Police Recruitment Syllabus

General Knowledge and Current Affairs

Indian history with an emphasis on the freedom movement, geography of India and the world, Indian polity and the Constitution, economics, general science at approximately class 10 level, sports, awards, important days, and current events of national and international importance. Almost always the largest section in a police paper, and the most improvable.

General Intelligence and Reasoning

Analogies, similarities and differences, series completion, coding and decoding, blood relations, direction sense, classification, arithmetical reasoning, syllogism, statement and conclusion, and non-verbal reasoning through figure classification, pattern completion, embedded figures and mirror images. Verbal and non-verbal in roughly equal measure.

Numerical Ability / Arithmetic

Number systems, fundamental operations, decimals and fractions, LCM and HCF, percentage, ratio and proportion, average, profit and loss, discount, simple and compound interest, time and work, time and distance, mensuration, and interpretation of simple tables and graphs. Almost entirely arithmetic; advanced algebra and trigonometry rarely feature in constable papers, though sub-inspector papers may go further.

Language

Comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, error spotting, sentence improvement and fill in the blanks, in English, Hindi or the state language depending on the recruitment. State recruitments frequently test the state language specifically.

State-specific content

For state police recruitments: the state’s history, geography, rivers and districts, culture and festivals, prominent figures, administrative structure, and recent state-level developments. Entirely absent from national competitive material, and often a substantial block of marks.

Law and constitution (sub-inspector papers)

Some sub-inspector recruitments add basic legal awareness — fundamental rights and duties, elements of criminal law and procedure, and the constitutional framework of policing. Check whether your recruitment includes it.

The consistent pattern across police papers is that general knowledge carries the largest share and arithmetic the smallest. Candidates arriving from SSC or banking preparation, where quantitative aptitude dominates, routinely mis-weight their study — and general knowledge is precisely the section that most rewards steady daily effort.

The consistent weighting across police papers is worth stating as a planning rule rather than an observation: general knowledge carries the most marks, reasoning and arithmetic are speed sections at school level, and the language paper is the one most candidates concede without trying. A study plan that mirrors those proportions — general knowledge as the largest daily block, the others as fluency projects — is better matched to almost every police recruitment than an evenly divided one.