Exam Pattern, Eligibility and Selection Stages
This chapter sets out what the Staff Selection Commission's 2025 notice for Constable (Executive) Male and Female in Delhi Police requires: the paper and its marking, who conducts each stage, who is eligible, and how candidates are shortlisted and ranked. Every rule comes from that notice, cited by paragraph number. Arithmetic built on the rules is labelled as such, and gaps in the notice are flagged.
KarmSakha preparation topics covered
- Who conducts each stage under the 2025 notice
- The Computer-Based Examination: 100 questions, 100 marks, 90 minutes
- Negative marking and the arithmetic of guessing
- Language, normalisation, answer keys and the bar on re-evaluation
- Eligibility: citizenship, 10+2, the driving licence and the age window
- Age relaxations, reservation certificates, the fee and the pay scale
- Cut-offs, shortlisting, tie-break order and bonus marks
What the 2025 Notice Sets Up: Who Conducts Which Stage
The Staff Selection Commission (the Commission) uploaded the notice on 22 September 2025, under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Delhi Police. The Commission runs the online application, the Computer-Based Examination (CBE), the answer keys and the final result, and it handles representations on those stages (para 1.7). Delhi Police runs the Physical Endurance and Measurement Test (PE&MT), document verification (DV), the medical examination and the reservation roster (para 3.2). Delhi Police also takes court cases filed at Delhi about the CBE, answer keys, shortlisting and the final result (para 1.8), and deals with grievances about the PE&MT, DV and the medical examination (para 1.9).
The order of stages matters more than their names. A candidate is first admitted provisionally on the online form (paras 14.1 and 16.16), then sits the CBE and is shortlisted on CBE merit for PE&MT and DV at around twelve times the vacancies (para 16.6). PE&MT is essential but of a qualifying nature (para 16.8), and only candidates who qualify every event go on to DV (para 15.1). A high CBE score is therefore not a selection: a candidate who fails one PE&MT event leaves the process, whatever the CBE marks.
Two details need care. The CBE date is only tentative: the cover page gives 'December, 2025/ January, 2026', and para 12.3 says changes will be announced only on the Commission's website. The vacancy table in para 3 is also not reproduced here, because the notice calls its figures provisional and liable to change. Above all, the notice is the rulebook for one cycle. Its reckoning dates, cut-offs and relaxation codes belong to the 2025 recruitment, so check ssc.gov.in for the notice of the cycle you intend to sit.
| Stage | Conducted by | What it decides | Notice paragraphs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online application | Commission (online only) | Provisional admission; the 2025 form closed on 21 October 2025 | 1.2, 8.7, 14.2 |
| Computer-Based Examination | Commission | Normalised merit and the shortlisting cut-off | 12.3, 16.5 |
| PE&MT | Delhi Police, in Delhi only | Qualifying (pass or fail); select lists are drawn on CBE marks | 1.4, 16.7, 16.8, 16.11 |
| Document verification | Delhi Police | Originals checked for candidates who qualify every PE&MT event | 15.1, 16.9 |
| Medical examination | Medical Officers in Delhi government hospitals | Eligibility for appointment of provisionally selected candidates | 16.14 |
| Final result | Commission | Result on CBE performance, subject to PE&MT and other conditions | 1.6, 16.10 |
The Computer-Based Examination: 100 Questions, 100 Marks, 90 Minutes
The CBE is one objective-type multiple-choice paper of 100 questions carrying 100 marks, divided into the four parts in the table (para 12.3, scheme table). Each part has as many marks as questions, so each question carries one mark. The notice gives one time limit, 90 minutes, for the whole paper and sets no time for any part. The paper is set in English and Hindi only (paras 1.3, 12.5 and 16.4) at Matriculation level (para 12.11). Matriculation level is the Class 10 standard, so the paper tests school-level knowledge.
Part A tests general awareness. Para 12.10.1 says its questions 'do not require a special study of any discipline', and covers sports, history, culture, geography, economy, polity, the Constitution, scientific research and current events. Part B is principally non-verbal: analogies, figural classification, non-verbal and arithmetic series, and coding and decoding (para 12.10.2). Part C covers number systems, percentages, ratio and proportion, averages, profit and loss, mensuration, time and distance, and time and work (para 12.10.3). Part D covers word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, the Internet, browsers and e-banking (para 12.10.4). Chapters 2 to 5 cover Part A, Chapters 6 and 7 Part B, Chapter 8 Part C and Chapter 9 Part D.
Time is the main planning constraint. Ninety minutes across 100 questions gives a planning average of 54 seconds a question, since 90 × 60 = 5,400 seconds and 5,400 ÷ 100 = 54. The table turns that average into a share for each part. Treat the shares as a plan, not a rule: the notice divides no time, and questions differ widely in difficulty. Part A is half the paper, so its pace sets the pace for the whole sitting.
| Part | Subject, as the notice names it | Questions | Marks | Planning share at 54 seconds a question |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | General Knowledge / Current Affairs | 50 | 50 | 45 minutes |
| B | Reasoning | 25 | 25 | 22 minutes 30 seconds |
| C | Numerical Ability | 15 | 15 | 13 minutes 30 seconds |
| D | Computer Fundamentals, MS Excel, MS Word, Communication, Internet, WWW and Web Browsers, etc. | 10 | 10 | 9 minutes |
| Total | One paper | 100 | 100 | 90 minutes |
Negative Marking: The Arithmetic of Guessing
Para 12.4 says there 'will be negative marking of 0.25 marks for each wrong answer'. It says nothing about questions left unanswered, so a blank carries no deduction. The net score is therefore the number of correct answers minus a quarter of the wrong ones. A candidate with 60 correct and 20 wrong answers scores 60 − (0.25 × 20) = 55, not 60. The formula assumes one mark for each correct answer, which the scheme table confirms. The highest possible score is therefore 100, reached only by answering every question correctly.
A blind guess on a four-option question is worth a little, not nothing. If the chance of being right is p, a random choice earns p × 1 − (1 − p) × 0.25 on average, which is zero at p = 0.20. A purely random guess among four options has p = 0.25, so its expected value is 0.25 − 0.75 × 0.25 = 0.0625 marks, about one-sixteenth of a mark. The margin is thin, so the valuable decisions come from elimination.
With one option ruled out, a random choice among three is right one time in three, and its expected value rises to 1/3 − (2/3) × 0.25 = 1/6, about 0.167 marks. Ruling out two options raises it to 0.375 marks. On expected value alone, a four-option question is worth attempting whenever the chance of being right exceeds 20 per cent, so a blind guess clears that line narrowly and one elimination clears it comfortably. Skipping is therefore a question of time rather than fear of the penalty: a blank gives up that positive expectation.
| Options still in play | Chance of a random choice being right | Expected marks per question |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 25 per cent | +0.0625 (1/16) |
| 3 | 33.3 per cent | +1/6 (about 0.167) |
| 2 | 50 per cent | +0.375 (3/8) |
Medium, Normalisation, Answer Keys and No Re-evaluation
The CBE is conducted in English and Hindi only (paras 1.3, 12.5 and 16.4), and the notice itself is printed in both languages. Its Important Instructions say the English version prevails in any dispute (item 1), so the notice's English wording is the reference if a term is in doubt. When the CBE is held in several shifts, raw marks are normalised by the formula the Commission published on 2 June 2025 (para 12.2). This book does not reproduce it. What the notice does make clear is that the cut-offs in para 16.5 are normalised scores, not raw ones.
Tentative answer keys are posted on the website after the CBE. A candidate may submit an online representation within the time the Commission allows, on payment of ₹50 per question, which is non-refundable (para 12.6). Representations by letter, application or e-mail are not entertained, and the Commission's decision after scrutiny is final. The final keys are then used to process the result (para 12.7). Disputing four questions costs ₹200, paid when the representation is submitted, so a representation is worth making only where a key is clearly wrong.
The notice closes off one route that candidates often expect. Para 12.9 says there is 'no provision for re-evaluation/ re-checking of scores' at any stage, and para 19.1 makes the Commission's decisions on eligibility, merit lists and malpractice final and binding. For a disputed answer, the notice's route is therefore the answer-key representation under para 12.6, made before the final keys are fixed. Final keys and marks are published after the result is declared (para 12.7), and a request to recheck marks has no basis in the notice.
Eligibility: Nationality, Education, Age Window and Driving Licence
Nationality is simple: the candidate must be a citizen of India (para 4). The post is not identified as suitable for persons with benchmark disabilities (opening paragraph). The essential qualification is 10+2 (Senior Secondary) from a recognised Board, held as on 21 October 2025, the closing date of the online form (paras 7 and 7.1). The result must have been declared by the Board by that date, because para 7.6 says that processing alone 'does not fulfil the EQ requirement'. Relaxation to 11th pass applies only to the sons and daughters of serving, retired or deceased Delhi Police personnel and Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS), and to bandsmen, buglers, mounted constables, drivers, dispatch riders and similar Delhi Police categories named in para 7.1.2 (paras 7.1.1 and 7.1.2). The Commission does not scrutinise the form in detail at the CBE stage, so each candidate must check every condition personally (paras 14.2 and 16.16).
The age test in para 5 has two parts. The limit is 18 to 25 years as on 1 July 2025, and the notice sets a birth window: candidates 'should not have been born earlier than 02-07-2000 and later than 01-07-2007'. A candidate born on 1 July 2000 turns 25 on 1 July 2025, so a count of completed years would pass that candidate, yet the window opens on 2 July 2000 and excludes the date. Check the date of birth against the window, not the age in years.
The date of birth on the form is the one that counts. Para 5.2 accepts the date entered if it matches the Matriculation or Secondary certificate, and no later change is considered. Important Instruction 3 requires the name and date of birth to be written 'strictly as recorded' there, and a variation seen at venue entry bars the candidate from the CBE. Male candidates must hold a valid LMV (motorcycle or car) driving licence on the date of the PE&MT, and a learner licence is not acceptable (para 7.2). Chapter 10 covers the document list and the photo-identity rules.
- Citizen of India (para 4).
- 10+2 from a recognised Board, held as on 21 October 2025 (para 7).
- Date of birth from 2 July 2000 to 1 July 2007, both dates included (para 5).
- Date of birth matching the Matriculation or Secondary certificate (para 5.2).
- Male candidates: valid LMV (motorcycle or car) licence on the PE&MT date (para 7.2).
