1,871. That is how many Sub-Inspector vacancies the Staff Selection Commission put on the table when it opened its Central Police Organisation (CPO) recruitment on 10 September 2026 — and if you hold a bachelor's degree and were born in roughly the right window, the application form is open right now and shuts on 30 September.
For a graduate in Jammu weighing a year of coaching against another year of hunting, this is one of the few recruitments that asks for a degree, pays Level 6 from day one, and does not require a specialisation. It is also one of the most competitive. Here is what the notification actually contains.
Total posts: 1,871 (tentative)
Pay Level 6: ₹35,400 – ₹1,12,400
Applications: 10 – 30 September 2026
Fee: ₹100; women, SC, ST and ex-servicemen exempt
Paper I: December 2026
Where the 1,871 posts actually sit
The vacancies split across two very different employers. Delhi Police takes 317 Sub-Inspector (Executive) posts — 205 male and 112 female. The remaining 1,320 are Sub-Inspector (General Duty) posts across the central armed police forces: BSF 457, CRPF 254, CISF 250, ITBP 187 and SSB 172.
On top of that sits the one genuinely new thing in this year's notification: 234 Sub-Inspector (Fire) posts in CISF, male only, appearing in the CPO examination for the first time. It runs on its own eligibility rules, which matter if your degree is not a general one.
Who can apply?
For every post except the fire wing, the requirement is a bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university. Age is 20 to 25 years, reckoned as on 1 August 2026, with the usual relaxations — five years for SC/ST candidates, three for OBC, and the standard concessions for ex-servicemen.
The CISF fire posts are the exception on both counts. They ask for a B.Sc with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, or matriculation plus a three-year engineering diploma in a specified branch — and they open the age band considerably wider, to 18 to 30 years. If you have a diploma rather than a degree, this is the door in the notification that is open to you.
One detail that catches people out every cycle: male candidates applying for Sub-Inspector (Executive) in Delhi Police must hold a valid LMV driving licence. It is not something you can produce later.
The physical test is where most of the field goes
The PST/PET stage is qualifying — it carries no marks towards your rank — but it removes a large share of candidates every year, and it is the part you cannot revise for in the last fortnight.
Height: 170 cm for men, 157 cm for women, with relaxations for specified categories.
Men must clear a 100 m sprint in 16 seconds, 1.6 km in 6.5 minutes, a 3.65 m long jump, a 1.2 m high jump, and a 4.5 m put with a 16-lb shot.
Women must clear 100 m in 18 seconds, 800 m in 4 minutes, a 2.7 m long jump and a 0.9 m high jump.
Those numbers are not brutal, but they are not casual either. If you are applying in September for a December Paper I, the running is the thing to start now rather than in January.
What changed in the exam pattern
Both papers have been restructured this year, so old mock tests will mislead you on timing.
Paper I is 100 questions for 100 marks in 60 minutes — 25 questions each of General Intelligence & Reasoning, General Knowledge, Quantitative Aptitude and English Comprehension, with each section timed at 15 minutes. Negative marking is 0.25 per wrong answer.
Paper II is 160 questions for 320 marks in 80 minutes, and it is weighted very differently: 100 of those questions are English Comprehension, worth 200 of the 320 marks. Reasoning, General Knowledge and Quantitative Aptitude take 20 questions each. Negative marking here is steeper, at 0.50 per error.
That English weighting is the single most useful thing to know about this recruitment. Paper II is what determines the final merit — Paper I only shortlists — so a candidate who treats English as the soft section has misread the exam.
The order of the stages
Paper I shortlists. PST/PET is qualifying. Paper II decides the merit list. A detailed medical examination follows, also qualifying, alongside document verification. Final selection rests on Paper II marks, with NCC certificate bonuses and post preferences applied on top.
Dates to put in your phone
10 – 30 September 2026: online applications, closing 11:00 PM on the 30th
1 October 2026: last date to pay the fee
8 – 10 October 2026: correction window
December 2026: Paper I
Applying from Jammu
Applications go through the Commission's own portal at ssc.gov.in, and candidates in Jammu and Kashmir apply through SSC's Northern Region. Centre preferences are chosen inside the application form itself — check the list of available centres there before you submit rather than assuming, because centre allocation is one of the details that shifts between cycles.
Two practical notes. First, the fee exemption for women is complete, which makes this a genuinely zero-cost application for a large share of readers. Second, if you are also sitting SSC CHSL or the Junior Engineer examination this season, note that this one has a physical stage the others do not — plan the calendar around that, not just around the paper dates.
Before you fill anything in, read the Commission's own notice on the notice board at ssc.gov.in. Vacancy numbers in a CPO notification are explicitly tentative and are revised before the final result, and the notice is the only document that governs your candidature.
