vision test.

For CMA, Annexure A marks the post suitable for hearing impairment (D, HH), locomotor disability (OL, LC, DW, AAV, and SD and SI without neurological or limb dysfunction) and multiple disabilities. It is not suitable for visual impairment.

Other conditions

Nationality rules are at Para 4.0. If you're employed, Para 12.0 asks for a No Objection Certificate from your employer. RRBs don't scrutinise eligibility when you apply: everything is provisional until Document Verification, and a false or unsupported claim found at any stage, even after appointment, gets you rejected.

1. 1st Stage CBT (100 marks, 90 minutes), a screening paper.
2. 2nd Stage CBT (150 marks, 120 minutes). 15 times the community-wise vacancy notified against your RRB is called, on normalised 1st Stage marks. Railways can raise or lower that number for any category.
3. Document Verification for as many candidates as there are vacancies, on normalised 2nd Stage marks and your options.
4. Medical examination by the Railway Administration or RRB.
5. Empanelment on merit, subject to DV and the medical.

The Merit Index

Candidates from different Exam Groups compete for common posts, so the CEN ranks everyone on a Merit Index, "the relative score of a candidate within the discipline". Your marks are placed on a scale between two anchors:

It's computed for UR, EWS, OBC (NCL), SC and ST candidates at or above their qualifying marks, and one combined merit list is drawn across all Exam Groups. So your index depends on how the toppers in your own paper did. On a tie, the older candidate ranks higher; if ages match, the given name (not the surname) decides alphabetically.

Options and applications

You choose one RRB and rank Railway Zones and posts within it. Partial options are honoured as given, a post with no option counts as unwillingness, and options are final. Applying more than once, to different RRBs or the same one, gets all your applications rejected and can debar you from future RRB and RRC exams.

After the CBTs

At DV you must bring originals. No extra time is given, and candidature can be forfeited without them. The zone or production unit is then allotted on your options, merit, medical standard and vacancies. Once you're empanelled for one preference, you lose the right to be considered for the next, and RRBs can post you somewhere you didn't opt for in the administrative interest.

RRBs only recommend names. The appointment letter comes from the Railway Administration, after a Medical Fitness Test, final certificate checks and verification of antecedents and character. If there's a shortfall, RRBs can go further down the merit list, though that gives no one a vested right.

Every post in the CEN, Junior Engineer, Depot Material Superintendent and CMA alike, sits at Level 6 with the same initial pay. ₹35,400 is the first cell of the level, not take-home. On top of it come Dearness Allowance at the current rate, House Rent Allowance by the class of city you're posted to, Transport Allowance and the usual Railway allowances. National Pension System and health scheme contributions come off. The CEN gives only the level and the initial pay.

The job is in the Mechanical department's CMT sub-department, the Railways' Chemist and Metallurgist organisation: the laboratory side, testing and analysing the materials and components in service. Three of the seven units with CMA vacancies are production units, where testing is part of manufacture.

Apply online only, through the link on the official RRB websites (rrb.indianrailways.gov.in). The window and the correction dates are under important dates.

No refund if you skip the first paper. Pay online by net banking, card or UPI; service charges are yours.

EBC is not OBC or EWS, and it isn't the Extremely Backward Class certificate some states issue. To claim it you need an EBC certificate, BPL card, Izzat MST, or a Central Government poverty alleviation scheme certificate, issued no later than 13 September 2026. Without a valid one at DV your candidature can be rejected.

Before you submit

• Check your RRB has a CMA vacancy. Only six of the twenty-one do: Chennai, Bhopal, Patna, Guwahati, Bengaluru and Prayagraj. The chosen RRB can't be changed later, and neither can your "Create an Account" details.
• Check your degree. A B.Sc. with physics and chemistry that isn't one of the three permitted combinations, or is under 45 per cent, doesn't qualify.
• Apply once. More than one application gets them all rejected and can debar you.
• Rank every post you'd take. A post left blank counts as unwillingness, and options are final.

The form takes a live photograph with your camera; keep it at eye level.

The CEN is issued jointly by the Railway Recruitment Boards of the Ministry of Railways and published on each Board's website. The Boards are Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Bilaspur, Chandigarh, Chennai, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Jammu, Kolkata, Malda, Mumbai, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Prayagraj, Ranchi, Secunderabad, Siliguri and Thiruvananthapuram, with the RRCB coordinating. Para 16.0 of the CEN has the operative list. You pick one.

CEN No. 04/2026 covers various Junior Engineer posts, Depot Material Superintendent and, since the corrigendum, Chemical and Metallurgical Assistant, all at Level 6.

Where the 35 CMA vacancies are

By category: 14 UR, 8 SC, 3 ST, 6 OBC and 4 EWS, with 3 for ex-servicemen, one for hearing impairment and one for locomotor disability.

The figures are provisional and can go up or down. The corrigendum itself raised the CEN total from 3,993 to 4,029, adding the CMA posts and one Junior Engineer / Electrical / TRS vacancy at RRB Secunderabad.

Both CBTs are on computer at centres the RRB allots. The CEN carries no exam dates: your RRB posts a City Intimation slip first, then the e-call letter, on its own site via rrb.indianrailways.gov.in.

If you're eligible for a scribe, enter the scribe's details on the portal between 26 and 30 September 2026. You get 160 minutes instead of 120 in the 2nd Stage CBT. The CEN has separate paragraphs on scribe assistance, compensatory time and scribe registration. Medical fitness standards are at Para 3.0.

Age is counted on 1 January 2027, but the qualification must be held by 13 September 2026, as must any EBC certificate, BPL card or Izzat MST. The fee deadline is two days after the form deadline. The modification window can't change your chosen RRB or your "Create an Account" details.

Later dates appear on your RRB's site under Exam Schedule, City Intimation (Exam), E-Call Letters, Mock Test Link, Exam Results, Document Verification, Medical Examination and Selection List.

E-call letters are released only on the website of the RRB you chose, reached from rrb.indianrailways.gov.in. The CEN gives no exam dates. Expect, in order: Exam Schedule, City Intimation, E-Call Letters and a Mock Test Link.

For Document Verification bring originals: your degree and marks sheets (with result dates if the certificate postdates 13 September 2026), your Matriculation certificate for date of birth, community and EBC documents, and an NOC if you're employed. No extra time is given.

Results go up on the website of the RRB you chose (rrb.indianrailways.gov.in) under Exam Results, after answer keys and the Objection Tracker for each CBT. Document Verification lists, Medical Examination calls and the Selection List follow under their own headings.

Shortlists run 15 times the vacancy to the 2nd Stage and one per vacancy to DV, ranked on the Merit Index. If empanelled candidates fall short, RRBs can use names further down the merit list.

Minimum marks in each CBT:

Ex-servicemen follow their community's figure. For PwBD candidates the minimum can drop by 2 marks if there aren't enough of them for reserved vacancies.

The real bar is the shortlist, which is worked out per RRB. With 35 posts it's small: RRB Bengaluru has one CMA vacancy, in EWS, so roughly fifteen EWS candidates reach the second stage there and one goes to DV. Chennai has fifteen across two units. Any final cut-off is a Merit Index score, not a mark out of 150, and it moves when vacancies are revised.

First paper: school level

The 1st Stage CBT has no degree content. Mathematics 30, Reasoning 25, General Awareness 15 and 10th standard science 30. Months spent on atomic structure and metallurgy won't help you get past it. Practise the arithmetic by hand, because there's no calculator in this paper.

Don't guess

One third of a mark goes for each wrong answer, in both papers. Three wrong answers cancel a right one.

Second paper: a B.Sc. paper

The 100 technical marks are the eighteen physics and chemistry topics of Annexure-VIII (E), listed under the syllabus. Give Metallurgy real weight: it's the job's own subject, and the CMT organisation is where you'd work. The other 50 marks are quick wins: computers and environment are narrowly specified, and general awareness and school physics and chemistry overlap the first paper.

Use what the RRBs publish

Before each CBT your RRB posts a Mock Test Link on the real platform, including the 2nd Stage virtual calculator. Take it. The Boards' FAQs on CEN No. 04/2026 answer most procedural questions.

Application choices

Your RRB decides both whether CMA is open to you and how hard the shortlist is, and you can't change it. Rank every post you'd accept, after checking each one's medical standard in Annexure A. And sit the first paper even if you're underprepared: that's what gets your fee back.

No previous year papers are available for the CMA paper. RRBs don't keep a past-paper archive for a CEN.

Before each CBT, your RRB posts a Mock Test Link on rrb.indianrailways.gov.in, which shows the real interface. Answer keys appear through the Objection Tracker after each stage.

• rrb.indianrailways.gov.in: the RRB websites, where the CEN and every later notice for your board appear
• Centralised Employment Notice No. 04/2026 (13 August 2026): vacancies, eligibility, fee, both CBTs, the Merit Index, Annexure A (post parameters), Annexure B (vacancies) and the Annexure VIII syllabi
• Corrigendum No. 1 (18 August 2026): adds the CMA post, its Exam Group and syllabus, and medical standard B-2
• FAQs on CEN No. 04/2026 (JE/DMS) (13 August 2026)
• Employment News, which carried the Indicative Notice on 25 July 2026

Is RRB CMA a separate exam?

No. It's one post in CEN No. 04/2026, alongside Junior Engineer and Depot Material Superintendent, all at Level 6 with initial pay of ₹35,400.

What qualification do I need?

A B.Sc. in Physics and Chemistry with at least 45 per cent, in one of the three combinations the corrigendum lists, held by 13 September 2026. If you're awaiting your final result, don't apply.

What is the age limit?

18 to 33 as on 1 January 2027, with the relaxations under eligibility. Where you qualify for more than one, you get the largest, not the sum.

Is there negative marking?

Yes. One third of the question's marks for each wrong answer, in both CBTs.

Is a calculator allowed?

Only in the 2nd Stage CBT, as an on-screen virtual calculator.

Which RRB should I choose?

One that has CMA vacancies: Chennai, Bhopal, Patna, Guwahati, Bengaluru or Prayagraj. The other boards have none, and you can't switch later.

Can I apply to more than one RRB?

No. Multiple applications are all rejected, and you can be debarred from future RRB and RRC exams.

Do I get the fee back?

Only if you sit the 1st Stage CBT: ₹400 of the ₹500 fee, or all of the ₹250 concessional fee, less bank charges.

How many vacancies are there?

35 for CMA. The CEN as a whole has 4,029 after the corrigendum, up from 3,993. Both figures are provisional.