Recruitment into the Indian Army as a soldier now runs through the Agniveer scheme, and the process changed in a way that catches people out: the written exam comes first.
Until 2022 you turned up at a rally, ran, and only then sat a paper. Since 2023 it is the other way round — an online Common Entrance Exam, and only candidates who clear it are called to the rally for the physical and medical stages.
If you are training hard and studying casually, you have the order backwards. The run no longer gets you through the door. The paper does.
The three stages, in order
- Common Entrance Exam (CEE) — online, at a test centre
- Recruitment Rally — Physical Fitness Test and Physical Measurement Test
- Medical examination
You must clear each one to reach the next.
Who can apply
For Agniveer General Duty, the largest category:
| Age | 17½ to 21 years |
| Education | Class 10 / Matric, 45% aggregate and 33% in each subject |
| Service | 4 years, after which 25% are selected for permanent enrolment |
Other categories ask for more. Agniveer Technical needs Class 12 with Physics, Chemistry, Maths and English. Agniveer Clerk / Store Keeper Technical needs Class 12 with 60% aggregate and 50% in each subject. Agniveer Tradesman is Class 10 or Class 8 depending on the trade.
Age windows shift between notification cycles. Confirm yours on the current notification at joinindianarmy.nic.in before you rely on it.
Stage 1: the CEE
For Agniveer General Duty the paper is 50 questions in 60 minutes, and it carries negative marking — a quarter mark comes off for every wrong answer. Guessing across a 50-question paper will cost you more than it earns.
Four subjects:
- General Knowledge — current affairs, geography, history, sports, awards
- General Science — Class 10 level physics, chemistry and biology
- Mathematics — Class 10 level arithmetic, algebra, mensuration
- Logical Reasoning — series, analogies, coding-decoding, direction sense
The split of questions and marks across those four varies by category and occasionally between cycles, so treat the totals above as the shape of the paper rather than a guarantee, and take the exact breakdown from your notification.
The Technical, Clerk and Tradesman papers differ in both content and length. Prepare for the one you are applying to, not the one your friend is.
Stage 2: the physical
This is where the most expensive confusion lives, because Agniveer Army and SSC GD are completely different tests and people train for the wrong one. SSC GD is a 5 km run with no jumping events. Agniveer Army is a short, hard 1.6 km run plus obstacles.
The 1.6 km run
| Group | Time | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Group I | up to 5 min 30 sec | 60 |
| Group II | 5 min 31 sec to 5 min 45 sec | 48 |
Slower than 5:45 and you are out. That is roughly a 5:20 per kilometre pace held for a mile — closer to a race than a jog, and it is the event candidates most often underestimate.
Beam (pull-ups)
| Pull-ups | Marks |
|---|---|
| 10 | 40 |
| 9 | 33 |
| 8 | 27 |
| 7 | 21 |
| 6 | 16 |
Six is the minimum. Fewer than six and you are out regardless of your run time.
Also tested
- 9-feet ditch jump — qualifying, not scored
- Zig-zag balance — qualifying, not scored
Physical Measurement Test
Around 170 cm height and 77 cm chest with 5 cm expansion for the general standard, with weight in proportion. Both relax for candidates from specified regions, hill areas and certain categories, sometimes by several centimetres. Only the notification covering your area tells you your figure.
How to prepare for both halves
The order of the stages tells you how to split your time. The CEE is the filter now, so study first — but arriving at the rally untrained wastes the exam you just passed.
For the paper. Work Class 10 science and maths rather than reading general-knowledge lists: two of the four subjects are school syllabus and are the most reliably scorable. Practise against a 60-minute clock from the beginning, because pace is what the paper actually tests. With negative marking, learn to leave a question you genuinely cannot do.
For the run. Build to 1.6 km at target pace with interval work — 400 m repeats faster than race pace, with short recoveries — rather than long slow distance, which trains the wrong system for a five-and-a-half-minute effort.
For the beam. Six is the floor and ten is full marks, and those 24 marks are worth more than most people gain from a month of general study. Negative pull-ups and assisted reps build the strength faster than repeatedly failing at full ones.
Do not neglect either half. Candidates fail this recruitment in both directions every cycle: strong runners who never opened a book, and strong students who could not finish 1.6 km inside the cut.
What changes and what does not
The structure is stable: exam, then rally, then medical. The numbers — vacancies, dates, age windows, regional height and chest relaxations — move every cycle. Take those from the current notification at joinindianarmy.nic.in.
Preparing for SSC GD instead? The written paper and the physical are both different — here is how the two recruitments compare. Training for the wrong physical test is the most expensive mistake in this whole process.
Our free SSC GD course covers all four parts of that paper in English, Hindi and Punjabi. Start studying →