Staff Selection Commission Junior Engineer - Civil Engineering

SSC JE CE is the Civil Engineering stream of the Junior Engineer examination conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). It fills Group B (non-gazetted) Junior Engineer posts in central government departments that run civil works, such as building, road, water and dam projects. For a civil engineering graduate or diploma holder, it is one of the most sought-after central government entry points.

The 2026 cycle is already under way. Applications have closed, and SSC has proposed 2 to 6 November 2026 for Paper 1. This page covers the notification status, dates, eligibility, exam pattern, syllabus, salary and a preparation plan, and it flags clearly what is official and what is still tentative. Each topic links to a detailed Testkart page.

Table of Contents

SSC JE CE at a Glance

Notification Overview and What Changed in 2026

SSC released the Junior Engineer notification on 2 September 2026 and invited online applications until 22 September 2026. The vacancy figure is tentative, and reports place the all-discipline total at roughly 1,700 posts. Civil posts form a large share, but a separate civil-only number is best read from the notification itself.

Several rules differ from earlier cycles. Reports on the notification point to these changes, so confirm each one in the official notice:

• Paper 1 is qualifying: Marks of Paper 1 are reported to decide who moves to Paper 2, while the final merit list is built from Paper 2.

• Paper 2 is objective: Paper 2 is reported as an online multiple-choice paper of 100 questions and 300 marks, instead of a written descriptive paper.

• Age reference date: Age is counted as on 1 August 2026, not 1 January.

• Qualification deadline: The required qualification must be completed by the closing date of applications.

Older pages may still show the previous pattern, so follow the official notification. Our SSC JE Civil exam pattern page explains the change in detail.

Important Dates

Tentative dates come from the notification schedule and from reports, and they can change. SSC calls the Paper 1 dates "proposed". Track the notices on ssc.gov.in and your registered email. The shift-wise schedule had not been announced at the time of writing.

Vacancy Details

The Junior Engineer examination recruits for many departments in one cycle. Civil posts are usually spread across organisations such as the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Military Engineer Services (MES), Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and Central Water Commission (CWC), along with a few smaller bodies.

Department-wise totals are given in the notification and can be revised later through corrigenda. Treat any figure on third-party pages as indicative, because several trackers disagree on the total. This is not an official breakdown, so check the vacancy table in the notice before drawing conclusions about your category.

Eligibility Criteria

Educational qualification

The requirement depends on the department. Reports on the notification indicate the following pattern for civil posts:

• Degree route: A Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from a recognised university or institute is accepted for all civil posts.

• Diploma route: A three-year diploma in Civil Engineering is accepted for some departments. Others, such as BRO and MES, are reported to need a diploma plus two years of experience.

Confirm the exact rule for the department you want in the notification.

Age limit

The age limit is 18 to 30 years for most posts and up to 32 years for some, including CPWD civil posts, as on 1 August 2026. Upper age relaxation applies as follows.

The full rules, including documents and edge cases, are on our SSC JE CE eligibility page.

Application Fee and How to Apply

The application fee is Rs. 100 for candidates who must pay. Women, SC, ST, persons with benchmark disabilities and eligible ex-servicemen are reported to be exempt. Confirm the rule in the notice.

The window is closed for this cycle, but the steps below apply to every Junior Engineer cycle:

1. Register on the SSC portal and create a One-Time Registration profile.

2. Log in and select the Junior Engineer Examination from the active list.

3. Choose your post preferences and enter your qualification details.

4. Upload the photograph and signature in the specified format.

5. Pay the fee if applicable and submit before the closing date.

6. Use the correction window only for allowed fields.

Common reasons for rejection include a mismatch between the qualification date and the cut-off date, wrong category selection and unreadable uploads.

Exam Pattern

The 2026 cycle has two computer based papers. Figures below are as reported for the notification.

Paper 1 carries 0.25 mark negative marking for each wrong answer, and Paper 2 carries 1 mark negative marking. Paper 1 has 50 questions each in Reasoning and General Awareness and 100 in Civil Engineering.

What this means for you

• Engineering is the core: Civil Engineering fills half of Paper 1 and all of Paper 2, so technical depth decides your rank.

• Do not neglect Paper 1 basics: Qualifying in Paper 1 is the gate to Paper 2, and Reasoning and General Awareness are scoring areas.

• Guess carefully in Paper 2: A wrong answer costs 1 mark against a gain of 3, so attempt only when you can eliminate options.

The complete tables and a time plan are on the SSC JE Civil exam pattern page.

Syllabus Summary

The syllabus has three parts: General Intelligence and Reasoning, General Awareness, and General Engineering (Civil and Structural). The engineering part is the largest and covers the topics below.

SSC publishes the syllabus inside its notification. The topic lists above are a working summary built from the structure of previous notifications, so treat them as a checklist and verify against the current notice. See the full SSC JE Civil syllabus for topic-by-topic detail.

Selection Process

1. Paper 1: Online objective test used to shortlist candidates for the next stage.

2. Paper 2: Online objective test in Civil and Structural Engineering. Final merit is reported to depend on this paper.

3. Document verification: Qualification, age, category and experience documents are checked against your application.

Qualifying marks apply by category, and department allocation follows merit and your preferences. Medical standards apply for some posts.

Salary and Career Growth

A Junior Engineer is placed in Pay Level 6 of the 7th Central Pay Commission matrix, with a basic pay range of Rs. 35,400 to Rs. 1,12,400. Dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are added, and they vary with the department and posting city.

The in-hand salary is not a fixed figure. It depends on your city, the allowance rates at the time and deductions such as pension contribution and insurance, so any single number you see online is an estimate. Career growth follows departmental promotion rules, usually moving from Junior Engineer to Assistant Engineer and then to Executive-level posts through seniority and departmental examinations.

How to Prepare for SSC JE Civil

With Paper 1 close, the next few weeks should balance revision and testing. A simple stage-wise plan works well.

• Revise engineering first: Revisit short notes for surveying, soil mechanics, hydraulics, RCC and steel design. Practise formula-based questions daily.

• Keep Reasoning sharp: Thirty minutes a day on mixed sets keeps speed up without taking time from engineering.

• Cover General Awareness smartly: Read recent current affairs in short notes and revise static topics in rotation.

• Solve previous papers: They show the real difficulty level and the frequently tested topics.

Cut-off Reference

Cut-offs change every year with difficulty, vacancies and the number of applicants. The figures below are reported Paper 1 cut-offs for Civil from earlier cycles. They are not official figures confirmed by us, and they are only a benchmark for this cycle, because the role of Paper 1 has changed.

Aim for a clear margin above the last cut-off rather than a bare pass. Read more on the SSC JE CE cut-off page.