SSC GD Constable — Syllabus & Exam Pattern
Free preparation for SSC GD Constable — the official exam pattern and topic-wise syllabus are below. Start preparing from home.
See current SSC GD Constable vacancies & notificationsExam Pattern
SELECTION PROCESS (as per official notification, Section 12): (1) Computer Based Examination (CBE) — the only marks-carrying stage; (2) Physical Efficiency Test (PET) + Physical Standard Test (PST) — qualifying; (3) Detailed Medical Examination (DME); (4) Document Verification (DV).
COMPUTER BASED EXAMINATION (CBE) — verified verbatim against SSC notification Section 12.1:
- One Objective Multiple-Choice Type paper.
- 80 questions, 2 marks each = 160 marks total.
- Duration: 60 minutes. (PwBD candidates eligible for a scribe get standard compensatory time of one-third extra, i.e. ~80 minutes — this is SSC's general provision, not stated in the Section 12.1 scheme table itself.)
- Four parts, 20 questions / 40 marks each:
Part A — General Intelligence and Reasoning (20 Q / 40 marks)
Part B — General Knowledge and General Awareness (20 Q / 40 marks)
Part C — Elementary Mathematics (20 Q / 40 marks)
Part D — English / Hindi (20 Q / 40 marks)
- NEGATIVE MARKING (Section 12.1.2): 0.25 marks deducted for each wrong answer. No deduction for un-attempted questions. [CONFIRMED against the official PDF — the draft's 0.25 is correct; third-party sites claiming 0.50 are wrong.]
- Level of questions: Matriculation (Class 10) [Section 12.1.8].
- Medium: English, Hindi AND 13 regional languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu) [Section 12.1.1].
- Normalization of marks is applied across shifts; NCC certificate holders get bonus marks [Section 12.1.5].
PET (Section 12.4, qualifying only, not counted for merit): Race — Male 5 km in 24 minutes; Female 1.6 km in 8½ minutes (1.6 km in 7 minutes for Ladakh Region candidates). PST measures height, chest and weight per category standards. Ex-Servicemen exempted from PET. NOTE: exact PST height/chest standards, category relaxations, vacancy numbers and cut-offs are cycle-specific and must be read from the year's notification.
Syllabus (topic-wise)
- General Intelligence and Reasoning (Part A) — official indicative syllabus (Section 12.1.11.1): principally NON-VERBAL type questions testing analytical aptitude and ability to observe/distinguish patterns. Includes analogies, similarities and differences, spatial visualization, spatial orientation, visual memory, discrimination, observation, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning and figural classification, arithmetic number series, non-verbal series, coding and decoding, etc.
- General Knowledge and General Awareness (Part B) — official (Section 12.1.11.2): general awareness of the environment; current events and matters of everyday observation and experience in their scientific aspect as expected of any educated person; India and its neighbouring countries — especially Sports, History, Culture, Geography, Economic Scene, General Polity, Indian Constitution, Scientific Research. Questions do not require special study of any discipline.
- Elementary Mathematics (Part C) — official (Section 12.1.11.3): Number Systems, Computation of Whole Numbers, Decimals and Fractions and the relationship between Numbers, Fundamental arithmetical operations, Percentages, Ratio and Proportion, Averages, Interest, Profit and Loss, Discount, Mensuration, Time and Distance, Ratio and Time, Time and Work. (NOTE: the official GD list does NOT include algebra, geometry or trigonometry — those belong to higher exams like CHSL, not GD. The draft correctly kept the arithmetic-only list.)
- English / Hindi (Part D) — official (Section 12.1.11.4): the notification states ONLY that 'candidates' ability to understand basic English/Hindi and their basic comprehension will be tested.' The detailed topic list the draft gave (spot the error, fill in the blanks, synonyms/antonyms, spellings, idioms & phrases, one-word substitution, sentence improvement, comprehension; and Hindi उपसर्ग-प्रत्यय, पर्यायवाची-विलोम, मुहावरे-लोकोक्तियाँ, संधि-समास, वाक्य-शुद्धि, अपठित गद्यांश) is NOT part of the official syllabus wording — it is the range of commonly-tested question types and should be treated as INDICATIVE only, not an official verbatim list.
Official source: https://ssc.gov.in/api/attachment/uploads/masterData/NoticeBoards/notice_01122025.pdf
⚠️ Always confirm against that year's official notification — the exam pattern and syllabus can change. This page is free guidance only.