Every CPO aspirant wants one number, and the honest answer is that there is no single one. The Commission publishes cut-offs separately for Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police and Sub-Inspector in CAPFs, separately for male and female candidates, and separately for each category — and it publishes them after the exam, once vacancies, difficulty and candidate performance are all known. There are also two entirely different cut-off gates in the process, set on two different papers. Anything you read before a result that offers you an expected cut-off is a guess wearing the costume of data, and we would rather explain the machinery than add another guess to the pile.
The first cut-off is applied to Paper-1 — 100 questions for 100 marks in one hour, four parts of 25 with a 15-minute sectional timer each and 0.25 negative marking — and it decides who is called for the Physical Standard Test and Physical Endurance Test. The notice reserves to the Commission the discretion to fix different cut-off marks in each part of Paper-1, taking into account category-wise vacancies and the number of candidates. PST and PET carry no marks at all; they are purely qualifying. The second and decisive cut-off is applied to Paper-2, 160 questions for 320 marks with 0.50 negative marking, and final selection and force allocation are made on Paper-2 performance plus the preferences you exercised. Separately from both, there is a floor: minimum qualifying marks of 30% for UR, 25% for OBC and EWS, and 20% for all other categories, in each paper. Marks are normalised across shifts before any cut-off is applied, and NCC bonus marks are added to normalised scores. For the actual figures from any past cycle, read the Commission's own result write-up for that examination on ssc.gov.in — we will not print numbers we cannot stand behind.
This is the point most cut-off articles blur. Your Paper-1 score determines only whether you are shortlisted for PST and PET. Once you have cleared the physical tests, Paper-1 stops counting — final merit and force allocation are computed from Paper-2 alone, including NCC bonus marks. So a brilliant Paper-1 buys you a seat at the physical ground and nothing more, and a modest Paper-1 that clears the shortlist costs you nothing in the final list. Plan your revision accordingly.
Four things move a CPO cut-off between cycles and none of them are under your control: the number of vacancies notified, how many people appear, how hard that year's paper turned out to be, and normalisation across multiple shifts. Because scores are normalised before cut-offs are fixed, the published figure is not even directly comparable to the raw mark you would have seen on your own screen. Treating a past year's number as a target is how people aim at the wrong score for six months.
The workable substitute for an unknown cut-off is a stable score band under real conditions. Take full 100-question mocks under the 15-minute sectional locks, built from genuine previous-year SSC questions with the Commission's official answer keys, and watch whether your score band is rising or merely bouncing. A candidate who has moved from a wobbly range to a consistent one across six timed mocks is in a far better position than one who memorised a number from a forum post.
PST and PET are mandatory and purely eliminatory — they award no marks, but failing them ends your CPO attempt regardless of your Paper-1 score, and you never reach Paper-2. They also fall between the two written papers, which means the weeks you might have wanted for English revision are the weeks you will be running 1.6 kilometres against a stopwatch. Build physical preparation into your timetable from the start rather than treating it as something to worry about after the Paper-1 result.
There is no one cut-off. For each cycle the Commission publishes separate cut-offs for Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police and Sub-Inspector in CAPFs, split by male and female candidates and by category, and it does so only after the relevant stage's result. The published tables show the normalised marks and date of birth of the last selected candidate in each slot. If you want a real figure, open the Commission's result write-up for the cycle you are interested in on ssc.gov.in — those PDFs carry the authoritative numbers, and we would rather send you there than print an estimate.
Yes. Because vacancies for Sub-Inspector are notified separately for male and female candidates, and the physical standards differ, the Commission's result tables report cut-offs separately for each. They are further broken down by post — Delhi Police and CAPFs are listed as distinct blocks — and by category within those. So the correct question is never simply what the CPO cut-off was, but what the cut-off was for your post, gender and category in that cycle.
No. Paper-1 is used to shortlist candidates for the Physical Standard Test and Physical Endurance Test, and the Commission may fix different cut-offs across its parts and by category. After that, only PST and PET qualifiers sit Paper-2, and final selection and allocation of post and force are made on performance in Paper-2, with NCC bonus marks added and your stated preferences applied. You still have to clear Paper-1's minimum qualifying percentage, but a high Paper-1 score does not carry forward into your rank.
The notice sets them at 30% for UR candidates, 25% for OBC and EWS candidates, and 20% for all other categories, applied to each paper without adding the NCC bonus. Be careful not to confuse this floor with the cut-off. The qualifying percentage is the minimum standard the Commission requires; the cut-off is wherever the last selected candidate happened to land given that cycle's vacancies and competition, and it is usually well above the floor.
When an examination runs in multiple shifts, different candidates get different question sets, and some shifts turn out harder than others. The Commission applies a published normalisation formula to convert raw scores into comparable normalised scores, and it is those normalised scores that are used to fix cut-offs and determine merit. This is why published cut-offs often carry decimals and why your raw mark on screen will not match the figure in the result table. It also means you cannot usefully compare a cut-off to a raw score from a mock test.
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