SSC CGL, also known as Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level, is a national level exam conducted every year to fill up vacancies in various departments of Government and ministries with Level ‘B’ and Level ‘C’ posts.
In this article, we will explain what type of government exam SSC CGL is, the posts available, eligibility criteria, responsibilities, Exam Pattern, etc.
SSC CGL Overview
Before going deeper, you can see the specifications of SSC CGL at a glance by going through the below table-
| SSC CGL | |
| Exam Name | Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level |
| Examining Body | Staff Selection Commission |
| Vacancies | 7500 (approximately) in the year 2023 |
| Category | Government Jobs |
| Exam Type | National Level |
| Mode of Application | Online |
| Exam Dates | 14th to 27th July 2023 |
| Mode of Exam | Online |
| Eligibility | Indian citizenship & Graduate (bachelor’s degree in relevant discipline) |
| Selection Process | 2 levels- Tier1 & Tier2 exam |
| Official Website | www.ssc.nic.in |
SSC CGL Eligibility Criteria
1. Nationality
Every citizen born in India is eligible to sit for this examination regardless of gender, caste, creed, or color as long as they fulfill the other requirements mentioned below.
2. Age Limit
SSC CGL exam can be given to qualify for various posts. Depending on the designation of the post, test-givers have different age limits. For a better and clear understanding, we have compromised the age limit of exam takers in a tabular form.
| Designation | Age Bar |
| Auditor | 18-27 years |
| Accountant | |
| Junior Accountant | |
| Senior Secretariat Assistant / Upper Division clerks | |
| Tax Assistant | |
| Sub-Inspector | |
| Upper Division Clerk (UDC) | |
| Inspector Posts | 18-30 years |
| Assistant | |
| Tax Assistant | 20-27 years |
| Assistant Section officer | 20-30 years |
| Assistant | |
| Sub Inspector | |
| Assistant Enforcement Officer | |
| Sub Inspector | |
| Junior Statistical Officer | 20-32 years |
| Inspector (Central Excise) | Till the age of 30 |
| Inspector | |
| Assistant | |
| Inspector (Preventive officer) | |
| Inspector (Examiner) | |
| Assistant Audit Officer | |
| Assistant Audit Officer | |
| Assistant Section Officer | |
| Assistant Section Officer | |
| Assistant / Superintendent | |
| Inspector of Income Tax | |
| Divisional Accountant |
3. Educational Qualifications
Just like the age bar defined for different posts, some designations require a certain degree for you to qualify for the opportunity to sit for that specific post. Mentioned below are the educational qualifications for SSC CGL in a table format-
| Designations | Educational Criteria |
| Assistant Audit Officer/Assistant Accounts Officer | Bachelor’s Degree in any subject from a recognized University. Additional desirable qualifications: CA/CS/MBA/Cost & Management Accountant/Masters in Commerce/Masters in business studies. |
| Junior Statistical Officer (JSO) | Bachelor’s Degree from any recognized University with a minimum 60% in Mathematics in Class 12th OR Bachelor’s degree in any discipline with Statistics as one of the subjects in graduation |
| Statistical Investigator Grade-II | Bachelor’s Degree from any recognized University plus Economics, Statistics, or Mathematics as a compulsory or Elective Subject |
| Research Assistant in National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) | Bachelor’s Degree from a recognized University or Institute.Additional desirable qualifications: Minimum one-year research experience in any recognized university or recognized Research Institution; |
| All Other Posts | Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline from a recognized University or equivalent |
SSC CGL posts
As mentioned previously, the SSC CGL exam is conducted to fill up various posts in the different ministries and departments of Government. All the different openings for the posts are mentioned below.
Go through them to understand the various positions offered by giving SSC CGL-
| POSTS | DEPARTMENT | GROUP |
| Assistant Audit Officer | Indian Audit & Accounts Department under C&AG | Group “B” Gazetted |
| Assistant Accounts Officer | Group “B” Gazetted | |
| Assistant Section Officer | Central Secretariat Service, Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Railway, Ministry of External Affairs, AFHQ | Group “B” |
| Assistant | Other Ministries/ Departments/ Organizations | Group “B” |
| Inspector (Central Excise) | CBIC | Group “B” |
| Sub Inspector | CBI | Group “B” |
| Assistant Enforcement Officer | Directorate of Enforcement, Department of Revenue | Group “B” |
| Inspector | Central Bureau of Narcotics | Group “B” |
| Junior Statistical Officer | M/o Statistics & Programme Implementation | Group “B” |
| Statistical Investigator Grade-II | Registrar General of India | Group “B” |
| Auditor | Offices under C&AG, CGDA | Group “C” |
| Accountant/ Junior Accountant | Other Ministry/ Departments | Group “C” |
| Senior Secretariat Assistant | Central Govt. Offices/ Ministries other than CSCS cadres | Group “C” |
| Tax Assistant | CBDT/ CBIC | Group “C” |
| Upper Division Clerks | Government Departments | Group “C” |
| Inspector of Income Tax | CBDT | Group “C” |
SSC CGL Responsibilities
Every Position in the department has different responsibilities according to their designations. Accounts and audit officers will deal with work regarding finance and accounts, whereas statistics officers deal with statistical data, collecting and computing it.
There are some basic responsibilities of each post that the officers will have to perform and deal with while dealing with the specialization of the department they are working for.
Listed below are some of those combined responsibilities-
- One would be responsible for assisting in audits of government and public sector organizations.
- Basic work like data entry, processing, and recording transactions are also included in the Job’s responsibility.
- Various clerical jobs like compiling files, making reports, keeping track of ongoing cases, etc., must be done.
- Assessing Income Tax payable by people or companies and managing TDS and refund claims. (Includes posts like auditor)
- Checking invasion of excise duty, preventing smuggling, assisting the raid teams, and preventing forgery and money laundering all fall under the responsibilities of the officers.
- Gather information and make inquiries and investigations to stop any illegal manufacturing and transportation of narcotics.
SSC CGL 2023 Exam Pattern
The staff selection has revised the way of conducting the exam. Now there will be two exams conducted by the Staff Selection. Tier 1 and Tier 2. Both the papers will be multiple choice type Questions and will be conducted in an online mode.
Tier 1 is a qualifying round for all the candidates who will be sitting for the exam. There will be 4 sections in the exams-
- General Intelligence and Reasoning
- General Awareness
- Quantitative Aptitude
- English Comprehension
Each section will consist of 25 questions carrying 2 marks each. For every correct answer, the candidate will be awarded 2 marks, and for every wrong attempt question, 0.5 marks will be deducted. The paper will have 100 questions which have to be solved in under 60 minutes.
Candidates qualifying for the Tier 1 exam will have to appear for the Tier 2 exam. This final round will have 3 different exams.
The first exam will be compulsory for all the candidates. There will be 2 sessions of the exam. The subjects in the first session of the exam will include-
- Mathematical Abilities
- Reasoning and General Intelligence
- English Language and Comprehension
- General Awareness
- Computer Knowledge Module
The first two subjects will include 30 questions each, and the next two will be 45 and 25 questions, respectively. The computer knowledge module will have 20 questions separately. A total of 150 questions will have to be solved in under sixty minutes.
The second session of the exam will include the DATA ENTRY SPEED TEST MODULE, where your speed for computing data will be tested. You will be given 15 minutes to enter the data provided. It is not an MCQ paper.
Paper 2 will be given by those people applying for the statistics positions, whereas paper 3 will be given by candidates who want to join the finance and economics departments.
SSC CGL Exam pattern Tier 2 in a tabular format
| Paper | Session | Subject | No. of Questions | Maximum Marks | Maximum time |
| Paper 1 | One | Section-IMathematical AbilitiesReasoning and General Intelligence | 30 each | 180 | 1 hour |
| Section-II: English Language and ComprehensionGeneral Awareness | 45&25 | 210 | |||
| Section-IIIComputer Knowledge Module | 20 | 60 | |||
| Two | Section-IIIData Entry Speed Test Module | – | 15 Minutes | ||
| Paper 2 | Statistics | 100 | 200 | 2 hours | |
| Paper 3 | General studies related to finance & economics | 100 | 200 |
SSC CGL 2023 Syllabus
The qualifying exam, i.e., the Tier 1 exam, has four sections, and the syllabus for those subjects is mentioned below-
General Intelligence and Reasoning
- Classification
- Coding-decoding
- Non-verbal
- Analogies
- Series
- Word formation
- matrix
General Awareness
- Science
- Current affairs
- Sports
- Books and authors
- Geography
- Statics GK
- Important schemes
- Current governors
Quantitative Aptitude
- Simplification
- Mensuration
- Average
- Interest
- DI
- Percentage
- Ratio & proportion
- Problem on ages
English Comprehension
- RC
- Fill-ups
- Spellings
- Synonyms & Antonyms
- Idioms
- Phrases
- Sentence correction
- One word substitution
SSC CGL Tier-1 Cut Off 2021-22
For you to get an idea about the scoring of different candidates, we have brought to you the previous year Cut Off for different categories in the table below.
The cut-offs for the exam can always differ based on the difficulty level of the exam.
| SSC CGL Tier-1 Cut Off 2021-22 | ||||
| Category | Finance & Accounts, AAO | Statistics & JSO | Statistics & Statistical Investigator Gr. II | All Other Posts |
| SC | 136.76 | 139.09 | 75.77 | 94.58 |
| ST | 131.61 | 125.58 | 62.81 | 81.52 |
| OBC | 153.36 | 162.48 | 95.11 | 117.87 |
| EWS | 156.80 | 162.48 | 104.63 | 109.64 |
| UR | 159.07 | 162.48 | 114.84 | 130.18 |
| ESM | — | — | — | 42.54 |
| OH | 124.29 | — | 47.42 | 77.22 |
| HH | 101.81 | — | 40 | 40 |
| VH | — | — | 40 | 64.77 |
| Others-PWD | 65.27 | — | 40 | 40 |
SSC CGL 2023 Online Form
The SSC CGL exam is held in the month of July. Registration for the same starts in the month of April and continues till the beginning of May. The registration for SSC CGL 2023 started on 3rd April and ended on 3rd May.
Registration for the exam is to be done online by going to their site www.ssc.nic.in
The Admit card, as well as the exam dates, will also be released on their website.
For any notifications regarding the exam, it is advisable to check their website regularly.
SSC CGL 2023 Fees
When registering for the exam, people belonging to the general and OBC categories have to pay a fee of Rs. 100.
Candidates belonging to other categories, such as SC/ST, PWD, Ex-Servicemen, and women, do not have to pay any kind of fee for giving the exam.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What is the eligibility for the SSC CGL exam?
Any Indian Under-Graduate or students in their last year of graduation are eligible for SSC CGL.
2. What is the age limit for the SSC CGL exam?
The maximum age limit to sit for the exam is 32 years.
3. What is SSC CGL Salary?
The highest salary for SSC CGL is Rs. 1,51,100 for grade 8 jobs.
4. What is the SSC CGL full form?
Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level.
5. When is the SSC CGL notification 2023 going to be released?
The notification will be released on 3rd April 2023.
6. How many vacancies are to be filled through SSC CGL 2023 exam?
Approximately 7500 vacancies are filled through SSC CGL 2023 exam.