CDS Exam Selection Procedure Details

CDS exam is one of the well-known Defence Exam which is conducted by UPSC twice in a year in February and November. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts Combined Defence Services (CDS) Examination for recruitment of various vacancies under Indian Military Academy, Indian Naval Academy, Air Force Academy and Officers Training Academy. After clearing the CDS examination separate call ups will be issued to every candidates via mail & text message. Candidate who will qualify the written test will be called for Service Selection Board (SSB) for psychological aptitude test, intelligence test and interview.

Selection Procedure details and stages for the Combined Defence Services (CDS) Exam. UPSC Selection Procedure consists of Four stages.

    1. Written Exam
    2. Interview/ Intelligence Test/ Personality Test
    3. Document Verification
    4. Medical Examination

Detailed information for the CDS 2018 Selection Procedure

1. Written Exam:

    i. Written Exam consists of Objective Type questions and time duration 2hrs and maximum marks is 100 for each subject.
    ii. For the candidates who are appearing for Indian Military Academy, Naval Academy, Air force Academy written test comprising of English, General Knowledge and Elementary mathematics subjects and for candidates who are appearing for officers training academy the written test comprising of English and General Knowledge.
    iii. Candidates who are declared successful in the written exam will be detailed for intelligence and personality test at the Service Selection Board based on their preference, by the respective service HQ.

2. Interview/ Personality Test:

The candidates who are selected in written test are called for interview. The SSB procedure consists of two stage selection process-Stage I and Stage II. Only those candidates who clear the stage I are permitted to appear for Stage II.

    a. Stage I comprises of Officers Intelligence Rating (OIR) tests are Picture Perception Description Test (P&DT). The candidates will be shortlisted based on combination of performance in QIR Test and PP and DT.
    b. Stage II comprises of Interview, Group Testing Officers Tasks, Psychology Tests and the conference. These testes are conducted over 4 days .

The personality of candidate is assessed by three different assessors viz. the interviewing Officer (IO), Group Testing Officer (GTO) and the Psychologist. There are no seperate weightage for each test. The marks are allotted by assessors only after taking into consideration the performance of the candidate holistically in all the test.

3. Document Verification:

Document Verification will be conducted only after the candidate has qualified for Interview/Personality Test. Following is the list of documents to be submitted for verification:

    1. Birth Certificate
    2. Academic Degrees (HSC, SSC, Graduation etc)
    3. Certificate of Eligibility for certain candidates
    4. Passport size photograph
    5. Identity proof
    6. Residence proof etc.
    7. Category or cast certificate (SC, ST, OBC, PH etc)

4. Medical Examination:

A Candidate recommended by the Services Selection Board will undergo a medical examination by a Board of Service Medical Officers. Women candidates will undergo Medical Examination by a Medical Board comprising male/ female doctors/ specialists/ Gynaecologist. There will be a Lady Medical Officer as member of Board. Only those candidates will be admitted to the Academy who are declared fit by the Medical Board.

Also See:
CDS Exam Details