RRB NTPC Cut-off by RRB, Post and Category: Official Percentile Scores

ProSyllabus is an independent study site. We are not affiliated with Indian Railways, the Railway Board or any Railway Recruitment Board. Every rule and number below is quoted or summarised from their published notices, and the notices control if anything here differs.

Privacy note: the RRB result files also carry candidate names or roll numbers. We use none of them. Everything below is a count or a cut-off mark taken from a cut-off-only PDF; three boards print the cut-off inside their roll-number list, and we do not use those at all.

What the number is: the percentile notice, in plain words

Candidates sit the NTPC computer tests in many sessions, so raw marks cannot be compared. The notice on normalisation methodology for all CENs (dated 9 February 2026 on the portal) fixes the method. Within each shift a candidate's percentile score is the number of candidates in that shift with a raw score equal to or less than theirs, divided by the number who appeared in that shift, times 100. The topper of each shift therefore gets 100, and a candidate at the middle of a shift gets about 50. The percentile scores of all shifts are then merged into one list, called the RRB score, and used to compile the result. Percentiles are carried to five decimal places to avoid bunching, and if two candidates still tie the older candidate ranks higher, then alphabetical order of the name decides.

Separately, a normalised mark is computed for each candidate for one purpose: checking the minimum percentage (UR and EWS 40 per cent, OBC-NCL and SC 30, ST 25). A "base shift" is chosen, the shift with the highest mean whose strength is at least 70 per cent of the average shift (ties broken by highest individual marks, then by strength). A candidate's percentile X is then mapped onto the base shift's marks: if X appears there, the marks are read directly; otherwise the notice's interpolation formula is used. The merit list is built on the percentile, and the normalised marks only decide who has cleared the minimum percentage.

Which boards we can read, and which we cannot

The RRBs do not publish cut-offs in a single format. Most put a one-page cut-off PDF on the board's page of the common portal. Mumbai, Prayagraj and Bhubaneswar fold the cut-off into the long roll-number result list, which we deliberately did not keep. Jammu-Srinagar and Secunderabad have no cut-off document listed on the portal at all. The table shows what each board gave us for each stage.

Chandigarh publishes a CBT-2 cut-off only for posts 4 and 5 because those are its only Graduate posts. Muzaffarpur has Goods Train Manager posts only, which go straight to document verification, so it has no typing or aptitude list. Ranchi's Under Graduate CBT-1 cut-off and Malda's Graduate CBT-1 cut-off were not available as separate files.

Graduate CBT-1 cut-offs: the UR line by board and post

CBT-1 cut-off lists carry one line per post number (1 = CCTS, 2 = SM, 3 = GTM, 4 = JAA, 5 = SCT, 6 = TA) and one column per category. This table prints the UR column; the category columns follow in the next table and in the look-up tool. A dash means the board has no such post in this notification.

The spread is wide. For Goods Train Manager, the biggest post, the UR cut-off runs from 69.51 at Bengaluru to 82.33 at Gorakhpur among the 13 boards that printed one. Station Master runs from 73.42 (Guwahati) to 88.22 (Bhopal), and Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor from 79.29 (Guwahati) to 90.58 (Kolkata). The CCTS line is the small one: the eight boards that printed it have 2 to 12 CCTS posts each, so the 15-times rule gives a list of roughly 30 to 180 candidates across all categories, and a single strong group can set the cut-off.

Do big boards have low cut-offs? We tested it

A common claim is that boards with many posts have lower cut-offs, because 15 times a big number reaches deeper into the field. The numbers do not support a simple version of it. For the 13 boards with a printed UR Goods Train Manager cut-off, we compared the cut-off with the board's GTM posts and with its applications per post (from the guide on vacancies). The correlation with the number of GTM posts is about +0.10, and with applications per post about -0.18: close to zero in both cases for a sample this small. Bilaspur has 812 posts and a 75.93 cut-off; Bengaluru has 134 posts and the lowest figure, 69.51; Chennai has 3 posts and 80.05; Gorakhpur has 11 and the highest, 82.33; Ranchi has 585 and 79.27.

Why the pattern is so loose is clear from how a percentile works. The cut-off is a position in the board's own merged percentile list, not a function of how many candidates there are, and the share of strong candidates in a board (what a candidate pool is made of) matters more than its size. We therefore do not rank boards by "easy" or "hard". We report the printed numbers and the fact that board size alone does not explain them.

Across the Graduate and Under Graduate CBT-1 lines, the OBC-NCL cut-off averages 2.7 points below UR, EWS 4.3, SC 7.3 and ST 12.8, while ex-servicemen cut-offs are about 35.9 below. The ranges are wide because a category with one or two posts in a board produces a list of 15 to 30 candidates, and its cut-off reflects those few. Do not read a single printed cell as a typical level for a category.

Goods Train Manager, all categories, board by board

Patna's Goods Train Manager line has only SC and ST figures because the board's four posts are 3 SC and 1 ST. That is the vacancy table showing through the cut-off table, which is why the two should be read together.

Under Graduate CBT-1 cut-offs

The Under Graduate lists are post-numbered 1 to 4 (CTC, ACT, JCT, TC). The Commercial cum Ticket Clerk line, 2,424 of the 3,058 posts, runs from 75.75 (Ahmedabad) to 86.21 (Ajmer) among 13 boards. The Under Graduate line sits higher than the Graduate GTM line in the printed data (lowest 75.75 against 69.51), but the two are percentile positions in different candidate pools, so we draw no conclusion from the gap.

After CBT-2: the typing-test and aptitude-test lists

CBT-2 produced two different lists. Candidates for Junior Accounts Assistant cum Typist and Senior Clerk cum Typist were shortlisted for the typing test, and candidates for Station Master and Traffic Assistant for the aptitude test, and the boards printed a cut-off per post and railway zone (for example "4nwr" is post 4 in North Western Railway). The Goods Train Manager and Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor lines do not have a CBT-2 cut-off yet: they go straight to document verification and their shortlist had not been published when we checked on 7 October 2026.

The typing-list UR figures run from 69.52 (Guwahati, Senior Clerk cum Typist, NFR) to 87.18 (Ajmer, Senior Clerk cum Typist, WCR), and the aptitude-list ones from 70.94 (Guwahati, Station Master, NFR) to 81.90 (Bilaspur, Station Master, CR). Remember what these numbers are for: they decide who is called for the typing or aptitude test (8 times the posts per community), not who is selected. The final merit for a Station Master is 70 per cent CBT-2 and 30 per cent CBAT, and for the typist posts typing marks do not count at all, only the qualifying speed. Both are covered in the typing and CBAT guide.

One row deserves a caution. Bilaspur's aptitude-list line for Station Master in Central Railway prints an OBC figure (84.20) above the UR one (81.90), and we cannot tell from the PDF why. We print it as published and do not smooth it.

What is the RRB NTPC CBT-1 cut-off?

It is a normalised percentile score out of 100 that differs by RRB, post and category. For Goods Train Manager (Graduate) the UR cut-off in the 13 boards we could read runs from 69.51 (Bengaluru) to 82.33 (Gorakhpur); for Commercial cum Ticket Clerk (Under Graduate) it runs from 75.75 (Ahmedabad) to 86.21 (Ajmer).

Are the cut-offs raw marks?

No. They are percentile scores computed inside each shift and merged, according to the RRB normalisation notice. A cut-off of 80 is not 80 correct answers.

Is the CBT-1 cut-off the final selection cut-off?

No. CBT-1 only screens candidates into CBT-2. Merit for most posts is built from normalised CBT-2 marks, after a typing test or aptitude test where the post needs one.

Do boards with more vacancies have lower cut-offs?

Not in the printed data. Across 13 boards with a UR Goods Train Manager cut-off, the correlation with GTM posts is about +0.10 and with applications per post about -0.18, so board size does not explain the cut-off.

Where can I see the cut-off of my RRB?

On your board's page of the common RRB website, under the CEN and "Exam Results". Some boards put the cut-off inside a long list of roll numbers, so open only the document marked cut-off.

What is the minimum percentage to qualify in NTPC CBT?

UR and EWS 40 per cent, OBC non-creamy layer and SC 30 per cent, ST 25 per cent, checked on normalised marks. Meeting it only makes you eligible; the list is cut at the board cut-off.

How are ties broken in the percentile score?

Scores are calculated to 5 decimal places; if candidates still tie, the older candidate ranks higher, and if the age is the same, alphabetical order of the name decides.