Puducherry Combined Secondary Level (CSL) Examination 2025

Basic eligibility paths

• ✓Only Indian citizens who are natives of the Union Territory of Puducherry, and residents by continuous residence in the UT for the five years immediately preceding the date of notification, may apply; a fresh Nativity/Residence Certificate from a Revenue and Disaster Management officer not below the rank of Deputy Tahsildar must be produced at certificate verification.
• ✓A pass in S.S.L.C. / Matriculation or its equivalent from a recognised Board or University, with a maximum age of 30 years as on 14 Dec 2025.
• ✓Only applications successfully filed through the Puducherry online recruitment portal are accepted; incomplete applications, or applications with partial, wrong or junk information, are summarily rejected, and candidature is provisional at every stage.
• ✓Applicants must apply separately for each post and furnish the post codes online; a candidate who applies for both posts is later called to state a preference, and that option is final and cannot be changed later.
• ✓Reserved-category claims need a fresh community certificate from a Revenue and Disaster Management officer not below Deputy Tahsildar — MBC/OBC/EBC/BCM/BT certificates must state that the candidate does not belong to the creamy layer under DoPT O.M. No.36012/22/93-Estt.(SCT) dated 08.09.1993, SC claims are under the Constitution (Puducherry) Scheduled Castes Orders 1964 and 2002 in respect of 'Puthirai Vannan', and ST claims under the Constitution (Puducherry) Scheduled Tribes Order 2016.
• ✓EWS candidates must produce an Income and Asset certificate; the crucial date is 14 Dec 2025, the certificate must have been issued for financial year 2024-2025 and must be valid for 2025-2026. Candidates who record their category as MBC-Migrant, OBC-Migrant, EBC-Migrant, BCM-Migrant, BT-Migrant, SC-others or ST-Migrant are considered under Unreserved category only.
• ✓In-service applicants had to route a copy of the online application through their Head of Department, and MSP applicants had to post their application with sports certificates to the Director of Art & Culture, by 3:00 PM on 23 Dec 2025.

Relaxations & certificates

• SC/ST, OBC-NCL, PwBD and ex-servicemen relaxations follow the applicable notification.
• Always check the certificate format and cut-off date in the official notice.

Selection stages

1. 1Online application on the Puducherry recruitment portal
2. 2Written competitive examination — one common OMR paper of 100 objective questions at SSLC standard, held 31 May 2026
3. 3Answer key publication and key challenge on the recruitment portal
4. 4Provisional short list of three times the notified vacancies
5. 5Verification of original age, education, nativity or residence and community certificates, with biometric verification
6. 6Result, category-wise provisional post allocation list, and a sealed-cover common wait list valid for one year

Syllabus snapshot

• Annexure-I of Advertisement No.03/CSL/PEA/2025 sets a single common paper for both posts: 100 questions, 100 marks, 2 hours, covering (A) General Intelligence & Reasoning, (B) General Science & Social Science, (C) General Studies & Current Affairs and (D) English Language & Grammar / Comprehension, with no specific sectional allocation of questions.
• The paper is of SSLC standard and objective type, 100 questions of one mark each drawn from the indicative syllabus, with negative marking for wrong or incorrectly shaded answers.
• Annexure-I states the topics are indicative only: questions may be asked from any topic appropriate for the prescribed educational qualification and shall test the candidate's intelligence and general awareness of the environment in and around him or her and its application to society, and may include current events and everyday observations expected of an educated person, and questions on History, Politics, Constitution, Sports, Art & Culture, Economics and Commerce, Everyday Science, Social Science, Scientific Research and National / International Institutions.
• General Intelligence & Reasoning Ability / Quantitative Aptitude may include verbal and non-verbal questions on analogies, similarities, differences, space visualization, problem solving, analysis, judgment, decision making, visual memory, discrimination, observation, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning, verbal and figure classification and arithmetical number series, and questions testing the ability to deal with abstract ideas and symbols and their relationships.
• Arithmetical and numerical ability covers number systems including simplification, decimals, data interpretation, fractions, L.C.M., H.C.F., ratio and proportion, percentage, average, profit and loss, discount, simple and compound interest, mensuration, time and work, time and distance, and tables and graphs.
• English language and grammar / comprehension tests grammar, literature and comprehension, and may be based on spot the error, fill in the blanks, synonyms, antonyms, spelling or detecting misspelled words, idioms and phrases, one word substitution, improvement of sentences, active / passive voice, direct / indirect narration, shuffling of sentence parts, shuffling of sentences in a passage, and cloze passages.
• Questions on ethics and morality cover theories and concepts of moral values and judgment or decision on situations requiring moral and ethical awareness and aptitude; computer-knowledge questions test general and specific knowledge of computers, hardware and software, applications and their operations.
• Negative marking is 0.25 for every wrong answer, and multiple answers are treated as a wrong answer. Minimum qualifying marks are 30% for UR, 25% for OBC/MBC/EWS (only for categories against which vacancies are earmarked) and 20% for SC/PwBD/XSM; the Government reserves the right to relax the qualifying marks in exceptional circumstances.
• There is no re-evaluation or re-checking of answer sheets or answer scripts. Ties are resolved first by date of birth, with the older candidate placed higher, and then by alphabetical order of names. The result notification records that evaluation was finally done for 99 marks on the recommendations of the Key Challenge Committee.
• Para 8.3 adds that the Controller of Examinations, Puducherry Examining Authority may vary or revise the indicative syllabus, number of questions, number of papers, marks, time allowed and weightage at any time before the examination and will notify the change on the online recruitment portal.