UPSC CDS Notification 2022: Exam Date, Selection Process

The Union Public Service Commission conducts the Combined Defence Services Examination (abbreviated as CDS Exam) twice a year. This exam is conducted for granting admission to the Indian Military Academy, Officers Training Academy, Indian Naval Academy, and Indian Air Force Academy. The UPSC CDS exam is usually conducted twice a year, in February and September. This national-level defense entrance examination is taken by thousands of candidates. To know more about UPSC CDS Notification, read the article.

• The exam consists of 4 stages: a written exam, SSB interview, document verification and medical examination.
• The written exam will have subjects like English, General Knowledge and Elementary Mathematics.
• The overall difficulty level of the written test in 2021 was moderate to easy. 
• The application for the UPSC CDS 2 exam is starting on 18th May and ending on 14th June.

Exam Name	Combined Defence Services Examination
Name of the Authority	Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
Level of the Exam	National Level
Frequency of the Exam	Twice a year
Mode of the Exam	Online
Time Duration	Two hours
Language Given	English and Hindi
Application Fees	Rs 200
Official website	UPSC

UPSC CDS Notification

The notification for both cycles are given below.

UPSC CDS 1 Notification	Download Here
UPSC CDS 2 Notification	Download Here

UPSC CDS Exam Dates 2022

Given below are the exam dates for UPSC CDS Exam 2022, candidates must refer to the UPSC CDS exam dates to not miss out on anything:

Events	CDS 1I Dates	CDS 2 Dates
CDS 2022 Notification Release Date	22nd December 2021	18th May 2022
Online Registration Start Date	22nd December 2021	18th May 2022
Online Registration End Date	11th January 2022 (6 pm)	14th June 2022
Online Application Withdrawn	18th to 24th January 2022	To be notified
CDS Admit Card Release Date	14th March 2022	August 2022
CDS Exam Date 2022	10th April 2022	04th September 2022
CDS Answer Key (Official)	May 2022	October 2022
CDS Result 2022	May 2022	October 2022
Interview Dates	To be notified soon	To be notified soon
Final Result	To be notified soon	To be notified soon

UPSC CDS 2 Vacancy 2022

A total number of  341 vacancies are released for the UPSC CDS II Recruitment 2022. The UPSC had released a total of 345 vacancies for the UPSC CDS 2020-21 Cycle 1. 

Name of the academy	Number of Vacancies
Indian Military Academy, Dehradun	100
Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala	22
Air Force Academy, Hyderabad	32
Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai (Madras) SSC Men	170
Officers Training Academy, Chennai SSC Women	17
Total Vacancies	341

UPSC CDS Eligibility Criteria 2022

Candidates applying for the UPSC CDS Exam 2022 should keep in mind that they have to fulfill all the eligibility criteria like age limit, eligibility, educational qualification criteria, etc. to be eligible to apply for their desired post. The eligibility criteria as per the UPSC CDS Notification are as follows.

UPSC CDS Age Criteria

Various Departments	Age Criteria in each case
Indian Military Academy	Candidates born not earlier than 2nd July 1999 and not later than 1st July 2004
Indian Naval Academy	Candidates born not earlier than 2nd July 1999 and not later than 1st July 2004
Indian Air Force Academy	Candidates born not earlier than 2nd July 1999 and not later than 1st July 2002
Officers’ Training Academy	Candidates born not earlier than 2nd July 1997 and not later than 1st July 2004
Officers’ Training Academy—(SSC Women Non-Technical Course)	Candidates born not earlier than 2nd July 1997 and not later than 1st July 2004

UPSC CDS Gender Criteria

Various Departments Involved	Gender	Status Required in each case
Indian Military Academy	Male	Unmarried
Indian Naval Academy	Male	Unmarried
Indian Air Force Academy	Male	Unmarried
Officer Training Academy	Male	Unmarried
Officer Training Academy	Female	Unmarried

UPSC CDS Educational Qualification Criteria

Various Posts	Educational Qualification Criteria Required
IMA (Indian Military Academy)	Candidates should have a degree from a well-reputed university or Institution
INA (Indian Naval Academy)	Candidates should possess an Engineering Degree from a well-reputed university or institution.
AFA (Air Force Academy)	Candidates should possess an Engineering Degree with Physics & Maths in their 12th Std from a recognized university ORBachelor of Engineering
OTA (Officer Training Academy)	Candidates should be Graduates from a well-reputed University

UPSC CDS Nationality Criteria

The Nationality Criteria of the exam is as follows.

• A Citizen of India, 
• A subject of Nepal, 
• A subject of Bhutan, or
• A Tibetan refugee who came to India before January 1, 1962, with the intention of settling permanently in India, or of Indian origins who migrated to India from Burma, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Malawi, Zaire, Zambia, and Ethiopia, or Vietnamese origins who migrated to India with the aim of settling permanently in India.

UPSC CDS Physical and Mental Criteria

The physical and mental criteria are given in the picture below.

How To Apply Online for the UPSC CDS 2022 Recruitment?

To apply for the UPSC CDS Exam, check out the steps below. The online application process will start from 18 May and end on 14th June, 2022 at 6 PM.

Step 1: Go to the official website of UPSC. 

Step 2: Go to the Examination tab and click on apply for CDS.

Step 3: Enter your personal credentials under “Part I” of the application form. 

Step 4: A registration ID will be generated after “Part A” and you can proceed to “Part B” of the CDS I application form. 

Step 5: Upload all scanned documents and signatures in the specified format. (PDF, JPEG, etc.) 

Step 6: Pay the application fee and select your examination center.

Step 7: Double-check all details and finally click on “Submit”.

Step 8: Keep the application number generated safely. 

Step 9: Take a print-out of the application form for future reference.

UPSC CDS 2022 Application Fee

The application fee has been listed below.

Category	Fee
SC, ST, and Females	Exempted
Others	Rs 200

UPSC CDS Selection Process

The UPSC CDS selection procedure involves four stages which the candidates have to clear successfully to go a step closer to obtaining their desired post in academies like AFA, IMA, etc. The various selection stages include 

1. Written Exam

2. SSB Interview/Personality Test

3. Document Verification

4. Medical Examination

UPSC CDS Exam Pattern

According to the UPSC CDS Notification, the details of the exam pattern is given below.

Exam Pattern for INA, IMA & IAF

Various Subjects	Total Marks of each subject
English	100
General Knowledge	100
Elementary Mathematics	100
Total	300

• Duration of each paper will be 2 hours each.
• The paper will have objective type of questions in nature.

Exam Pattern for Officer Training Academy (OTA)

Various Subjects	Total Marks of each subject
English	100
General Knowledge	100
Total	200

• Duration of each paper will be 2 hours each.
• The paper will have objective type of questions in nature.

Exam Pattern for the SSB Interview

The SSB Interview process has two stages.

Stage I: This stage will involve a Picture Perception & Description Test which will basically test the Officer’s Intelligence. 

Stage II: This stage will test how the minds of the candidates work via psychological tests, interview round, group testing office tasks as well as a conference round. 

UPSC CDS Exam Centre

The UPSC CDS exam centre information will be printed on the admit card of the candidates. They will get the option to choose their exam centres when filling out the application form.

Agartala	Ghaziabad	Panaji (Goa)
Agra	Gorakhpur	Patna
Ajmer	Gurgaon	Port Blair
Ahmedabad	Gwalior	Prayagraj (Allahabad)
Aizawl	Hyderabad	Puducherry
Aligarh	Imphal	Pune
Almora (Uttarakhand)	Indore	Raipur
Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh)	Itanagar	Rajkot
Aurangabad	Jabalpur	Ranchi
Bengaluru	Jaipur	Sambalpur
Bareilly	Jammu	Shillong
Bhopal	Jodhpur	Shimla
Bilaspur	Jorhat	Siliguri
Chandigarh	Kochi	Srinagar
Chennai	Kohima	Srinagar (Uttarakhand)
Coimbatore	Kolkata	Thane
Cuttack	Kozhikode	Thiruvananthapuram
Dehradun	Leh	Tiruchirapalli
Delhi	Lucknow	Tirupati
Dharwad	Ludhiana	Udaipur
Dispur	Madurai	Varanasi
Faridabad	Mumbai	Vellore
Gangtok	Mysore	Vijayawada
Gaya	Nagpur	V

UPSC CDS Salary 2022

The candidates who qualify for this prestigious UPSC CDS examination will receive a handsome pay based on the 7th pay Commission. The CDS salary range varies rank-wise and also with the years of service rendered by the officers. Let us look at the table below for a better understanding: 

Sr. No.	Ranks	Pay Scale	Pay Matrix Level
1	Lieutenant	Rs. 56,100 – 1,77,500/-	Level 10
2	Captain	Rs. 61,300 – 1,93,000	Level 10B
3	Major	Rs. 69,400 – 2,07,200	Level 11
4	Lieutenant Colonel	Rs. 1,21,200 – 2,12,400	Level 12A
5	Colonel	Rs. 1,30,600 – 2,15,900	Level 13
6	Brigadier	Rs. 1,39,600 – 2,17,600	Level 13A
7	Major General	Rs. 1,44,200 – 2,18,200	Level 14
8	Lieutenant General	Rs. 1,82,200 – 2,24,400	Level 15
9	HAG + Scale	Rs. 2,05,400 – 2,24,400	Level 16
10	VCOAS	Rs. 2,25,000	Level 17
11	COAS	Rs. 2,25,000	Level 18

UPSC CDS Cut-Off 2022

Candidates who want to take the UPSC CDS recruitment 2022 written examination should know the cut off marks. Here we have provided the same.

Academy	Written Exam	Final Exam
IMA	130	250
INA	118	242
AFA	143	274
OTA (Men)	93	173
OTA (Women)	93	177

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