Government · Central · Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Ministry of Railways
RRB Non-Technical Popular Categories
1.21 crore applications for 11,558 posts — and a score that is normalised against strangers who sat a different shift.
What this exam is
NTPC is the railways' clerical and supervisory intake — station masters, goods train managers, ticket supervisors, clerks and typists — and it runs as two parallel exams: a graduate CEN and an undergraduate one for 10+2 candidates. The last completed cycle (CEN 05/2024 and 06/2024) advertised 11,558 posts and drew roughly 1.21 crore applications between them: about 715 applicants per graduate post and 1,836 per undergraduate post. Around 26 lakh actually sat the graduate CBT-1.
CBT-1 is 100 questions in 90 minutes — 54 seconds each — split General Awareness 40, Mathematics 30, Reasoning 30. CBT-2 is 120 questions in the same 90 minutes, so the pace tightens to 45 seconds. Both stages take a third of a mark off every wrong answer, and both run across dozens of shifts, so your raw score is normalised before it is compared with anyone else's. CBT-1 only shortlists — roughly twenty times the vacancies, on normalised score. CBT-2 is where the merit list is actually built.
What nobody budgets for is the length. The 2024 graduate cycle ran from notification in September 2024 to final result in May 2026 — twenty months — through CBT-1, CBT-2, then either a computer-based aptitude test for station-master applicants (where merit is 70% CBT-2 and 30% CBAT) or a typing test at 30 words a minute in English, then document verification and a medical. Of the 1,21,931 who sat CBT-2 in October 2025, 43,957 cleared it; 30,341 went on to the typing test and 13,616 to the CBAT.
Who can sit it
- Graduate track (CEN 05/2024, CEN 06/2025): a bachelor's degree in any discipline
- Undergraduate track (CEN 06/2024, CEN 07/2025): 10+2 or equivalent
- Age 18–36 for the 2024 graduate CEN as on 1 January 2025 — that band carried a one-time three-year relaxation and is re-fixed in every CEN, so read the one you are applying to
- Typing posts additionally require 30 w.p.m. in English or 25 w.p.m. in Hindi at the skill test
- Fee ₹500, of which ₹400 is refunded once you appear for CBT-1; ₹250 for SC, ST, women, transgender, ex-servicemen, PwBD, minority and EBC candidates, refunded in full
- Minimum qualifying marks 40% for UR and EWS, lower for reserved categories
The paper, stage by stage
| Stage | Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBT-1 | General Awareness | 40 | 40 | 90 min — one clock for all three sections |
| CBT-1 | Mathematics | 30 | 30 | — |
| CBT-1 | General Intelligence & Reasoning — shortlisting only, roughly 20× the vacancies on normalised score | 30 | 30 | — |
| CBT-2 | General Awareness | 50 | 50 | 90 min — one clock for all three sections |
| CBT-2 | Mathematics | 35 | 35 | — |
| CBT-2 | General Intelligence & Reasoning — CBT-2 marks are what build the merit list | 35 | 35 | — |
| Skill test | Computer Based Aptitude Test — Station Master applicants only; 8× vacancies called | — | 30% of final merit (CBT-2 carries the other 70%) | — |
| Skill test | Typing Skill Test — clerk and junior-accounts posts; 30 w.p.m. English or 25 w.p.m. Hindi | — | Qualifying only | — |
| Final | Document verification and medical examination | — | — | — |
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Common questions
RRB NTPC — frequently asked
Who conducts RRB NTPC?
RRB Non-Technical Popular Categories is conducted by Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Ministry of Railways.
When is the next RRB NTPC exam?
Two cycles are running at once. The 2025 cycle is mid-flight: the graduate CBT-2 was written on 10 July 2026 and its result has not been declared, while the undergraduate CBT-1 result is also pending with CBT-2 reported for 17 September 2026 — a date we could not find on any RRB notice board. No fresh 2026-27 CEN has been notified: no CEN number, no registration window, no exam date. Recent history sets the rhythm — the graduate notification landed in September 2024 and then October 2025, with the first CBT following five to six months later.
How many vacancies or seats does RRB NTPC have?
8,868 in the 2025 cycle (5,810 graduate + 3,058 undergraduate); 11,558 in 2024.
What is the RRB NTPC exam pattern?
The paper is CBT-1: 100. CBT-2: 120. Timing: CBT-1: 90 min (120 min for PwBD candidates). CBT-2: 90 min.
Is there negative marking in RRB NTPC?
1/3 mark per wrong answer in both CBTs; nothing lost on a blank.
What is the eligibility for RRB NTPC?
Graduate track (CEN 05/2024, CEN 06/2025): a bachelor's degree in any discipline Undergraduate track (CEN 06/2024, CEN 07/2025): 10+2 or equivalent Age 18–36 for the 2024 graduate CEN as on 1 January 2025 — that band carried a one-time three-year relaxation and is re-fixed in every CEN, so read the one you are applying to Typing posts additionally require 30 w.p.m. in English or 25 w.p.m. in Hindi at the skill test Fee ₹500, of which ₹400 is refunded once you appear for CBT-1; ₹250 for SC, ST, women, transgender, ex-servicemen, PwBD, minority and EBC candidates, refunded in full Minimum qualifying marks 40% for UR and EWS, lower for reserved categories
How many candidates appear for RRB NTPC?
~1.21 crore applications in the 2024 cycle (58 lakh graduate + 63.3 lakh undergraduate).
What is the RRB NTPC syllabus?
The paper covers General Awareness — 40 of 100 in CBT-1, 50 of 120 in CBT-2, Indian history, polity, geography and economy, General science to Class 10 level, Current affairs and general abbreviations, Arithmetic: percentage, ratio, profit & loss, time & work, speed, Number system, LCM & HCF, simple and compound interest, Mensuration, elementary algebra, geometry, trigonometry, Analogies, number and alphabet series, coding-decoding, Puzzles, Venn diagrams, syllogism, data sufficiency, Basic computer awareness.
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Honesty note: Adversarial verify pass pending (agent budget) — both question keys manually re-solved and confirmed. The 2024 graduate CEN was read from the official notification PDF (vacancies, fee and refund, selection stages, CBAT and typing rules, normalisation), and the 2025-cycle dates come from RRB Bhubaneswar's official per-CEN notice boards, which mirror the all-RRB schedule. The exam pattern itself — 100 questions in 90 minutes for CBT-1, 120 in 90 for CBT-2, one-third negative marking — rests on three prep portals that agree with each other: rrbcdg.gov.in could not be fetched in this pass because of a TLS certificate mismatch, so it is not confirmed against a live official page. Applicant and attendance figures (58 lakh, 63.3 lakh, ~26 lakh appeared) are press and portal reporting; the RRBs do not publish attendance. Cutoffs are per zone and per pay level — the 2025 UR band ran roughly 76 to 84 normalised marks across eight zones, and no consolidated official table exists, so no single cutoff is quoted here. Open conflicts: the undergraduate CBT-2 date of 17 September 2026 appears on coaching portals but not on the RRB notice board we checked, so it is marked expected rather than announced; sources disagree on the SC minimum qualifying percentage (25% or 30%) and on the 2024 undergraduate application deadline (20 or 27 October 2024). The topic list under each section is the standard published breakdown, not read from a CEN. The exam's language options were not verified in this pass, so that field is left blank rather than guessed.
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