SSB Constable Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

One paper: 80 questions, 160 marks, 60 minutes, computer based. It is the only stage that produces a mark, so the whole merit list comes out of this hour.

2 marks for a right answer, −0.25 for a wrong one. That leaves 45 seconds a question, and the clock is tighter than the syllabus: the notice puts the questions at Matriculation level. No calculators. The paper is set in fifteen languages, English, Hindi and thirteen regional ones, and Part D is taken in English or Hindi.

Marks are normalised across shifts by the formula in the Commission's Notice No. 1-1/2018-P&P-I of 7 February 2019. The normalised score plus any NCC bonus decides merit and every cut off, which is why published cut offs carry five decimals and why you cannot work back from one to a count of correct answers.

An NCC 'C' certificate adds 5% of the maximum, 8 marks; 'B' adds 3%, or 4.8; 'A' adds 2%, or 3.2. The bonus is given only if the NCC box was ticked on the form, and it is withdrawn if the original is not produced at document verification. Ex-Servicemen do not get it.

Ties are broken on Part A marks, then Part B, then date of birth with the older candidate higher, then alphabetical order. Mathematics and the language paper never enter it.

The Commission publishes a short indicative syllabus, a paragraph per part. It is short because the paper is at Matriculation level.

Part A: General Intelligence and Reasoning

Analytical aptitude and the ability to observe and distinguish patterns, tested principally through non-verbal questions. Most candidates skip past that phrase. Named topics: spatial visualisation, spatial orientation, visual memory, discrimination and observation, figural classification, non-verbal series, analogies, similarities and differences, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning, arithmetic number series, and coding and decoding.

Part B: General Knowledge and General Awareness

Awareness of the environment and of current events, and of everyday matters in their scientific aspect, as may be expected of any educated person. The notice adds that the questions "do not require a special study of any discipline". Named areas, for India and its neighbours: sports, history, culture, geography, the economic scene, general polity and the Constitution, and scientific research.

Part C: Elementary Mathematics

Number systems, computation of whole numbers, decimals and fractions, the relationship between numbers, the fundamental arithmetical operations, percentages, ratio and proportion, averages, ratio and time, interest, profit and loss, discount, mensuration, time and distance, time and work. No algebra, no trigonometry, no geometry proof, no data interpretation.

Part D: English or Hindi

One sentence in the notice: the ability to understand basic English or Hindi, and basic comprehension. Pick whichever you read faster. Every part is 20 questions and 40 marks, so none can be neglected and none is worth extra.

Indian citizenship, Matriculation, an age band of five years, and physical standards that do more of the filtering than anything else.

Domicile

Vacancies are state, union territory and area wise, so a domicile certificate or Permanent Resident Certificate is needed. The state and district are read from the specific domicile column of the form, not the address boxes, and no change is allowed after submission: if the certificate produced at the medical differs, the candidature is cancelled and the candidate is not allowed to sit the detailed medical examination.

Age

18 to 23 years on 1 January of the examination year, so the 2025 cycle took candidates born between 2 January 2002 and 1 January 2007. Above the upper limit, SC and ST get 5 years, OBC 3, and Ex-Servicemen 3 after deducting military service from their actual age. Children and dependants of those killed in the 1984 riots or the 2002 Gujarat riots get 5 years if UR or EWS, 8 if OBC and 10 if SC or ST. Date of birth is taken from the Matriculation certificate and nowhere else.

Education

Matriculation or class 10, passed on or before the crucial date. Nothing higher helps. "Passed" means the result was declared by that date, not merely processed. Open and Distance Learning qualifications count only if the university was approved by the UGC's Distance Education Bureau for the relevant period, and that approval must be produced at document verification.

Height

Chest, male candidates

Chest is not measured for women, and weight must be proportionate to height and age. Relaxation is checked after the race and before the measuring, and except for Scheduled Tribes it is allowed only against a certificate in the Commission's proforma, from the competent authority, carried to the test. A candidate failed on height or chest may appeal the same day to the centre's Appellate Authority, whose decision is final. There is no appeal against the race.

The race

Five kilometres in twenty-four minutes is 4 minutes 48 seconds a kilometre, held. Ex-Servicemen are exempt, though they still attend the Physical Standard Test for height, chest and weight, and still take the medical. A woman found pregnant is declared temporarily unfit, her candidature held in abeyance with the vacancy reserved, and she is re-examined six weeks after confinement.

The medical is run by CAPF Medical Boards under the Ministry of Home Affairs' uniform guidelines. Those stages are the CAPFs' responsibility alone, and the Commission entertains no representation, appeal, RTI application or CPGRAMS grievance against a board's decision.

One paper decides everything. Four gates then decide whether it counts.

Qualifying marks

Out of 160, before NCC bonus: 48 for UR (30%), 40 for OBC and EWS (25%), 32 for SC, ST and Ex-Servicemen (20%). It is a floor, not a cut off; nobody is called to the ground on 48 marks.

Shortlisting, at eight times the vacancies

Candidates are shortlisted state-wise, area-wise and category-wise, separately for men and women, on merit including NCC bonus, at about eight times the vacancies; more against the all India vacancies of SSF and NCB. Read that phrase carefully: you compete against candidates of your own state, in your own category, within your own area classification, not against the country.

The physical tests, then the medical

The Physical Standard and Efficiency Tests are run by the CAPFs under CRPF as Nodal Force, at centres the forces pick, so the admit card comes from the CRPF website rather than the Commission's. Biometric verification first, then the race, then height, chest and weight. Those who clear are shortlisted again on the same paper merit, again state, area and category wise, at about twice the vacancies, for a medical and document check held together. Bring the Matriculation certificate, the domicile certificate or PRC, a valid NCC certificate if claimed, the caste certificate in the Commission's proforma, and any relaxation certificate.

Force allocation

All eight preferences are compulsory, and allocation is on merit cum preference against the vacancies in your own state, category and area, with the Commission free to allot by suitability and availability whatever the preferences. Its notice warns in capitals that no change is entertained after submission. Put SSB first if you want SSB, then accept that it is 6.9 per cent of the cycle's vacancies and that a mark good enough for a post may not be good enough for an SSB post from your state.

Areas within a state

Vacancies are further earmarked for Border Guarding districts and Militancy or Naxal affected districts. A candidate from a Naxal or militancy affected area is considered against those first, then general; a border area candidate against border, then general; a candidate of both goes Naxal or militancy, then border, then general. SSF and NCB are filled all India and skip this.

Reservation arithmetic

A reserved category candidate selected with no relaxed standard goes against unreserved vacancies, and the reserved ones are filled separately: last cycle that moved 2,090 EWS, 1,913 SC, 998 ST and 8,902 OBC men, and 188 EWS, 214 SC, 157 ST and 967 OBC women, into the UR list. Anyone who qualifies using a relaxed standard of age, height, chest or zone of consideration counts against reserved vacancies only, whatever their rank; the age deduction for military service is not one. 10 per cent of vacancies go to Ex-Servicemen and are not shown separately in the tables.

Afterwards

There is no reserve list and no waiting list; unfilled vacancies are carried forward to next year. A selected candidate who hears nothing from the allotted force within six months must take it up with the force. Anyone above a stage's cut off who was not taken forward must represent to the Commission's regional office within two months of the result, or two weeks before the next stage, whichever is earlier.

Debarment

The malpractice table runs from two to seven years. Possession of a mobile phone, on or off, is three years, as is appearing twice in the same examination. Leaving the venue uninformed is two, a forged admit card or a weapon five, and assaulting examination staff seven.

Pay Level 3, ₹21,700 to ₹69,100 for a Constable (GD) in SSB, and the same in BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP and SSF and for a Rifleman (GD) in Assam Rifles. Only a Sepoy in the Narcotics Control Bureau differs, at Level 1, ₹18,000 to ₹56,900, ₹3,700 a month lower at entry. Seven of the eight options pay the same, so rank them on vacancy counts and cut offs, not on pay.

Dearness, house rent and transport allowance are paid over the entry cell at the rates in force, and the allowances for remote and difficult postings follow the deployment. SSB's border runs 1,751 km along Nepal and 699 km along Bhutan, through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, and a recommended candidate is liable to serve anywhere in India: selection against one state's vacancies is not a posting there. Appointment also depends on seats being free in the training facilities, so candidates may be appointed in phases, with joining and seniority then run by SSB's rules.

If a Constable is killed in action, SSB publishes what the next of kin receive: ₹15 lakh from the Bharat Ke Veer corpus, with a Central Ex-Gratia of ₹35 lakh also applicable, against a total ceiling of ₹1 crore declared by the Managing Trustee of Bharat Ke Veer, any shortfall recouped from the corpus. For death on active duty from Covid-19 it is ₹15 lakh from the same fund, on a donation basis. Above Constable the ranks run Head Constable, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Sub-Inspector and Inspector.

Online only, through the Commission's portal. There is no offline route and no application to SSB. Last cycle the form was open from 5 September to 14 October 2024, with the fee accepted until 23:00 on 15 October, a day later, and a correction window from 5 to 7 November. A form submitted without the fee is summarily rejected.

Fee

₹100 for General and OBC men. Nil for every woman, and nil for SC, ST and Ex-Servicemen eligible for reservation. Pay by BHIM UPI, net banking, or Visa, Mastercard, Maestro or RuPay debit card, and by nothing else. Once paid it is never refunded and never adjusted against another examination.

The correction window

Three days after the form closes, charged to everybody regardless of gender or category: ₹200 for the first re-submission, ₹500 for the second, and there is no third. If the charge does not reach the Commission the corrected form is not accepted and the earlier one stands. After the window, nothing changes by post, fax, e-mail or in person.

Three entries you cannot fix later

1. Force preferences. All eight, in order, with no change entertained after submission under any circumstances.
2. Domicile state and district, entered in the domicile column and not taken from the address boxes.
3. The NCC claim. Leave the box unticked and the bonus is gone, however genuine the certificate.

The language of the paper, and English or Hindi for Part D, are chosen here too. Candidature stays provisional until document verification, so an unsubstantiated claim cancels it however far you have come. Applications with blurred photographs or signatures are rejected.

Three bodies run this recruitment between them, and SSB is none of the three until the end. The Ministry of Home Affairs frames the scheme, supplies the vacancies and sets the guidelines the medical boards follow. The Staff Selection Commission publishes the notice, takes applications, conducts and normalises the paper, declares every result and prepares the merit list and force allocation. CRPF, as Nodal Force, runs the physical tests, the medical and document verification for all the forces and issues the admit cards for those stages. SSB appoints and trains the candidates allotted to it.

The paper is administered by the Commission's regional office for the chosen centre, which issues the admit card and hears any representation. Central Region at Prayagraj covers Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Eastern at Kolkata covers the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim and West Bengal, and the rest are spread across the Northern, North Western, Western, Southern, Karnataka Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and North Eastern regions.

SSB's portal at recruitment.ssb.gov.in carries advertisements, admit cards and results for the posts the Force fills itself. It is not where a Constable (GD) candidate applies. The Force runs from a Director General in New Delhi through Frontier Headquarters, then Sector Headquarters and battalions, and has been the Border Guarding Force and Lead Intelligence Agency for the 1,751 km Indo-Nepal border since 19 June 2001 and the 699 km Indo-Bhutan border since 12 March 2004.

A candidate gives three centre options in order of priority, all within one Commission region. The Commission tries to accommodate them but may allot another centre, and no change is considered later. The region also fixes which office runs the examination, issues the admit card and hears any representation.

The Commission's notice lists the centres region by region, from Port Blair to Leh. Haryana has no centre of its own, so its candidates sit in Chandigarh, Mohali or Punjab, and Bihar and Uttar Pradesh share one region with fourteen centres between them for the largest share of the field.

The centre has nothing to do with the vacancy: a candidate domiciled in Bihar who sits the paper in Delhi still competes for Bihar's posts at Bihar's category cut off. Centres for the physical tests and the medical are fixed by the CAPFs under CRPF, so assume several hundred kilometres of travel to the ground.

This cycle

The paper moved by a day at five days' notice, after the Department of Personnel and Training changed the Id-u-Zuha holiday on 22 May 2026.

The last completed cycle, end to end

Sixteen months from notice to final result. Plan on the better part of two years, and keep the registered mobile number and e-mail alive throughout. The notice falls in the second half of the year, applications close six weeks later, the paper comes in the first half of the next year and the ground in and after the monsoon. Watch the Commission's Examination Calendar.

Two organisations issue admit cards here, and not knowing that is how candidates miss a stage.

The written paper. The examination city appears in the candidate's login well in advance, this cycle on 19 April 2026 for a 27 May paper. The regional office's website carries the timetable about two weeks out and the Admission Certificate three to seven days before, online only and never by post. If your details are not on the site a week before the paper, contact the regional office at once with proof that you submitted the form, or you lose any claim to consideration.

The physical tests and the medical. Those cards come from crpf.gov.in, about two weeks before. If it will not download, contact CRPF at least a week ahead or the Recruitment Cell on 011-26160255. Carry a printout, or you are not allowed on the ground.

To the written paper bring the Admission Certificate, two passport size colour photographs, and an original photo ID showing the date of birth, such as Aadhaar, a voter ID, a driving licence, a PAN card or a passport. If it does not show one, bring the Matriculation certificate too: a date of birth that does not match keeps you out of the hall. Leave the phone behind, because possessing one, on or off, is a three year debarment.

Four results, months apart, all on the Commission's website: the tentative answer key, the written result, the physical test result and the final result. Objecting to the key costs ₹100 a question through the link provided, within the stated window, and afterwards there is no re-evaluation and no re-checking.

Last cycle's final result ran to 87 pages and gave, for every combination of state, force, area and category, the vacancies, the number filled, the cut off to five decimal places, and the Part A marks, Part B marks and date of birth of the last candidate selected. Detailed marks of every candidate, selected or not, go up in due course.

It recommended 4,932 women and 45,115 men against 5,370 and 48,320 vacancies plus 522 and 4,840 Ex-Servicemen posts. Look at that last figure: 4,840 male ESM vacancies drew 287 recommended candidates, about six per cent. Unfilled ESM posts pass to non-ESM candidates of the same categories, so an Ex-Serviceman is competing in the emptiest pool here.

Results stay provisional a long time: 2,003 were withheld on court orders or suspected malpractice, 345 more went unprocessed because of debarment, and vacancies were held for 84 candidates on court orders. There is no reserve list and no waiting list, so a candidate just below the line has nothing to wait for.

Cut off marks for this recruitment are published by the Staff Selection Commission, not by SSB, in the annexures to the final result, roughly a year after the paper, on ssc.gov.in under Results. The qualifying marks in the selection process section are a floor; these are the real figures, for SSB, male, unreserved, general area, from Annexure IV of the result of 15 January 2026. Every row but Goa's was filled.

In the same annexure the state cut offs ran 48.43 to 142.30 for CISF, 52.95 to 139.49 for ITBP, 58.35 to 139.88 for Assam Rifles, 50.21 to 138.62 for CRPF and 48.92 to 137.35 for BSF, with Rajasthan top for every one. SSB's floor sits twenty marks above every other force's and its ceiling is the highest of the six; 145.88 out of 160 is 91 per cent.

The reason is in the second column: twenty of those twenty-six states offered ten posts or fewer and eight offered one or two, so the last candidate selected sits near the top of the state's whole field. Expect some easing, because SSB went from 819 vacancies to 1,764 and only SSB and CISF are rising, though the field size is not published in advance.

These are normalised scores and they include NCC bonus marks, so you cannot work back to a count of correct answers. A candidate short of the SSB figure may still be taken into another force from the same state at a lower one. For women there is nothing to report: no SSB row appears in the annexure for any state, and SSB has zero female posts this cycle.

Train for the race from day one

Last cycle 3,94,121 candidates were called to the ground and 95,575 came through. Three in four went home. Men run 5 km in 24 minutes, a pace of 4 minutes 48 seconds a kilometre, and there is no appeal against it, unlike height and chest where an appeal can be made the same day. The tests came nine weeks after the written result.

Check your height and chest now

170 cm and an 80 cm chest expanding 5 cm for a general category man, and neither can be trained into existence. If you qualify for a relaxation, the certificate must be in the Commission's proforma, from the competent authority, and carried to the test.

Practise against the clock, and attempt rather than leave blank

Eighty questions in sixty minutes at Matriculation level: the difficulty is the clock, so sit every practice paper timed and without a calculator. A blind guess among four options is worth about +0.31 marks, and eliminating one option roughly doubles that.

Weight Part A and Part C

Reasoning is the first tie break and is mostly non-verbal, so figure series and spatial questions pay back drilling. Elementary Mathematics is the most closed syllabus in the paper. General Awareness is the second tie break but unbounded, and Part D is basic comprehension in whichever language you read faster.

Tick the NCC box

An NCC 'C' is 8 marks on a 160 mark paper, which against a cut off of 145.88 is the difference between the top of a state's field and the middle of it. The claim must be on the form, and the original must reach document verification or the bonus is taken back.

Read SSB's vacancy row for your own state before you rank it

145.88 out of 160, bonus included, is roughly seventy-four correct out of eighty with almost nothing wrong. If your realistic target is 110 or 120, put CISF and Assam Rifles high and treat SSB as upside. Women should skip it: there are no female posts.

Sit the official mock test

SSC's mock test on ssc.gov.in is worth one sitting, because a computer based paper loses candidates to the software rather than the syllabus.

SSC publishes previous year question papers and a walk-through video and mock test for the computer based interface, both on ssc.gov.in, under For Candidates and Candidate's Corner. Those are the only materials from the body that sets the paper. Tentative answer keys follow each cycle's paper within about a month, and read alongside a past paper they are the closest thing to a worked solution on offer.

• Staff Selection Commission, where the application is made and every result is declared
• Examination Calendar, the earliest warning of the next cycle
• Tentative Vacancy, the force wise and state wise tables
• Previous Year Question Papers
• Format of Certificates, the proformas needed at the physical test
• Notice of the Constable (GD) Examination, 2025, the full rule book, 73 pages
• Final result, 15 January 2026, with the SSB cut offs quoted above
• CRPF Recruitment, which issues the admit card for the physical tests and the medical
• Sashastra Seema Bal, the Force's own history and milestones
• SSB Recruitment, for the posts SSB fills itself

Does SSB conduct its own Constable examination?

Not for General Duty. SSB recruits Constable (Non-GD), Constable to Sub-Inspector (Non-GD), Head Constable (Ministerial), the sports quota and remusteration itself, but for the General Duty Constable its notices only publish the details of candidates whose results were cleared from SSC. The paper is the Staff Selection Commission's Constable (GD) examination, which fills eight organisations at once.

Does SSB have vacancies for women?

No. Zero this cycle, and no SSB row in last cycle's annexure of women selected against state wise CAPF vacancies either. Only the Secretariat Security Force, 23 posts in all, is in the same position. Rank CISF, which holds 1,460 of the 2,020 female posts, then ITBP and Assam Rifles.

Why are SSB's cut offs the highest?

Few posts, spread thin. Last cycle twenty of the twenty-six states with any SSB unreserved general area vacancy offered ten posts or fewer, so the last candidate selected sits near the top of the state's whole field. SSB's range, 70.94 to 145.88, has both the highest floor and the highest ceiling of the six forces. Expect some easing: SSB notified 819 vacancies last cycle and 1,764 now.

If I put SSB first, will I get SSB?

Not necessarily. All eight organisations must be ranked, and allocation is on merit cum preference against the vacancies of your own state, area and category. SSB is 1,764 of 25,487 posts, 6.9 per cent, so most candidates selected at all are selected elsewhere. No change of preference is allowed after submission.

What is the salary?

Pay Level 3, ₹21,700 to ₹69,100, plus allowances, and identical in BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, SSF and Assam Rifles. Only a Sepoy in the Narcotics Control Bureau differs, at Level 1, ₹18,000 to ₹56,900.

How much does it cost to apply?

₹100, and nothing for women, SC, ST and eligible Ex-Servicemen. The correction window is charged separately to everyone: ₹200 for the first correction, ₹500 for the second, no third.

Where do I download my admit card?

From two places, and neither is SSB. The written examination card comes from the Commission's regional office for your centre, three to seven days before the paper. The card for the physical tests, the medical and document verification comes from the CRPF website about two weeks before.

How long does the whole process take?

About sixteen months. Last cycle the notice came on 5 September 2024, the paper ran 4 to 25 February 2025, its result on 17 June 2025, the physical tests 20 August to 15 September 2025, their result on 13 October 2025, and the final result on 15 January 2026.

What border does SSB guard?

Two open borders with friendly neighbours: 1,751 km along Nepal from 19 June 2001 and 699 km along Bhutan from 12 March 2004, across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. A selected candidate is liable to serve anywhere in India.