SSC Syllabus
The Staff Selection Commission does not publish one syllabus. It publishes a separate scheme of examination inside each notification on ssc.gov.in, and those schemes differ in stages, marks, timing and how badly a wrong answer hurts.
What they share is four subjects. General Intelligence and Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English Language turn up in the first stage of almost every SSC exam. The topics under them barely move between CGL and MTS. What moves is the level. Matriculation for MTS and GD Constable, higher secondary for CHSL and Stenographer, graduation for CGL and CPO. The pace you are expected to work at moves with it.
This is the hub page. Each exam below links to its full syllabus, and each of those links out again to tier wise and subject wise breakdowns.
SSC exams and their selection stages
Exam | Minimum qualification | Written stages | Additional stages |
Bachelor’s degree | Tier 1, Tier 2 Paper 1, plus Paper 2 or Paper 3 for specific posts | Computer Knowledge Test, DEST or CPT, all qualifying | |
Class 12 | Tier 1, Tier 2 | Typing test or data entry skill test | |
Class 10 | One CBE in two sessions | PET and PST for Havaldar posts only | |
Class 10 | One CBE | PET, PST, detailed medical examination | |
Bachelor’s degree | Paper 1, Paper 2 | PET, PST, detailed medical examination | |
Diploma or degree in the relevant engineering branch | Paper 1, Paper 2 | Document verification | |
Class 12 | One CBT | Stenography skill test | |
Varies by level, Class 10 to graduation | One CBE per phase | Post specific requirements | |
Master’s degree with the prescribed Hindi and English combination | Paper 1, Paper 2 | Document verification | |
Bachelor’s degree or diploma in the relevant stream | One CBE | Document verification | |
Class 12 | One CBE | Physical endurance and measurement test | |
Class 12 | One CBE | Computer proficiency test, physical test |
The four subjects that repeat across SSC exams
General Intelligence and Reasoning
Analogies, classification, coding and decoding, series, blood relations, direction sense, syllogism, Venn diagrams, seating arrangement, matrix questions, mirror and water images, paper folding, embedded figures, cubes and dice. Non-verbal reasoning carries real weight in the constable level papers and thins out at graduate level, where the questions get wordier instead.
General Awareness
Static portions cover history, geography, polity, economics, general science, culture and awards. Current affairs usually run across the eight to twelve months before the exam. The general awareness sections in GD Constable and Delhi Police lean towards general knowledge of a school syllabus type, while CGL Tier 2 pushes into scheme names, constitutional articles and economic terms.
Quantitative Aptitude, Numerical Ability and Elementary Mathematics
Number system, LCM and HCF, percentage, ratio and proportion, average, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, time speed and distance, mensuration, algebra, trigonometry, geometry and data interpretation. The three names describe the same body of topics at three different depths. Elementary Mathematics stops well short of trigonometry and coordinate geometry. CGL Tier 2 does not.
English Language and Comprehension
Spotting errors, fill in the blanks, synonyms and antonyms, spelling, idioms and phrases, one word substitution, sentence improvement, active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech, para jumbles, cloze test and reading comprehension. CPO Paper 2 and CGL Tier 2 test the same list at a far higher standard of vocabulary.
Written stage at a glance
Exam and stage | Questions | Marks | Duration | Negative marking |
CGL Tier 1 | 100 | 200 | 60 minutes, 15 per section | 0.50 |
CGL Tier 2 Paper 1 | 150 | 450 | Sectional, across two sessions | 1.00 in Sections 1 and 2 and the Computer module |
CHSL Tier 1 | 100 | 200 | 60 minutes | 0.50 |
CHSL Tier 2 Session 1 | 135 | 405 | Sectional | 1.00 |
MTS Session 1 | 40 | 120 | 45 minutes | None |
MTS Session 2 | 50 | 150 | 45 minutes | 1.00 |
GD Constable CBE | 80 | 160 | 60 minutes | 0.25 |
CPO Paper 1 | 200 | 200 | 120 minutes, 30 per section | 0.25 |
CPO Paper 2 | 200 | 200 | 120 minutes | 0.25 |
What changed in the current cycle
Four changes matter more than the rest, because older study material still carries the previous versions.
SSC put a fifteen minute timer on each of the four Tier 1 sections in the CGL 2026 notification. Time no longer pools across the paper, so the old habit of banking twenty minutes on reasoning and spending it on maths has stopped working.
Paper 3 returned to CGL Tier 2 for Assistant Audit Officer and Assistant Accounts Officer applicants, covering General Studies in Finance and Economics.
CPO Paper 1 now runs a thirty minute timer per section, and the penalty for a wrong answer moved from one third of a mark to one quarter.
MTS splits its single computer based exam into two sessions with different rules. Session 1 has no negative marking at all. Session 2 takes a full mark off for every wrong answer. Attempting everything in the first session and guessing freely in the second is the most expensive mistake in the exam.
Reading the syllabus the way SSC writes it
The Commission lists topic headings, not chapters. “Mensuration” is four words in the notification and about fifteen question types in practice.
Past papers close that gap. Take the last three years of papers for your exam, tag every question against a syllabus heading, and you have the real weightage. Do that once, early, and you stop spending weeks on headings that produce one question a year.
Two other habits are worth building from day one. Practise with the sectional timer on, because the version of you that scores 160 with a flexible clock is not the version that sits the exam. And treat qualifying tests as real. Computer Knowledge, DEST, typing and the physical tests carry no marks into the merit list, and failing any of them ends the attempt anyway.
Frequently asked questions
Is the SSC syllabus the same for all exams?
No. The four core subjects repeat across most first stage papers, so preparation overlaps heavily, but the level, marks, timing and negative marking differ for each exam. Second stage papers diverge completely.
Where does the official SSC syllabus come from?
From the scheme of examination annexed to each notification on ssc.gov.in. SSC does not publish a separate standalone syllabus document.
How much of the SSC syllabus overlaps between CGL and CHSL?
The Tier 1 subjects are identical and the topic lists are close. The difference is depth, since CGL is a graduate level paper and CHSL is set at higher secondary level, and Tier 2 diverges further.
Which SSC exam has the easiest syllabus?
MTS and GD Constable are set at matriculation level and have the shortest topic lists. MTS also has no negative marking in Session 1.
Does SSC change the syllabus every year?
Topic lists stay fairly stable. The exam pattern changes more often, and three of the biggest exams changed pattern within the last four cycles.
Can I prepare for several SSC exams at once?
Yes, and most successful candidates do. Build the four core subjects to graduate level, then add the paper specific parts such as CGL Tier 2 statistics, CPO English or the JE engineering branch.