RRB Group D 2026: Exam Pattern, Syllabus, PET, Eligibility, Dates and Preparation

RRB Group D at a glance

These facts are as per Centralised Employment Notification (CEN) No. 09/2025 of the Railway Recruitment Boards for various posts in Level-1 of the 7th CPC pay matrix, published on 31 January 2026, and the RRBs' later corrigenda and notices up to 7 September 2026.

Selection process

1. Online application on the RRB portal, with one account for all RRB notices. A candidate can apply to one RRB only and gives preferences for the posts and the zonal railways or production units under it. Options once submitted are final, and more than one application leads to rejection of all of them.
2. Computer Based Test (CBT). CEN 09/2025 provides for a single-stage CBT, though the Railway Administration keeps the right to hold it in two stages and treat the first as qualifying. For this cycle the CBT was held from 3 to 25 August 2026 in several shifts, so marks are normalised.
3. Answer key and objections. After the CBT, candidates can view their questions, responses and the answer keys and raise objections at ₹50 per question plus bank charges, refunded if the objection is upheld. For CEN 09/2025 this window was open from 7 September (20:00) to 17 September 2026 (23:55).
4. Physical Efficiency Test (PET). Candidates equal to three times the community-wise vacancies of each RRB/RRC are called on CBT merit. The PET is qualifying only; its standards are given below. PwBD candidates, Ex-Servicemen and Course Completed Act Apprentices are exempt from it.
5. Document Verification (DV). Candidates equal to the number of vacancies (1:1) are called on CBT merit, subject to qualifying the PET. Original certificates must be produced on the date given; no additional time is allowed.
6. Medical Examination. Every candidate called for DV must pass the medical fitness test of the Railway Administration for the standard of the post opted for (A-2, A-3, B-1 or C-1). A candidate found unfit for the post opted for is not offered any alternative post; the candidate may be offered one final medical appeal on payment of the prescribed charges.
7. Empanelment by the RRC of the zonal railway and appointment by the Railway Administration after verification of certificates and antecedents.

Normalisation follows the RRBs' notice on normalisation methodology of February 2026. The raw marks of every shift are converted to percentile scores (the topper of each shift gets 100), the percentiles of all shifts are merged into the RRC score used for merit, and normalised marks are worked out against the base shift, the shift with the highest average, to decide who has reached the minimum qualifying percentage. Ties are broken by age, the older candidate ranking higher, and then by the alphabetical order of the given name. Course Completed Act Apprentices trained in Railway establishments get weightage for their NCVT marks: one-third of the marks in the final merit list come from the NCVT examination, or the CBT marks alone are taken if that is higher. The PET, DV, medical examination and empanelment for Level-1 posts are conducted by the RRCs, and their dates appear on the RRC websites.

Exam pattern

The duration is 90 minutes, or 120 minutes for candidates eligible for a scribe. Each question carries 1 mark, and one-third mark is deducted for every wrong answer. The CEN says the section-wise distribution is indicative and the actual paper may vary a little. The minimum marks for shortlisting are 40% for UR and EWS and 30% for OBC-NCL, SC and ST, relaxable by 2 marks for PwBD candidates where there is a shortage against the vacancies reserved for them. Mock tests are put on the RRB websites before the exam; for CEN 09/2025 the mock test link went live on 28 July 2026.

General Science and General Awareness syllabus

CEN 09/2025 gives an illustrative syllabus for each section and says the topics are not exhaustive.

General Science (25 questions)

Physics, Chemistry and Life Sciences of 10th standard level (CBSE).

General Awareness and Current Affairs (20 questions)

General awareness on current affairs in Science and Technology, Sports, Culture, Personalities, Economics, Politics and any other subject of importance.

Mathematics (25 questions)

Number system, BODMAS, decimals, fractions, LCM, HCF, ratio and proportion, percentages, mensuration, time and work, time and distance, simple and compound interest, profit and loss, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, elementary statistics, square root, age calculations, calendar and clock, pipes and cistern.

General Intelligence and Reasoning (30 questions)

Analogies, alphabetical and number series, coding and decoding, mathematical operations, relationships, syllogism, jumbling, Venn diagram, data interpretation and sufficiency, conclusions and decision making, similarities and differences, analytical reasoning, classification, directions, statement, arguments and assumptions.

How GK24 covers it (guidance)

This paragraph is GK24's guidance, not the CEN. General Science and General Awareness together are 45 of the 100 questions, and both are recall sections: a fact is either known or it is not, and a guess costs one-third mark. GK24's General Science notes are written topic by topic at the Class 10 level the CEN names: motion, force and laws of motion, work, energy and power, gravitation, heat, light, sound, electricity and magnetism, atomic structure and the periodic table, chemical reactions, acids, bases and salts, metals and non-metals, carbon compounds and everyday chemistry; for Life Sciences, cells and tissues, the systems of the human body, nutrition and vitamins, diseases, plant biology, and genetics and evolution. For General Awareness, the daily current affairs cover the areas the CEN lists (science and technology, sports, culture, personalities, economy, politics), and the GK notes on sports, awards and honours, days and dates, books and authors, art and culture, and static GK, including Indian Railways zones and facts, cover the static side of these 20 questions.

Physical Efficiency Test

The PET is mandatory and qualifying. Candidates equal to three times the community-wise vacancies are called on CBT merit, and the Railways may change this ratio.

The weight test comes first: a sandbag without handles is lifted from a bench or platform at about waist height and carried in any manner to the finishing point without dropping it. A candidate who fails it is eliminated there; those who pass run the 1,000 metres after a recovery gap. Transgender candidates are tested to the standards for female candidates. PwBD candidates, Ex-Servicemen and Course Completed Act Apprentices are exempt from the PET but must pass the medical examination prescribed for the post. A female candidate who declares that she is pregnant is declared temporarily unfit; her vacancy is kept reserved and she is tested six weeks after confinement. Candidates take the PET at their own risk of injury.

Eligibility and age limit

Nationality

A candidate must be a citizen of India, or a citizen of Nepal, a subject of Bhutan, a Tibetan refugee who came to India before 1 January 1962 to settle permanently, or a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam to settle permanently in India. Candidates other than Indian citizens need a certificate of eligibility from the Government of India, to be produced at DV.

Educational qualification

10th pass, or ITI, or equivalent, or a National Apprenticeship Certificate (NAC) granted by NCVT, for every post in the CEN. The qualification had to be held on the closing date of applications; candidates awaiting results were not eligible. A diploma or degree in engineering is not accepted in place of ITI or a Course Completed Act Apprenticeship for Level-1 posts.

Age limit

Other relaxations in the upper age limit: Ex-Servicemen with at least six months' service after attestation get 3 years (UR and EWS), 6 years (OBC-NCL) or 8 years (SC and ST) after deducting their length of service; PwBD candidates get 10, 13 or 15 years; serving Group C and erstwhile Group D Railway staff and substitutes with at least three years' service can apply up to 40, 43 or 45 years; women who are widowed, divorced or judicially separated and have not remarried up to 35, 38 or 40 years; and Course Completed Act Apprentices trained in Railway establishments get relaxation to the extent of their apprenticeship, up to 3, 6 or 8 years. Only the highest of the relaxations a candidate is entitled to applies; they do not add up. The date of birth in the Matriculation or SSLC certificate is final.

Medical standards

Candidates who have had Lasik or any other surgery to correct a refractive error are not eligible for the A-2 and A-3 posts, and are eligible for the B-1 and C-1 posts subject to the Railway Board's conditions. All standards require the candidate to be physically fit in all respects; the CEN calls them indicative and refers candidates to Chapter 5 of the Indian Railway Medical Manual.

Important dates

The CBT was first scheduled for 3 to 21 August 2026 by the notice of 3 July 2026 and revised on 30 July 2026. The next stage for this cycle is the PET, whose dates the RRCs will publish once the CBT result is out; no date had been announced when this page was written. The RRBs' notice of 25 August 2026 counts 52,39,760 applications, the highest being 6,40,717 to RRB Chandigarh and 5,32,016 to RRB Mumbai.

How to prepare General Awareness for RRB Group D

General Science and General Awareness and Current Affairs are 45 marks that need no calculation, and with one-third negative marking they reward knowing rather than guessing. The exam is at Class 10 level, so breadth matters more than depth.

1. Read the GK24 General Science notes for RRB Group D topic by topic: Physics first (motion, work and energy, light, sound, electricity), then Chemistry (atomic structure, acids, bases and salts, metals, carbon compounds), then Life Sciences (cells, human body systems, nutrition and diseases, plants, genetics). Twenty-five questions come from here.
2. Read daily current affairs. GK24 publishes them every day in English and Hindi from official releases, tagged for Railway exams. Cover the 6 to 8 months before the CBT and revise each month at its end. The CEN names science and technology, sports, culture, personalities, economics and politics; read those first.
3. Revise static GK with the GK notes: Indian Railways zones and facts, national symbols, first and largest in India, awards and honours, days and dates, books and authors, art and culture, and the basics of Polity, Geography and the Economy.
4. Solve the RRB Group D previous-year questions on GK24 to see the level at which facts are asked and how the options are built.
5. Take timed quizzes. Practise the GK24 quizzes for RRB Group D and learn to leave a question you do not know, because a wrong answer costs one-third mark and an unanswered one costs nothing.
6. Train for the PET alongside. The weight-carrying test comes before the run and failing it ends the attempt; start carrying practice and timed 1,000-metre runs well before the result.

Posts and pay

All posts in CEN 09/2025 are in Level-1 of the 7th CPC pay matrix with an initial pay of ₹18,000. Annexure-A of the CEN lists 14 post categories; the same qualification and age limit apply to all, and they differ in department and medical standard.

Vacancies are given railway-wise and post-wise in Annexure-B of the CEN; in the Western Railway (Mumbai) table, for example, Trackmaintainer-IV has 1,599 and Pointsman B 751 posts. Posts are allotted within the chosen RRB by merit and the preferences given in the application, and options once exercised are final. Vacancies for Course Completed Act Apprentices, Ex-Servicemen and PwBD candidates are earmarked horizontally within the totals.