Updates as of September 22, 2026
Paper I of the SSC Combined Hindi Translators examination was held on 8 September 2026 as a computer-based test, with admit cards issued from 4 September and the exam city intimation slip published on 31 August. The exam-date notice itself was announced on 12 August 2026. Candidates are now waiting on the provisional answer key and the Paper I result.
Testbook (news report)The vacancy count for the cycle stands at 303 posts across roughly 32 ministries and departments, covering Junior Hindi Translator, Junior Translator, Junior Translation Officer, Senior Hindi Translator and Senior Translator. The category split reported is 156 unreserved, 75 OBC, 37 SC, 20 EWS and 15 ST.
Adda247 (as reported)Early coverage of the notification listed only 84 vacancies when applications opened; the figure was later revised upward to 303. Candidates comparing older articles with current ones will see both numbers, and the higher count is the one attached to the current exam-date coverage. Treat any count as provisional until SSC publishes its final post-wise vacancy statement.
Career Power (as reported)The notification was issued on 23 April 2026 with the application window running from 23 April to 15 May 2026, fee payment closing a day after the form deadline. Application fee is Rs 100 for general candidates, with women, SC, ST, PwBD and eligible ex-servicemen exempt. Age limit is 18 to 30 years with the usual category relaxations.
Adda247 (as reported)Applicants now pass through SSC's rebuilt portal, which requires a One-Time Registration with Aadhaar-based authentication before any form can be submitted, replacing the older registration route. Live photograph capture is part of the process, so pre-clicked images are rejected. Anyone who registered under the previous system should confirm their OTR is complete well before a deadline.
Testbook (as reported)SSC JHT selection stages at a glance
| Stage | Content | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper I (CBT, objective) | General Hindi 100 questions, General English 100 questions | 200 | 2 hours, sectional (1 hour each) |
| Paper II (descriptive) | Hindi to English and English to Hindi translation plus essay in both languages | 200 | 2 hours (2 hours 40 minutes with scribe) |
| Negative marking | Paper I only | 0.25 deducted per wrong answer | Not applicable |
| Paper I qualifying bar | Minimum aggregate to be shortlisted for Paper II | 30 percent UR, 25 percent OBC and EWS, 20 percent others | Not applicable |
| Pay level | Junior translator posts Level 6; senior translator posts Level 7 | Rs 35,400 to 1,12,400 and Rs 44,900 to 1,42,400 | Not applicable |
Paper I is a screening filter and its marks do not decide the final merit on their own. The descriptive Paper II is evaluated manually and is where translation craft, not recall, is tested. Eligibility requires a master's degree with Hindi and English paired as compulsory or elective subject or medium of instruction at degree level; the senior posts additionally require a translation diploma or three years of government translation experience.
Dates and windows
| What | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Notification issued | 23 April 2026 | Closed |
| Online application window | 23 April to 15 May 2026 | Closed |
| Exam-date notice published | 12 August 2026 | Closed |
| Exam city intimation slip | 31 August 2026 | Closed |
| Paper I admit card | 4 September 2026 | Closed |
| Paper I computer-based test | 8 September 2026 | Closed |
| Provisional answer key and objection window | Not yet announced | Tentative |
| Paper II (descriptive) | Not yet announced | Tentative |
Everything up to the Paper I sitting is settled; nothing after it has an official date yet. SSC normally publishes the tentative answer key within a few weeks of a computer-based paper, and the Paper II date follows the Paper I result rather than being fixed in advance.
What this means for your preparation
The most common mistake is treating JHT as a general SSC recruitment that happens to have Hindi in it. It is a translation recruitment. Paper I only screens; the 200-mark descriptive Paper II, marked by hand, decides who is appointed, and it cannot be cleared by objective practice.
Paper I screens, Paper II selects
Paper I carries 200 marks split evenly between General Hindi and General English, with strict sectional timing of one hour each, so an hour saved in English cannot be spent on Hindi. Clearing it needs only 30 percent for unreserved candidates, 25 percent for OBC and EWS and 20 percent for other categories, yet the reported previous-cycle Paper I cut-off sat far above that bar at around 150 marks for general and OBC candidates, with 2,145 candidates shortlisted for Paper II. The gap between the formal qualifying minimum and the working cut-off is the trap: qualifying marks are a floor, not a target.
The descriptive paper is a craft test
Paper II runs to 200 marks in two hours and asks for translation in both directions plus essays in Hindi and English. Two hours for passages in both directions and two essays leaves no room for drafting twice, so the working method has to be one clean pass with sentence-level planning. Marking rewards faithful register and idiomatic target-language prose rather than word-for-word substitution, and the official Hindi vocabulary of government usage matters, since much of the actual job is rendering departmental English into standard official Hindi. Practising with real ministry circulars is closer to the paper than practising with literary prose.
Eligibility is narrower than it looks
The qualification rule is not simply a post-graduate degree. It requires a master's degree in which Hindi and English are paired: a master's in Hindi with English as a compulsory or elective subject or as the medium of instruction at degree level, or the same arrangement reversed with English as the master's subject. Candidates with a master's in an unrelated discipline do not qualify no matter how strong their language skills are. The senior translator posts in the same notification add a translation diploma or three years of government translation experience on top, so a single application can find you eligible for some posts in the advertisement and not others.
Portal and registration changes bite at deadlines
SSC's current portal requires a One-Time Registration with Aadhaar-based authentication before a form can be filled, and it captures a live photograph rather than accepting an uploaded one. For a recruitment whose window was only three weeks long, that front-loaded step is where applications fail. The practical sequence is to complete the OTR and confirm the Aadhaar authentication has succeeded as soon as any calendar entry appears, so that when a notification opens the only remaining work is the post preferences and the fee. The correction window and its escalating charges are a separate and avoidable expense.
Where this cycle stands and what to do now
Paper I was written on 8 September 2026 and nothing after it has been scheduled. The useful work in this gap is not revision of objective Hindi and English but timed translation practice, because the Paper II date will be announced only after the Paper I result and the notice period is typically short. Candidates who expect to clear the screening should also verify their documents against the exact wording of the master's-degree condition now, since document verification for translator posts turns on how the degree certificate and mark sheets describe the Hindi and English components.
Common questions
When is SSC JHT Paper 2 2026?
No date has been announced. Paper I was held on 8 September 2026, and SSC schedules the descriptive Paper II only after the Paper I result shortlists candidates. As of 22 September 2026 neither the provisional answer key nor the Paper I result has a published date, so any Paper II date circulating online is speculation. Watch the SSC notice board rather than aggregator calendars, and expect a comparatively short notice period once the date does appear.
How many vacancies are there in SSC JHT 2026?
The count reported alongside the exam-date notice is 303 posts spread across around 32 ministries and departments, with 156 unreserved, 75 OBC, 37 SC, 20 EWS and 15 ST. Some earlier coverage published at the time the applications opened listed only 84 vacancies, which was later revised upward. Both figures come from coaching-site reporting rather than a fetched SSC document, so treat the number as provisional until the Commission publishes its final post-wise vacancy statement.
Can I apply for SSC JHT with an MA in a subject other than Hindi or English?
No. The eligibility condition requires a master's degree in Hindi with English as a compulsory or elective subject or as the medium of instruction at degree level, or a master's in English with Hindi in the same role. A master's in an unrelated discipline does not satisfy it, however fluent the candidate is in both languages. The senior translator posts in the same advertisement additionally ask for a translation diploma or three years of government translation experience.
Is there negative marking in SSC JHT Paper 1?
Yes. Paper I deducts 0.25 marks for each wrong answer across its 200 objective questions, 100 in General Hindi and 100 in General English, each section timed separately at one hour. Paper II is descriptive, hand-evaluated and carries no negative marking, but it also allows no partial credit for a translation that misreads the source. The sectional timing in Paper I means unanswered questions in one section cannot be revisited from the other.
What were the SSC JHT Paper 1 cut-off marks?
For the previous cycle, reported category cut-offs were about 150.75 for general and OBC candidates, 126.75 for SC and 96.50 for ST, with 2,145 candidates shortlisted for Paper II. These figures come from coaching-site reporting rather than a fetched SSC document and relate to an earlier cycle, not the paper held on 8 September 2026. They are useful only as an indication that the working cut-off sits far above the formal qualifying minimum of 30 percent for unreserved candidates.
Do I need Aadhaar to apply for SSC JHT?
SSC's current portal uses a One-Time Registration with Aadhaar-based authentication, and the registration must be completed before a form can be submitted. The system also captures a live photograph instead of accepting a pre-clicked upload. Candidates who registered under SSC's older system should confirm their OTR has gone through rather than assuming an old login still works, because the authentication step is the most common reason applications are not completed inside a three-week window.
