Police SI RPF Head Constable Course

Exam Map and Strategy: SSC CPO, RPF, Delhi Police Head Constable and State SI Exams

This chapter maps the recruitments the course serves: SSC CPO, RPF Constable/SI, the two Delhi Police Head Constable examinations and state SI exams, with UP SI 2025 as the worked model. Patterns and eligibility come from the latest official notices. It also gives a method for reading notices and corrigenda, and the book's only strategy section, on negative marking, sectional timers and section weights.

KarmSakha preparation topics covered

• Recruiting bodies: SSC, RRBs and RPF, Delhi Police, state police boards
• SSC CPO 2026 Paper-I and Paper-II scheme and the changes from 2025
• RPF 2024 CBT and the RPF (Amendment) Rules, 2025
• Delhi Police HC (Ministerial) and HC (AWO/TPO) schemes
• UP SI 2025 written exam, qualifying and OMR rules; other states in outline
• Age windows, relaxations and crucial dates
• Notice-reading workflow and official source tracker
• Negative marking, guessing value, pacing and section weights

Who Recruits Whom: SSC, the RPF and the State Police Boards

Three administrative families run the recruitments in this course, and the family decides where the notice appears and whose rules apply. The Staff Selection Commission conducts the Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police and CAPFs Examination (SSC CPO). It fills SI (Executive) in Delhi Police, SI (GD) in CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB, and SI (Fire) in CISF, all at Pay Level-6 (Rs 35,400-1,12,400). SSC also conducts the Delhi Police Head Constable (Ministerial) and (AWO/TPO) examinations, both Group 'C' at Level-4 (Rs 25,500-81,100), under a memorandum of understanding. SSC runs the computer-based examination (CBE) and declares results, while Delhi Police holds the physical and skill tests in Delhi, verifies documents and runs the medical examination. CBE grievances therefore go to SSC, and PE&MT or medical grievances to Delhi Police.

The Railway Protection Force last recruited through the Railway Recruitment Boards, under CEN RPF 01/2024 (Sub-Inspector) and CEN RPF 02/2024 (Constable). The RPF (Amendment) Rules, 2025, notified as G.S.R. 766(E) on 17.10.2025, substituted Rule 49.1. Direct recruitment of Sub-Inspectors and Constables (Executive) is now to follow the Staff Selection Commission's recruitment procedure for the CAPFs. Yet SSC's Tentative Calendar 2026-27, dated 08.01.2026, lists no separate RPF examination, and no SSC-run RPF notice had been reported by 7 October 2026. The next RPF cycle is therefore the least predictable item in this chapter.

State SI posts are filled by state bodies under their own police rules: the UP Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB), the Bihar Police Subordinate Services Commission (BPSSC), the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) and Madhya Pradesh's Employees Selection Board (ESB). They differ from the central exams in three predictable ways: age is reckoned on the state's own date, General Hindi is usually a compulsory paper or section, and part of the GK paper covers the state itself. This English-medium course teaches the shared core (law, polity, history, geography, economy, science, arithmetic, reasoning and English). It does not teach General Hindi or state-specific GK.

SSC CPO 2026: The Revised Paper-I and Paper-II Scheme

The CPO 2026 notice was uploaded on 10.09.2026. Applications closed on 30.09.2026 (23:00), fees were payable until 01.10.2026, and the correction window runs from 08.10.2026 to 10.10.2026. The CBE schedule was 'to be notified later', though SSC's calendar had pencilled Paper-I for October-November 2026. Tentative vacancies total 1,871. Delhi Police SI (Exe.) has 205 male and 112 female posts. SI (GD) in CAPFs has 1,320 (1,173 male, 147 female; CRPF 254, BSF 457, ITBP 187, CISF 250, SSB 172), and SI (Fire) in CISF 234 male. The fee is Rs 100, waived for women, SC, ST and eligible Ex-Servicemen.

Age is reckoned on 01.08.2026. For SI in Delhi Police and SI (GD), 20-25 years means born not earlier than 02.08.2001 and not later than 01.08.2006. SI (Fire) allows 18-30 years (born 02.08.1996 to 01.08.2008). The upper limit rises by 5 years for SC/ST and 3 for OBC. Ex-Servicemen get 3 years after deducting military service. A Bachelor's degree is required by the closing date. SI (Fire) instead needs a B.Sc. with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, or Matriculation plus a three-year diploma in a listed engineering branch. The date of birth in the Matriculation certificate is final.

The 2026 scheme makes three changes (see the table). Paper-I shrinks to 100 questions in one hour, with a 15-minute timer for each of its four parts, so it now works as a screening paper. Paper-II becomes a 320-mark paper in which English carries 200 marks and reasoning, GK and quant carry 40 each. Final selection and force allocation now rest on Paper-II alone, including NCC bonus, together with post preference. The stages are Paper-I, then PST/PET (qualifying), then Paper-II, then DME/RME (qualifying) and document verification by the CAPFs. Minimum qualifying marks in each paper, without bonus, are 30% for UR, 25% for OBC/EWS and 20% for others. The notice warns that Paper-II will be harder than Paper-I.

RPF Constable and Sub-Inspector: The 2024 CBT and the 2025 Rule Change

The 2024 cycle offered 452 Sub-Inspector and 4,208 Constable posts, with online applications from 15.04.2024 to 14.05.2024. The SI CBT was held in December 2024 and the Constable CBT in March 2025. Both posts sat the same pattern (see the table), and the CBT was followed by qualifying PET and PMT (standards in Chapter 2) and document verification. Age was reckoned on 01.07.2024, at 18-28 years for Constable and 20-28 for SI, both including a one-time 3-year relaxation. A Constable needed Class 10 and an SI a degree. The vacancy, pattern and age figures were cross-checked across portal summaries because the RRB-hosted notices could not be reached.

The amended rules change the frame for the next cycle. Rule 49.1 routes selection through SSC's CAPF procedure. New Rule 48.3 requires a Constable (Executive) to be above 18 and below 23 years of age on the date of the recruitment notification, and High School pass. Rule 51.1 gives the medical examination to a CAPF Medical Officer or a Grade-I Medical Officer or Assistant Surgeon of a government hospital. The rules prescribe no question paper, however. A sensible working assumption, and it is only an assumption, is that SSC's nearest templates will be used: CPO for Sub-Inspectors and Constable (GD) for Constables. GD's 18-23 age band already closely matches Rule 48.3.

Whichever pattern comes, GA, arithmetic and reasoning carried all 120 RPF marks and make up three-quarters of the GD paper. That core is safe preparation. The real gap is English, which the RPF CBT did not test but both SSC templates do, so an RPF aspirant should not skip Chapter 12. The age rule matters as much. A candidate aged 25 was inside the 2024 Constable band (18-28 with the one-time relaxation) but is outside the new 18-23 band, before any category relaxation the next notice may allow. Older aspirants should keep other uniformed exams in their plan.

Delhi Police Head Constable (Ministerial) and (AWO/TPO)

The two HC examinations share a frame. Each CBE has 100 one-mark questions in 90 minutes, with 0.25 deducted per wrong answer, in Hindi and English only. Scores from different shifts are normalised under SSC's notice of 02.06.2025. A candidate counts as qualified at 40% (General/EWS), 35% (SC/ST/OBC) or 30% (Ex-Servicemen; PwBD too in the Ministerial exam), and SSC may lower these marks if too few qualify. Candidates up to 20 times the category-wise vacancies are called for PE&MT, and if many share the cut-off mark, all of them are called. NCC holders receive incentive marks of 5%, 3% or 2% of the examination's maximum for 'C', 'B' or 'A' certificates.

HC (Ministerial) adds a skill that scores. After PE&MT comes a 10-minute Typing Test on Computer worth 25 marks. In English, 30 wpm earns 10 marks, 31-35 earns 12, 36-40 earns 15, 41-45 earns 18 and 46-50 earns 21. Above 50 earns 25, and below 30 disqualifies; the Hindi bands run five words lower. A qualifying formatting test in MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel follows. Final merit is CBE plus typing plus incentives, out of 125 before incentives. Raising your speed from 38 to 46 wpm therefore gains 6 marks, the same as six more correct CBE answers.

HC (AWO/TPO) is a technical post, and its paper is set at Class 12 level, with General Science and Mathematics together making up half of it. Every later test is only qualifying: PE&MT, a Trade Test, English word processing at 1,000 key depressions in 15 minutes, and a basic computer-functions test. Final merit is therefore the CBE plus any incentive marks, including weightage for a Rashtriya Raksha University degree or postgraduate diploma. On 25.02.2026 SSC revised both vacancy tables downward, as the last row of the table shows. Always plan from the latest vacancy notice, not the original one.

State SI Exams: UP SI 2025 as the Worked Model