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SSC CGL Exam Pattern

The SSC CGL tier exam pattern in one place, from the notice of 21 May 2026: what each tier asks, how long you get, what a wrong answer costs, and which marks actually build the merit list.

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SSC CGL · 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

SSC CGL: the facts that matter now

01
Notice 21 May 2026; about 12,256 tentative vacancies; Tier 1 from 30 September to 30 October 2026 (schedule notice of 12 September 2026); Tier 2…
2026 cycle
02
Staff Selection Commission (SSC)
Conducted by
03
Graduate — a bachelor’s degree in any discipline as on the closing date
Level
04
Tier 1 (qualifying, 200 marks) → Tier 2 (merit, 390 + qualifying modules) → document verification
Stages

Pattern

SSC CGL — SSC CGL exam pattern 2026: Tier 1 and Tier 2, marks, time and negative marking

SSC CGL has two computer-based tiers. Tier 1 is a one-hour, 200-mark screening paper that every applicant sits; Tier 2 is a longer, harder paper held about three months later that the final merit list is built from. The 2026 notice keeps the Tier 2 scheme introduced in 2022 and adds one change to Tier 1 — a sectional timer of 15 minutes on each of the four sections — that changes how the paper should be attempted.

SSC CGL Tier 1 exam pattern 2026. Objective multiple choice; questions in Hindi and English except English Comprehension; 0.50 marks deducted per wrong answer; unanswered questions carry no penalty.
Part	Section	Questions	Marks	Time
A	General Intelligence and Reasoning	25	50	15 minutes
B	General Awareness	25	50	15 minutes
C	Quantitative Aptitude	25	50	15 minutes
D	English Comprehension	25	50	15 minutes
	Total	100	200	60 minutes (80 minutes for scribe-eligible candidates)

Tier 1 is qualifying. Its marks decide who is called for Tier 2 — through separate cut-offs for the Junior Statistical Officer list, the Assistant Audit and Accounts Officer list, and the general list — but they are not added to anything afterwards. The sectional timer means each 25-question section has to be finished in its own 15 minutes; when the timer ends the section locks. That removes the old tactic of racing through reasoning and general awareness to buy time for mathematics, and puts a premium on knowing which questions to skip inside each block.

SSC CGL Tier 2 exam pattern 2026, Paper 1. Compulsory for all posts; conducted in two sessions on the same day; one mark deducted per wrong answer in Sections 1, 2 and 3.
Session	Section	Module	Questions	Marks	Time
Session 1	Section 1	Module 1 — Mathematical Abilities	30	90	1 hour for the section
Session 1	Section 1	Module 2 — Reasoning and General Intelligence	30	90
Session 1	Section 2	Module 1 — English Language and Comprehension	45	135	1 hour for the section
Session 1	Section 2	Module 2 — General Awareness	25	75
Session 1	Section 3	Module 1 — Computer Knowledge Test	20	60	15 minutes
Session 2	Section 3	Module 2 — Data Entry Speed Test	One passage, about 2,000 key depressions	Qualifying	15 minutes

How Tier 2 Paper 1 is scored

Merit is built from Sections 1 and 2 — 130 questions for 390 marks. Section 3 (computer knowledge) is mandatory and qualifying for every post, with a higher standard applied when shortlisting for posts that require computer proficiency.
The Data Entry Speed Test is qualifying — Errors are allowed up to 20 per cent of the passage for UR candidates, 25 per cent for OBC and EWS, and 30 per cent for other categories. Ex-servicemen and some PwBD candidates are exempt on production of the prescribed certificate; the test is not required for a few posts listed in the notice.
A wrong answer costs one full mark — Against three marks for a right one. A blind guess across four options loses on average; a guess narrowed to two is worth taking. That arithmetic is different from Tier 1, where the deduction is half a mark against two.
Both sections in Session 1 have a fixed hour — You cannot carry time from mathematics into English or the other way round. Each section closes when its hour ends.

Tier 2 Papers 2 and 3. Objective; 0.50 marks deducted per wrong answer; each paper counts in the merit list only for its own post group.
Paper	Who sits it	Subject	Questions	Marks	Time
Paper 2	Candidates shortlisted for Junior Statistical Officer	Statistics	100	200	2 hours
Paper 3	Candidates shortlisted for Assistant Audit Officer and Assistant Accounts Officer	General Studies — Finance and Economics	100	200	2 hours

Minimum qualifying marks that apply before any shortlisting — a candidate below these in any paper is not considered regardless of the cut-off.
Category	Minimum qualifying marks
Unreserved	30%
OBC and EWS	25%
All other categories	20%

Marks in both tiers are normalised across shifts by the Commission’s formula of 2 June 2025, and the normalised scores are what the cut-offs and the merit list are computed from. For reference, the CGL 2025 Tier 1 cut-offs for the general post list were 136.83 (UR), 130.37 (OBC), 127.42 (EWS), 114.97 (SC) and 106.37 (ST) out of 200; the Junior Statistical Officer list closed at 153.46 for UR and the Assistant Audit Officer list higher still. Final selection in 2025 came from Tier 2 marks plus the post preferences, with 15,118 candidates recommended on 14 May 2026.

What the pattern means for how you attempt the paper

Tier 1: work each 15-minute block as its own test — Skip anything that takes more than 40 seconds on a first pass, come back inside the block if time remains, and leave rather than guess at four-option questions.
Tier 2 Section 1: accuracy first — Sixty questions in an hour at three marks each with one off for a mistake. Ten wrong answers wipe out the credit from four right ones; a clean 45 beats a scrappy 55.
Tier 2 Section 2: read fast, decide fast — Forty-five English questions carry 135 marks — the single largest block of marks in the exam. Cloze tests, comprehension passages, error spotting and vocabulary reward daily reading more than rules learned the week before.
Do not neglect the qualifying modules — Every cycle candidates with merit-list marks are dropped for failing the computer module or the typing test. Fifteen minutes of typing practice a day from the Tier 1 result onwards is enough.

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