SSC JE Paper 1 Syllabus
Paper 1 is the first stage of SSC JE and its marks are not discarded. Final merit runs on Paper 1 and Paper 2 combined across 500 marks, which is why treating Paper 1 as a screening test costs candidates rank.
Half the paper is your engineering branch. The other half is reasoning and general awareness, which is the same material every other SSC exam tests.
SSC JE Paper 1 exam pattern
Section | Questions | Marks |
General Intelligence and Reasoning | 50 | 50 |
General Awareness | 50 | 50 |
General Engineering, Civil and Structural or Electrical or Mechanical | 100 | 100 |
Total | 200 | 200 |
Two hours, objective multiple choice, one mark per correct answer and 0.25 deducted per wrong answer. There is no sectional timing, so the full two hours can be allocated across the paper. Questions are set in English and Hindi.
Candidates eligible for a scribe get additional time as set out in the notification.
What the two hours buy you
Two hundred questions in one hundred and twenty minutes is thirty-six seconds a question on average. That average hides the real shape of the paper.
Reasoning and General Awareness can be answered faster than the average. General Engineering, with its numerical questions and formula recall, takes longer. Without a sectional timer you control the split, and the sensible plan is to clear the hundred non-technical questions quickly and give the surplus to your branch section.
That is the opposite of what most candidates do. Engineers open the technical section first because it is familiar, spend seventy minutes there, and then rush a hundred marks of reasoning and general awareness in fifty.
Section by section
General Intelligence and Reasoning
Analogies, similarities and differences, space visualisation, spatial orientation, problem solving, analysis, judgement, decision making, visual memory, discrimination, observation, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning, verbal and figure classification, arithmetical number series, non-verbal series, coding and decoding. Both verbal and non-verbal questions appear.
General Awareness
Current events and everyday observation and experience in their scientific aspect. India and its neighbouring countries covering history, culture, geography, the economic scene, general polity, the Constitution and scientific research. Set for a candidate who has not made a special study of any discipline.
General Engineering
One hundred questions from the branch you applied for, set at the level of the qualifying diploma or degree. Civil and Structural, Electrical, or Mechanical. Each branch has a dedicated page on this site with the full topic list.
Minimum qualifying marks
Thirty per cent for unreserved candidates, twenty-five per cent for OBC and EWS candidates and twenty per cent for all other categories. These are floors, not targets, and the actual cut-off runs well above them.
How to prepare Paper 1
Cover the hundred non-technical marks early and cheaply. The reasoning and general awareness syllabus is short, shared with every other SSC exam, and worth a fifth of your total merit marks across both papers.
Then put everything else into the branch section. Paper 1 and Paper 2 draw on the same branch syllabus, so the work carries across, and 400 of the 500 merit marks are technical once both papers are counted.
Work from previous years’ branch papers. SSC repeats question types heavily in General Engineering, and the standard numerical set for each topic is small enough to learn properly.
Frequently asked questions
Do SSC JE Paper 1 marks count towards the final merit?
Yes. Merit is prepared from Paper 1 and Paper 2 combined, 500 marks in total.
How many questions are in SSC JE Paper 1?
200 questions for 200 marks in two hours.
Is there sectional timing in SSC JE Paper 1?
No. The full two hours can be allocated across the three sections.
What is the negative marking in SSC JE Paper 1?
0.25 marks for each wrong answer.
What are the minimum qualifying marks?
30 per cent for unreserved candidates, 25 per cent for OBC and EWS candidates and 20 per cent for other categories.
Marks, timing, negative marking and qualifying standards on this page follow the scheme of examination in the latest SSC JE notification published on ssc.gov.in.