Punjab Police SI Exam Pattern: Papers, Marks and PST

The Punjab Police SI exam pattern has three stages: a computer-based test (CBT) with three papers, a physical measurement and screening test, and document scrutiny. Only Papers I and II count in the merit list. Paper III, a Punjabi language paper, is qualifying, and so are the physical tests. Each of the two merit papers carries 400 marks, so the written merit total is 800.

The figures on this page come from the last official Sub-Inspector notification, Advertisement No. 01 of 2023, issued for 288 posts in the District Police and Armed Police cadres. In July 2026, the Punjab Cabinet decided to stop direct recruitment at the SI rank and move direct entry to the Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) level. That makes the 2023 scheme the most useful reference for anyone preparing for officer-level entry into Punjab Police, until the ASI notification sets out its own pattern.

Table of Contents

Punjab Police SI Exam Pattern at a Glance

Important Update: SI Direct Recruitment and the Shift to ASI

On 21 July 2026, the Punjab Cabinet approved a change in the entry level for officer ranks. Direct recruitment to the Sub-Inspector rank has been stopped. Direct recruitment now happens at the ASI level, with roughly 30% of ASI posts in the District, Intelligence, Investigation and Technical cadres and about 10% in the Armed cadre to be filled directly. Around 450 ASI posts were reported to have been approved for the first drive.

What this means for you:

• No fresh SI notification is expected under the new policy. Pages announcing an upcoming "SI 2026" exam are working from older information.

• The ASI notification will set the official pattern. Its papers, marks and qualifying rules may follow the SI scheme below or may change. Do not treat the SI pattern as the confirmed ASI pattern.

• Your preparation still carries over. The subjects tested at SI level, such as General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning, Computer Awareness, English and Punjabi, are the core of police officer-level written exams in Punjab.

Stage I: CBT Pattern for Papers I, II and III

All three papers are objective, multiple-choice tests taken on a computer. Papers I and II have 100 questions each, and every question carries 4 marks. Paper III has 50 questions of 1 mark each.

Paper I: General Awareness, Quant and Punjabi

Paper II: Reasoning, Computers and English

Paper III: Punjabi Language (Qualifying)

Paper III tests Punjabi at matriculation standard. It has 50 questions of 1 mark each and lasts one hour. You must score at least 50%, which is 25 marks. If you miss this mark, you are out of the process, however high your scores in Papers I and II are. The marks are not added to your merit total.

Notice that Punjabi appears twice in the written stage: 20 questions worth 80 marks in Paper I, and the whole of Paper III. Candidates who studied Punjabi only up to Class 10 and have not used it since often lose more marks here than they expect.

Marking Scheme and Negative Marking

The deduction in Papers I and II is 25% of the marks for a question. A worked example shows how it adds up. Suppose you answer 70 questions correctly in Paper I, get 20 wrong and leave 10 blank. Your raw score is 70 x 4 = 280, minus 20 for the wrong answers, which gives 260 out of 400, or 65%.

Because Paper III has no negative marking, attempt every question there. Leaving a question blank can only lower your chance of reaching the 25-mark minimum.

Minimum Qualifying Marks

The 2023 notification set minimum marks for Papers I and II separately, applied to normalised scores. You must clear the minimum in each paper; a strong score in one paper does not cover a weak score in the other.

Some older pages quote 50% and 45% as the qualifying marks. Those figures do not match the 2023 notification. Either way, these are floors that make you eligible to be considered.

Normalisation of Scores

The CBT runs in several shifts, and each shift gets a different question set. To compare candidates fairly, Punjab Police normalises scores using the mean-standard deviation method, calculated to five decimal places. In simple terms, your score is adjusted according to how all candidates in your shift performed, so a slightly tougher shift does not put you at a disadvantage.

Two points follow from this. First, your normalised score can differ from your raw score, so do not panic if the answer key suggests a lower figure than you hoped. Second, both the qualifying marks and the merit list use normalised scores, which is why published cut-offs often appear with decimals.

What the Pattern Means for Your Preparation

The question split tells you where marks are concentrated:

• Half the merit marks sit in two sections. General Awareness and Reasoning with DI together carry 400 of the 800 marks. Weakness in either is hard to recover from elsewhere.

• General Awareness needs Punjab-specific depth. Expect Punjab history, geography, culture and current affairs alongside national topics. Generic GK books alone usually leave gaps.

• Computer Awareness is a scoring section. At 120 marks, it carries as much weight as Quant, and the topics (operating systems, MS Office, internet, cyber safety, basic networking) are finite and quick to revise.

• Guessing has a small positive expected value. With four options, +4 for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong one, a pure guess averages +0.25 marks. If you can eliminate one option, the average rises to about +0.67. Educated guesses help; random guessing across many questions adds risk without much gain.

• Plan for a long exam day. Papers I and II are two hours each, and Paper III adds another hour. Practise full sittings so your accuracy does not drop in the later papers.

Stage II: Physical Measurement and Screening Test

Candidates shortlisted on the basis of the CBT are called for the Physical Measurement Test (PMT) and Physical Screening Test (PST). Both are qualifying. There are no marks; you either meet the standard or you are out.

Physical Measurement Test

Physical Screening Test

You must clear every event for your category. The race allows only one attempt, so do not leave fitness training until after the written result. The 2023 notification also allowed random drug testing at this stage; refusing to give a sample leads to disqualification.

Stage III: Document Scrutiny

After the physical tests, candidates bring original documents with one self-attested copy of each. The core set is your matriculation certificate (for date of birth and Punjabi), your graduation degree, any category certificate, an NOC if you are a serving government employee, and ex-servicemen papers where they apply. If you cannot produce a required original, you are excluded.

How the Final Merit List Is Prepared

Only candidates who clear the CBT minimums, the physical tests and document scrutiny reach the merit list. Separate cadre-wise lists are prepared after applying reservations, and rank is decided by the normalised aggregate of Papers I and II together with your cadre preference.

When two candidates have the same aggregate, the tie is broken in this order:

1. The older candidate ranks higher.

2. If the date of birth is also the same, the candidate with more marks in Paper I ranks higher.

3. If Paper I marks are also equal, the candidate with the higher educational qualification ranks higher.

The 2023 notification stated that there would be no waiting list. Cadre preferences, once submitted in the application form, could not be changed later, so think carefully about the order before you apply.

Time Management Strategy for the CBT

Each merit paper gives you 120 minutes for 100 questions, or 72 seconds per question on average. That average hides big differences between sections, so plan your time by section rather than question by question.

• Paper I: Clear General Awareness and Punjabi first, since they are recall-based and fast. Aim to finish those 70 questions in about 45 minutes, which leaves around 75 minutes for the 30 Quant questions and a final review.

• Paper II: Start with Computer Awareness and English (50 questions) in about 35 minutes. Give the remaining time to Reasoning and Data Interpretation, where DI sets take longer.

• Paper III: One hour for 50 questions is generous. Read each question carefully and attempt all of them.

• Use a two-pass approach: Answer what you know on the first pass, mark doubtful questions, and return only if time allows.

Always confirm the final pattern in the official notification on the Punjab Police website. For dates, posts and the wider recruitment picture, see the Punjab Police SI exam overview.