The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) released the official notification for Junior Engineer Examination 2026 on 2 September 2026, and online applications are open right now. What’s still pending: the exact exam dates for both papers — only tentative months have been given so far, and the final post-wise vacancy breakup, which SSC has explicitly said will come later on its own portal.
What’s Confirmed, Straight from the Notice
This recruitment covers Junior Engineer posts across multiple central government organizations, plus Scientific Assistant in the India Meteorological Department (IMD) — a post most JE aspirants don’t immediately associate with this exam but is bundled into the same notification, per the official PDF (F. No. HQ-C-3019/1/2026-C-3).
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Conducting Body | Staff Selection Commission (SSC) |
| Exam Name | Junior Engineer Examination, 2026 |
| Total Vacancies | 1,748 (Tentative) |
| Application Start Date | 02.09.2026 |
| Application Last Date | 22.09.2026 (23:00 hrs) |
| Fee Payment Last Date | 22.09.2026 (23:00 hrs) |
| Correction Window | 28.09.2026 to 30.09.2026 |
| Paper-I (Tentative) | October/November 2026 |
| Paper-II (Tentative) | December 2026 |
| Post Level | Group ‘B’, Level-6 (Rs. 35,400–112,400) |
| Official Website | ssc.gov.in |
The 1,748 figure is explicitly labeled “Tentative Vacancies” in the notice itself — SSC’s own wording, not an estimate added here. Post-wise and category-wise numbers will be published separately on the Commission’s site under “For Candidates > Tentative Vacancy,” and SSC has stated plainly that it does not collect or release state-wise or zone-wise vacancy splits. Candidates chasing a district-level breakdown need to go to the specific hiring department, not SSC.
Which Organizations Are Hiring, and for What
This isn’t a single-department drive. The notification lists Junior Engineer posts spread across the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Brahmaputra Board, Central Water Commission, Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Central Water and Power Research Station, DGQA-Naval, Farakka Barrage Project, Military Engineer Services (MES), National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), Director General of Lighthouses & Lightships, Department of Telecommunications, IMD, and the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
That spread matters because eligibility isn’t uniform across them. A JE (Civil) post in CPWD asks for a degree or three-year diploma in Civil Engineering with no experience clause. The same JE (Civil) title in the Border Roads Organisation, DGQA-Naval, or Central Water Commission carries an age limit up to 32 years instead of the standard 30, and BRO posts are restricted to male candidates only — stated directly in the notice, not implied. Someone assuming “JE Civil is JE Civil everywhere” and skipping the organization-specific eligibility table is the single most common mistake in this exam cycle.
Eligibility and Age Limit
Age is reckoned as on 1 August 2026. For posts with a 30-year limit, candidates must be born between 2 August 1996 and 1 August 2008. For the 32-year limit posts (BRO’s JE Mechanical/Civil roles, and a couple of others), the birth window shifts to 2 August 1994 through 1 August 2008.
Educational qualifications run from a three-year diploma in the relevant engineering branch (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical) up to a full degree, depending on the post. Several organizations accept a diploma plus two years of relevant work experience as an alternative to a bare degree — worth checking carefully against your own specific target post rather than assuming diploma holders are automatically ineligible.
One clause buried in the fine print deserves more attention than it usually gets: experience gained through internships, training, or research work done while acquiring the qualification does not count toward the experience requirement. It has to come after. A diploma holder who did a two-year apprenticeship as part of their diploma program cannot count that toward the “two years of experience” eligibility clause for a post that needs it separately.
Application Fee
- Rs. 100 for General/UR and other fee-paying categories
- Women candidates, SC, ST, PwBD, and Ex-Servicemen are exempted from the fee entirely, per the notice
Fee can only be paid through online modes — BHIM UPI, Net Banking, or cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, RuPay). Once paid, it is non-refundable under any circumstances, and applications left incomplete due to non-payment will not be considered, regardless of when the application form itself was submitted.
Exam Pattern — Two Papers, Different Purposes
| Paper | Subjects | Questions/Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper-I | General Intelligence & Reasoning (50/50) + General Awareness (50/50) + relevant Engineering subject (100/100) | 200/200 | 2 hours (2 hrs 40 min for eligible scribe candidates) |
| Paper-II | Relevant Engineering subject only (Civil/Electrical/Mechanical/Telecom/Physics as applicable) | 100/300 | 2 hours (2 hrs 40 min for eligible scribe candidates) |
Paper-I is qualifying in nature only. This is the detail candidates most often misread. Clearing the minimum cutoff in Paper-I gets you shortlisted for Paper-II — it doesn’t add to your final merit score. Final selection and merit ranking runs entirely on normalized Paper-II marks, combined with your post/organization preference order. A candidate who scores exceptionally in Paper-I and only just clears Paper-II will rank behind someone with a modest Paper-I score but a strong Paper-II performance. Treating Paper-I prep and Paper-II prep as equally weighted for the final outcome is a strategic error — Paper-I only needs to be cleared, Paper-II needs to be maximized.
Minimum qualifying marks are:
| Category | Qualifying Marks |
|---|---|
| UR | 30% |
| OBC/EWS | 25% |
| All other categories (SC/ST/PwBD) | 20% |
There’s a negative marking of one mark for each wrong answer in both Paper-I and Paper-II — the notice doesn’t distinguish a lighter penalty for Paper-I, so guesswork carries the same cost throughout.
Normalization — Why Your Raw Score Isn’t Your Final Score
Since the exam runs across multiple shifts, SSC applies normalization to marks in papers conducted in more than one shift, to adjust for difficulty variation between shifts. The notice specifically flags that Electrical and Mechanical branch papers will be normalized by treating them as separate shifts from each other, even when scheduled together — and the same applies to the Computer Science/Electronics/Physics parts for the IMD Scientific Assistant post. Candidates comparing their raw marks against a friend who wrote a different shift, or a different branch paper, are comparing numbers that don’t mean the same thing until normalization is applied. Only the normalized Paper-II score decides final merit.
Selection Process — What Happens After Paper-II
Separate merit lists are prepared for JE (Civil), JE (Electrical & Mechanical), JE (Telecom), and Scientific Assistant (IMD). Final selection and post/organization allotment is based on normalized Paper-II marks combined with the preference order candidates submit for organization/post choices. After the merit list, provisionally selected candidates go through Document Verification (DV) by the respective user department — not by SSC centrally — where originals of educational, caste/category, and experience certificates must be produced. Failure to produce them at DV cancels candidature regardless of merit rank; SSC does not accept late submissions on this front.
Border Roads Organisation applicants face an extra layer most other posts don’t: Physical Efficiency Test and Physical/Medical Standards, detailed separately in the notification’s annexure. The notice specifically warns that a candidate allotted a BRO post through merit cannot be reallocated elsewhere if they later fail these physical standards — meaning BRO applicants should check the physical criteria before applying, not after selection.
How to Apply
- Visit ssc.gov.in and register/log in via One-Time Registration (OTR).
- Fill the online application form for Junior Engineer Examination 2026 between 2 and 22 September 2026.
- Pay the applicable fee online (skip this step if exempted).
- Use the correction window (28–30 September 2026) to fix any errors — this is a separate, paid facility, not a free re-edit.
Important Links |
|
| Apply Online | Click Here (Active 2–22 September 2026) |
| Download Official Notification PDF | Click Here |
| Official Website | Click Here |
| firstjob24.com Homepage | Click Here |
| Join WhatsApp Channel | click here |
| Subscribe on YouTube | click here |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. I hold a diploma with two years of relevant experience — do I need a degree to apply for any JE post in this notification?
No, for most organizations a three-year diploma plus two years of relevant work experience is accepted as equivalent to a degree. However, the exact combination varies by organization and post — check the specific post’s eligibility row rather than assuming this applies uniformly across all 14 organizations listed.
Q2. Does my Paper-I score count toward my final merit and selection?
No. Paper-I is qualifying only, used solely to shortlist candidates for Paper-II. Final merit and selection are based entirely on normalized Paper-II marks and your organization/post preference.
Q3. I’m a woman applying for JE (Civil) — is BRO an option for me?
No. The notification states clearly that only male candidates are eligible for Junior Engineer posts in the Border Roads Organisation. Other organizations in this notification don’t carry this restriction.
Q4. My internship counted toward my diploma course — can I use that as my “two years of experience” for a post that requires it?
No. The notice explicitly excludes internship, training, or research experience obtained while acquiring the educational qualification from counting toward the separate experience requirement. The experience must be post-qualification.
Q5. When exactly will Paper-I be held?
No fixed date has been announced. The notice gives only a tentative window of October/November 2026 for Paper-I and December 2026 for Paper-II. The specific dates will be announced separately by SSC closer to the exam.
Disclaimer: All dates, vacancy figures (1,748, tentative), fee amounts, exam pattern, and eligibility details above are drawn directly from the official SSC Junior Engineer Examination 2026 notification (F. No. HQ-C-3019/1/2026-C-3) dated 2 September 2026. Post-wise and category-wise vacancy splits, and exact exam dates, are not yet released. For the latest updates, check the official website: https://ssc.gov.in.
