SSC GD Constable Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

Computer Based Examination: 60 minutes

Every question is worth 2 marks, and 0.25 is deducted for a wrong answer. Part D is answered in English or Hindi, your choice.

Fifteen languages

The paper is set in English, Hindi and thirteen regional languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. No other SSC exam offers that many. If you read faster in a regional language, this is where it pays.

Eighty questions in sixty minutes is 45 seconds each, which is comfortable by SSC standards. That's why cut-offs run high and accuracy decides the outcome.

Physical Standard Test and Physical Efficiency Test

Both are qualifying, and failing either ends your attempt.

• PST measures height, and for men chest (unexpanded and expanded, with a minimum expansion).
• PET is a timed run, with one published set of times:

Height and chest standards aren't listed here. They differ by gender, by force and by a long list of relaxations (Scheduled Tribe candidates, hill regions, the north-eastern states and others). Take yours from the 2026 notice or the one for your cycle.

After the physical tests

Detailed Medical Examination, with a Review Medical Examination if you're declared unfit, then document verification. The CAPFs run these stages, not SSC.

General Intelligence & Reasoning

Analytical aptitude and non-verbal reasoning: analogies, similarities and differences, spatial visualisation and orientation, visual memory, discrimination, observation, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning and figural classification, arithmetic number series, non-verbal series, coding and decoding.

General Knowledge & General Awareness

Current events and everyday observations, sports, history, culture, geography, economic scene, general polity including the Constitution, scientific research, and India and its neighbouring countries. Questions are pitched at the level expected of an educated person and do not require specialist study.

Elementary Mathematics

Number systems, computation of whole numbers, decimals and fractions, relationship between numbers, fundamental arithmetical operations, percentage, ratio and proportion, averages, interest, profit and loss, discount, mensuration, time and distance, ratio and time, and time and work.

English / Hindi

Basic comprehension and writing ability in the chosen language: vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, synonyms and antonyms, error spotting, fill in the blanks, and a short comprehension passage.

Educational qualification

Class 10 (matriculation) pass from a recognised board.

Age

Broadly 18 to 23 years, reckoned as on the date given in the notification, with the usual relaxations: 5 years for SC and ST, 3 years for OBC, and the prescribed relaxations for ex-servicemen and other categories. Confirm the cut-off date in the notification.

Physical standards

Height, chest and running standards apply and are eliminating. They vary by gender, by force and by category and region. See Exam Pattern. Check them against yourself before you apply.

Medical fitness

A Detailed Medical Examination applies, covering vision, hearing and general fitness to the standards prescribed for the CAPFs. Candidates declared unfit may seek a Review Medical Examination.

1. Computer Based Examination: 160 marks, one hour. Candidates are shortlisted on merit for the physical stages.
2. Physical Efficiency Test and Physical Standard Test: qualifying, conducted by the CAPFs.
3. Detailed Medical Examination, with a Review Medical Examination for those declared unfit.
4. Document verification, then final merit and allotment to a force.

The merit list comes from the written examination. The physical and medical stages add no marks; they only eliminate.

One level across every force

Pay doesn't change with the force you're allotted. BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB, Assam Rifles, the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Secretariat Security Force all pay Level 3 for this post.

Level 3 is the 7th Pay Commission basic pay range. Actual monthly pay adds dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance, plus the allowances specific to a uniformed and often field posting, all varying with where you are posted.

Fee

Online payment only: BHIM UPI, net banking, or a Visa, Mastercard, Maestro or RuPay debit card. No challan. Unlike CGL and CHSL, PwBD candidates are not on the exemption list.

One Time Registration, then the application

You first create a One Time Registration (OTR) on ssc.gov.in with your photograph and signature, then apply for the exam from it. The same OTR is reused for every SSC exam, so get the photo and signature right once.

The fee window closes a day after the application window. A paid correction window follows, for fixing particulars you already submitted. It isn't a second chance to apply.

Have ready

• A working mobile number and email. Scribe OTPs and admission certificate alerts go there.
• Photograph and signature in the specified dimensions.
• Matriculation certificate for date of birth, and a category certificate if you claim reservation. A false category claim means debarment.

Declare NCC and your language in the form

NCC bonus marks go only to candidates who indicated the certificate in the online application form. Producing it later doesn't recover it. The scale is in Result Details.

The exam language you sit is also the one you picked when applying. You can't change it on the day.

The Ministry of Home Affairs provides the scheme and the vacancies; SSC conducts the written exam.

The forces recruiting through it

• BSF, Border Security Force
• CISF, Central Industrial Security Force, usually the largest block of vacancies
• CRPF, Central Reserve Police Force
• ITBP, Indo-Tibetan Border Police
• SSB, Sashastra Seema Bal
• Assam Rifles, for Rifleman (General Duty)
• Narcotics Control Bureau and the Secretariat Security Force, for Sepoy

The forces run the PST, PET, medical and document verification themselves, and that's where your eligibility documents are actually checked. Tentative vacancies by force, category and gender are in the notice for each cycle.

You pick your preferred centres in the application, from the list in the notice. Centres sit under SSC's nine regional offices, and all your choices must be in one region.

The region you choose also handles your queries and paperwork, so a far-off centre means a far-off regional office too. Allotment follows preference where capacity allows.

Only the written exam is at an SSC centre. PST, PET and the medical are at centres the CAPFs fix after the CBE, often far from where you sat the paper. Each PST centre has an appellate authority, so you can appeal a disputed measurement on the day.

SSC publishes an annual examination calendar and each cycle's notice on ssc.gov.in. Dates and vacancies change every cycle, so take them from the current notice.

The physical and medical stages are scheduled by the CAPFs, so their dates come separately and later.

SSC calls it an Admission Certificate. Your regional office issues it on its own website, so note which one when you apply. The exam city is announced a few days before the certificate goes live.

Carry with you

• The printed Admission Certificate.
• The original photo ID whose number you entered in the application. No other document, and no photocopy.
• Two passport photographs, if the certificate asks for them.

Using a scribe? Once the certificate is live, enter the scribe's OTR number on the portal; an OTP goes to the scribe's mobile and you key it back in. This can't be done at the centre.

The certificate covers the written exam only. PST, PET, medical and DV calls come from the CAPFs.

Multi-shift scores are normalised under the procedure SSC published on 2 June 2025. The normalised score, not the raw one, decides shortlisting and merit.

Answer key

A tentative key goes up on the answer key page after the exam, with a window to object. Each challenge costs ₹50 per question, non-refundable, and only online objections count. The final key can differ, so a score worked out from the tentative key is provisional.

Ties

Broken section by section, bonus marks included: Part A first, then Part B, then Part C, in the order printed in the notice.

NCC bonus marks

On 160 marks a "C" certificate is worth 8 marks, if you declared it in the form. Selection is still subject to document verification.

Minimum qualifying marks

Fixed in the notice, for the computer based exam:

Cut-offs

The actual cut-off is far higher and moves every cycle. It's drawn separately for each force, category, gender and state or UT quota, so the score that gets CISF in one state may not in another. SSC publishes cut-offs with the result on ssc.gov.in.

1. Measure yourself against the physical standards first. Height and chest are pass-or-fail and you can't train your way past them.
2. Start running early. People who've spent months at a desk routinely underrate the PET.
3. Accuracy over volume. Sixty minutes for eighty questions is generous and almost everyone finishes, so the 0.25 penalty decides places.
4. Balance all four sections. Each is 20 questions and 40 marks; none is worth more.
5. Pick your language section by speed. English or Hindi, fixed at application. Choose the one you read faster in.
6. The paper is class 10 level. School textbooks cover the mathematics and science better than competitive-exam guides.
7. Use your response sheet and the mock. SSC doesn't publish past papers, so the official mock on the real interface, and your own response sheet after the exam, are the only authentic material.

SSC doesn't publish previous year papers for GD Constable. The PDFs in circulation are rebuilt from candidates' memory and their answers haven't been checked against an official key.

What SSC does publish is your own response sheet with the tentative key on its answer key page, for a short window after the exam. Download it then and keep it for three years. A mock test on the real interface is linked before each exam.

Official website: ssc.gov.in

Candidate portal (registration and applications): SSC candidate portal

How many questions and marks are in the written exam?

80 questions for 160 marks in 60 minutes: four sections of 20, every question worth 2 marks.

How much is deducted for a wrong answer?

0.25 marks.

Can I write the paper in Hindi?

Yes. The whole paper is available in English, Hindi and thirteen regional languages, and the language section is English or Hindi by your choice.

What are the height and running standards?

The running times are in Exam Pattern. Height and chest vary by gender, force and a long list of relaxations, so take them from the notice for your cycle.

Do the physical tests carry marks?

No. The PST and PET are qualifying. Merit comes from the written exam alone.

Who conducts the physical and medical stages?

The Central Armed Police Forces, not SSC.

What qualification do I need?

Class 10 pass from a recognised board.