Railways · Government Exams

RRB NTPC Exam Pattern

Every figure here is from CEN 06/2025 and CEN 07/2025 — what each test asks, what a wrong answer costs, how many are shortlisted at each stage and which posts add a skill test.

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RRB NTPC · checked 19 September 2026

The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.

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19September 2026

Checked 19 September 2026

RRB NTPC: the facts that matter now

01
Graduate: CBT 2 result 27 August; typing test 24 September (city intimation 13 September) and aptitude test 30 September 2026. Under Graduate: CBT…
Current stage
02
Railway Recruitment Boards (21 RRBs) for the zonal railways — CEN 06/2025 (Graduate) and CEN 07/2025 (Under Graduate)
Conducted by
03
Graduate: Station Master, Goods Train Manager, Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor, Junior Accounts Assistant cum Typist, Senior Clerk cum…
Posts
04
5,810 graduate posts and 3,058 undergraduate posts in the 2025-26 cycle
Vacancies

Pattern

RRB NTPC — RRB NTPC exam pattern 2026: CBT 1, CBT 2, negative marking, typing and aptitude tests

NTPC has two computer-based tests of the same three subjects, then a post-specific skill test for typist posts and for Station Master and Traffic Assistant, then verification and medical. CBT 1 screens and is discarded; CBT 2 is the merit list, combined with the aptitude test for the two operating posts. Both tests are one 90-minute clock with a third of a mark deducted per wrong answer, and the pattern is identical for graduate and undergraduate posts.

RRB NTPC CBT 1 — first stage. Objective; 1 mark per question; 90 minutes (120 with a scribe); one third of a mark deducted per wrong answer; section split indicative.
Section	Questions	Marks
General Awareness	40	40
Mathematics	30	30
General Intelligence and Reasoning	30	30
Total	100	100

CBT 1 is of screening nature: its normalised score is used only to shortlist candidates for CBT 2 — 15 times the community-wise vacancies notified against the RRB, considering post preferences — and is not counted afterwards. Candidates who take the benefit of a reservation at this shortlist are considered only in that category for every later stage.

RRB NTPC CBT 2 — second stage. Objective; 1 mark per question; 90 minutes; one third of a mark deducted per wrong answer.
Section	Questions	Marks
General Awareness	50	50
Mathematics	35	35
General Intelligence and Reasoning	35	35
Total	120	120

How CBT 2 is used

Posts without a skill test — Normalised CBT 2 marks shortlist candidates equal to the vacancies for document verification — Goods Train Manager, Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor, Commercial cum Ticket Clerk, Trains Clerk.
Typist posts — Eight times the vacancies per community are called to the computer-based typing skill test; the test is qualifying and the merit is drawn from CBT 2 among those who pass.
Station Master and Traffic Assistant — Eight times the vacancies are called to the CBAT with a vision certificate; the merit list is CBT 2 marks at 70 per cent and CBAT at 30 per cent among candidates who clear every battery.
Normalisation — Where a test runs in more than one shift, marks are normalised across shifts by the RRBs’ published formula, and it is the normalised score — not the raw mark — that is compared with the cut-off and used for shortlisting.

Typing skill test and computer-based aptitude test.
Test	Detail
Typing skill test	30 words per minute in English or 25 in Hindi on a personal computer, without editing tools or spell check; Kruti Dev and Mangal fonts for Hindi; qualifying, marks not added; PwBD exemption on a medical board certificate
Computer-based aptitude test	A battery of psychological tests set by RDSO for Station Master and Traffic Assistant; minimum T-score of 42 in each battery for every candidate with no relaxation; English and Hindi only; no negative marking; 30 per cent of the final merit

Minimum qualifying marks that apply before any shortlisting, in every CBT.
Category	Minimum marks
UR and EWS	40%
OBC (non-creamy layer)	30%
SC	30%
ST	25% (30% in the Level 1 examination)

For reference, RRB Chandigarh’s CBT 1 cut-offs of 11 June 2026 for the graduate posts it notified were 82.51 and 83.54 out of 100 for UR, 77.96 and 80.38 for OBC, 74.78 and 77.96 for SC and 68.26 and 69.15 for ST, on normalised marks; the undergraduate CBT 1 result of 24 August 2026 shortlisted 360 candidates at Chandigarh. Every RRB publishes its own cut-offs, and they move with the vacancies and the shifts.

What the pattern means for how you attempt the paper

One clock, three sections: sequence by strength — There is no sectional timer, so bank the awareness questions you know in the first 20 minutes and give the calculating sections the hour.
The one-third deduction makes blind guessing a loss — Three wrong answers wipe out one right one. Guess only between two options.
Reserve the last ten minutes for review — Marked-for-review questions are the cheapest marks in the paper; unanswered questions cost nothing.

RRB NTPC syllabus, section by section Free RRB NTPC mock tests on the CBT 1 and CBT 2 patterns RRB NTPC previous year papers

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