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Taken from SSC Notice — Combined Graduate Level Examination, 2026 (F. No. HQ-C11018/1/2026-C-1), paragraphs 13.8 to 13.11.
Most pages will give you SSC’s topic lists, because they are long and easy to copy. Far fewer give you the thing that decides how the paper feels: SSC CGL is sectionally timed. You get 15 minutes per section in Tier-I and you cannot carry unused minutes forward. Every timer below, including the longer allowances for candidates eligible for a scribe, is printed in the notice.
| Subject | Questions | Marks | Sectional timer | With scribe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Intelligence & Reasoning | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes | 20 minutes |
| General Awareness | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes | 20 minutes |
| English Comprehension | 25 | 50 | 15 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Total | 100 | 200 | 1 hour | 1 h 20 m |
Objective type, multiple choice. Questions are set in both English and Hindi, except English Comprehension. Two marks per question, and a penalty of 0.50 for each wrong answer.
Two sessions. Session-I runs 2 hours 15 minutes and carries Sections I to III; Session-II is the 15-minute Data Entry Speed Test. Every question in Paper-I is worth three marks.
| Section | Subject | Q | Timer | With scribe | Counts? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section-I | A: Mathematical Abilities | 30 | 30 minutes | 40 minutes | Merit |
| Section-I | B: Reasoning and General Intelligence | 30 | 30 minutes | 40 minutes | Merit |
| Section-II | A: English Language and Comprehension | 45 | 40 minutes | 55 minutes | Merit |
| Section-II | B: General Awareness | 25 | 20 minutes | 25 minutes | Merit |
| Section-III | Computer Knowledge Test | 20 | 15 minutes | 20 minutes | Qualifying |
| Section-IV | Data Entry Speed Test — one data entry task | — | 15 minutes | 20 minutes | Qualifying |
130 of the 150 questions decide your rank. Sections I and II are merit-bearing — 60 questions at 180 marks and 70 at 210, so 390 marks in all. The notice states that Section-III is mandatory for all posts but qualifying in nature, and the Data Entry Speed Test in Section-IV is likewise qualifying. Clear them; do not over-invest in them.
Most candidates sit Paper-I and nothing else. These two are post-specific, and which one you write is decided by what you applied for and were shortlisted for in Tier-I.
Only candidates who applied and were shortlisted in Tier-I for Junior Statistical Officer in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, or Statistical Investigator Grade-II in the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
Only candidates shortlisted in Tier-I for Assistant Audit Officer or Assistant Accounts Officer. The notice splits it into Part A, Finance and Accounts, worth 80 marks, and Part B, Economics and Governance, worth the remaining 120.
| Where | Per correct | Per wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Tier-I | +2 | −0.50 |
| Tier-II Paper-I | +3 | −1 |
| Tier-II Paper-II & Paper-III | +2 | −1 |
Worth doing the arithmetic once rather than carrying a habit between tiers. A wrong answer costs you a quarter of a question’s value in Tier-I and a third of one in Tier-II Paper-I — so the tier where each question is worth more is also the tier where a wrong guess hurts more, not less.
Summarised from the indicative syllabus in the notice. The authoritative wording runs to several thousand words — read it in the source rather than in anyone’s copy of it, including ours.
Tier-I (25 Q) · Tier-II Paper-I Section-I B (30 Q)
Verbal and non-verbal. The notice names analogies, classification and series in semantic, symbolic/number and figural forms; coding and decoding; problem solving and word building; numerical and symbolic operations; space orientation and visualization; Venn diagrams and drawing inferences; punched-hole and paper-folding; embedded figures; indexing and address matching; and — unusually for a reasoning paper — critical thinking, emotional intelligence and social intelligence.
Tier-I (25 Q) · Tier-II Paper-I Section-II B (25 Q)
The notice frames this as awareness of the environment around the candidate and its application to society, plus current events and everyday observation "in their scientific aspect". It names India and its neighbouring countries specifically, across History, Culture, Geography, Economic Scene, General Policy and Scientific Research.
Tier-I (25 Q) · Tier-II Paper-I Section-I A (30 Q)
Arithmetic through geometry. Whole numbers, decimals, fractions and number relationships; percentage, ratio and proportion, square roots, averages, interest, profit and loss, discount, partnership, mixture and alligation, time and distance, time and work; school algebra and elementary surds with graphs of linear equations; triangles and their centres, congruence and similarity, circles, chords and tangents; quadrilaterals, regular polygons and the solids — prism, cone, cylinder, sphere, hemisphere, parallelepiped and right pyramid; trigonometric ratios, degree and radian measure, standard identities, complementary angles, heights and distances; and data as histogram, frequency polygon, bar diagram and pie chart.
Tier-I (25 Q) · Tier-II Paper-I Section-II A (45 Q)
Tests the candidate’s ability to understand correct English and comprehension. It is the single largest block in Tier-II Paper-I at 45 questions, and the only Tier-I section not also set in Hindi.
Tier-II Paper-I Section-III (20 Q) — qualifying
Mandatory for all posts but qualifying in nature, so it does not add to your merit score. Twenty questions in fifteen minutes.
Our PYQ archive publishes past papers question by question, with a worked explanation for every option — across UPSC, State PCS and the defence exams.
Two tiers, both computer based. Tier-I has four sections — General Intelligence & Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English Comprehension — of 25 questions and 50 marks each, so 100 questions for 200 marks in one hour. Tier-II Paper-I is compulsory for every post and runs in two sessions: Session-I of 2 hours 15 minutes covering Mathematical Abilities and Reasoning (30 questions each), English Language and Comprehension (45) and General Awareness (25), then Computer Knowledge (20); Session-II is the Data Entry Speed Test. Every Tier-II Paper-I question carries 3 marks. Paper-II (Statistics) and Paper-III (General Studies-Finance and Economics) are sat only by candidates shortlisted for specific posts.
Yes, and it is the detail most pages skip. In Tier-I there is a sectional timer of 15 minutes for each of the four subjects — you cannot bank time from one section to spend on another. In Tier-II Paper-I the timers are 30 minutes each for Mathematical Abilities and for Reasoning, 40 minutes for English Language and Comprehension, 20 minutes for General Awareness, and 15 minutes each for the Computer Knowledge Test and the Data Entry Speed Test. Candidates eligible for a scribe get longer: 20 minutes per Tier-I section, and 40, 40, 55, 25 and 20 minutes respectively in Tier-II.
It differs between the tiers, which is a common source of confusion. Tier-I carries a penalty of 0.50 marks for each wrong answer. Tier-II Paper-I, Paper-II and Paper-III carry a penalty of 1 mark for each wrong answer. Since Tier-II questions are worth 3 marks each while Tier-I questions are worth 2, the proportional cost of a wrong answer is actually lower in Tier-II — a quarter of a question against a quarter in Tier-I is not the same trade, so calibrate your guessing per tier rather than carrying one habit into both.
It is both mandatory and qualifying. The notice states that Section-III is mandatory for all posts but qualifying in nature — so every candidate sits it, and it does not add to your merit score. The same is true of the Data Entry Speed Test in Section-IV. Prepare them enough to clear them and spend your marginal hour on the sections that decide rank.
Only candidates shortlisted in Tier-I for particular posts. Paper-II, Statistics, is for those who applied and were shortlisted for Junior Statistical Officer in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, or Statistical Investigator Grade-II in the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Paper-III, General Studies-Finance and Economics, is for those shortlisted for Assistant Audit Officer or Assistant Accounts Officer. Every other candidate sits Paper-I alone, which the notice states is compulsory for all the posts.
It is 100 questions of 2 marks each, so 200 marks, in 2 hours. The notice divides it into Part A, Finance and Accounts, worth 80 marks — covering the fundamental principles and basic concepts of accounting, financial accounting, and topics such as single and double entry, books of original entry, bank reconciliation, journals, ledgers, trial balance and rectification of errors — and Part B, Economics and Governance, worth the remaining 120. That 80:120 split is worth knowing before you plan your revision, because the larger half is the one candidates tend to under-prepare.
Tier-I questions are set in both English and Hindi, with the single exception of the English Comprehension section, which is naturally in English only. This is stated in the notice alongside the confirmation that Tier-I consists of objective type, multiple choice questions.
Not yet. That is why this page carries the official scheme and syllabus but no subject weightage of its own — we only publish weightage where we have digitised and solved the actual papers, as on our BPSC and EPFO APFC syllabus pages, where every percentage is a count rather than an estimate.