SSC CGL 2026 Tier-I (30 Sep–30 Oct): Dates, Admit Card, What Changed

The Combined Graduate Level Examination 2026 is now in its exam month. SSC’s notice of 12 September fixed Tier-I from 30 September to 30 October 2026 — a computer-based test spread over a whole month, so every candidate gets one date inside that window. City intimation slips went live on 21 September, and admit cards open two or three days before each candidate’s date. Behind the dates, 2026 is a different exam from 2025 in several ways: the Level-8 Assistant Audit Officer and Assistant Accounts Officer posts are back with a third paper, every section now has its own timer, and SSC’s latest vacancy list is 10,731, not the 12,256 many pages still quote.

SSC notices of 21.05.2026, 23.06.2026, 12.09.2026 and 24.09.2026.

Two practical points from the 21 September notice. First, both the city and the admit card come only through the candidate login on ssc.gov.in — nothing is posted. Second, candidates using their own scribe had to map the scribe’s fresh, Aadhaar-linked registration by 24 September; scribe registrations made before 5 November 2025 were disposed of, and a scribe entry pass is generated only for candidates who completed the mapping.

Two things did not change. Tier-I is still 100 questions for 200 marks with 0.50 deducted per wrong answer, and it still only qualifies candidates for Tier-II — its marks do not count in the final merit. And SSC still normalises multi-shift scores by the procedure notified on 2 June 2025 — the equipercentile method that SSC’s CGL 2025 Tier-I result says it applied (the 2024 Tier-I result used the 2019 formula).

The CGLE 2026 notice says tentative answer keys can be challenged “on payment of ₹100/- per question” (para 13.3). But SSC’s standing notice of 22 August 2025 cut the fee to ₹50 per question until a refund mechanism exists, and both keys of the 2025 cycle — Tier-I on 16 October 2025 and Tier-II on 30 January 2026 — charged ₹50. Both are official documents. The Tier-I answer-key notice for 2026 will settle which applies; until then, expect either figure.

The arithmetic is worth doing because this year’s Tier-I ends later than ever. If SSC matched its last two turnarounds — 65 to 70 days from the last Tier-I day to the result, then 31 to 44 days to Tier-II — Tier-II would land somewhere between early and late February 2027. That is our arithmetic, not an SSC date: the notice still says December 2026, and SSC can move faster. What it does suggest is not to plan on a long gap after Tier-I; Tier-II preparation, especially the 45-question English module, is best started before the Tier-I result.

Treat 10,731 as the working figure, not a floor or a ceiling. In 2025 the final list rose by more than 500 over the tentative one; in 2024 it fell by 62. The post mix matters more than the total: 2025 was dominated by one post — 6,626 Office Superintendent vacancies in CBDT, 44% of the final list — which has 426 this year, while Inspector (Central Excise) in CBIC is back to 2,366. The vacancy guide in this series has every row.