SSC CGL Eligibility 2026: Age Limit by Post, JSO, SI Gr-II and AAO Rules

SSC CGL has one exam but several sets of eligibility rules, because each post keeps its own recruitment rules. The age limit alone comes in four bands — 18–27, 18–30, 20–30 and 18–32 — all counted on 1 August 2026, and three posts add degree conditions of their own: Junior Statistical Officer, Statistical Investigator Grade-II and the Level-8 audit and accounts posts. A candidate can be eligible for some CGL posts and not others, and the application does not stop anyone from choosing a post they cannot hold. This guide sets out the rules from the 2026 notice, with a checker for the age bands.

CGLE 2026 notice.

The re-opening of applications changed one date. SSC’s notice of 23 June 2026 says that wherever the closing date was “a crucial date for ascertaining eligibility” — the three years of service a Central Government employee needs, for example — it is now 25 June 2026, not 22 June. The notice’s ex-servicemen clause (para 5.6) still prints the one-year window as ending “22-06-2027”; on the re-opening notice’s logic it would run from 25 June 2026 — our reading, which SSC has not spelt out.

Many pages still say SI Grade-II needs “Statistics in all three years”. That was the 2024 wording, and the first 2025 notice’s. A corrigendum of 25 June 2025 replaced it with a list of degree subjects, and the 2026 notice extends that list to thirteen by adding Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Computer Technology. The Junior Statistical Officer rule is different again: any Bachelor’s works if you scored 60% in Class 12 Mathematics.

One consequence is easy to miss. SSC allots posts by merit and preference, and “once a post is allotted, no change of posts will be made … due to non-fulfilment of any post specific requirements of physical/ medical/ educational standards”. A candidate who ranks, say, Statistical Investigator first without the right degree, or a CBIC Inspector post without meeting the height rule, can lose candidature altogether rather than slide to the next preference. Eligibility is not checked when you choose; it is checked when it is too late to choose again.

The age window has also moved a year every cycle. For the 18–27 band, CGL 2024 took candidates born 02-08-1997 to 01-08-2006 and CGL 2025 took 02-08-1998 to 01-08-2007; 2026 takes 02-08-1999 to 01-08-2008. Anyone born between 2 August 1998 and 1 August 1999, with no relaxation, was inside the Group C band in 2025 and is outside it now — but is still inside the 18–30 band for most Group B posts.