Is there one common exam for all police jobs in India?

No. Policing in India is recruited at three separate levels. The central armed police forces — BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles — take constables through the SSC GD Constable examination and Sub-Inspectors through SSC CPO. Every state and union territory runs its own constable and Sub-Inspector recruitment through its own police recruitment board, on its own standards and calendar. Officer cadres are separate again: IPS through the UPSC Civil Services Examination, Deputy Superintendent through the state public service commissions, and CAPF Assistant Commandant through its own UPSC examination.

What is the minimum height for a police constable?

For the central armed police forces through SSC GD Constable it is 170 cm for men and 157 cm for women in the general category, with a relaxed standard for Scheduled Tribe candidates and for candidates from specified hill and north-eastern regions. Men are also measured on chest — 80 cm unexpanded with a minimum 5 cm expansion — while women are not. State forces set their own figures, and they differ by state, by gender and by category, so the only height that governs your application is the one in that state notification.

Can I join the police if I wear spectacles?

Usually not for combat and executive posts. Most police and central armed police force medical standards require distant vision of 6/6 in both eyes without glasses, along with normal colour vision and no squint or other morbid eye condition. Standards vary between forces and between states, and some ministerial, technical and tradesman posts are less demanding, so read the medical annexure of the notification rather than assuming. If you cannot meet an uncorrected vision standard, the ministerial and technical streams are the realistic target.

Do tattoos disqualify you from police recruitment?

Not automatically, but placement and content matter. Central force policy permits permanent tattoos on the inner side of the forearm of the non-saluting limb and on the back of the hand, limited to religious symbols, figures or names, and occupying a small fraction of the body part. A tattoo on the saluting arm, or one that is large or objectionable in content, has historically been treated as a disqualification at the detailed medical examination. Courts have been narrowing blanket rejections in recent years, but a candidate should not plan around litigation — check the notification annexure before applying, not after being marked unfit.

What is the difference between CAPF and state police?

The central armed police forces work under the Ministry of Home Affairs on national duties — border guarding for BSF and ITBP, industrial and airport security for CISF, internal security and law-and-order support for CRPF — and postings are anywhere in the country. State police work under the state government on ordinary policing: investigation, law and order, and station duty within that state, with postings confined to it. Recruitment, standards, pay and transfer liability all differ. Candidates who want to serve near home should be applying to their state force, not to a central one.

Can a 10th pass candidate become a police constable?

Yes. SSC GD Constable, which fills constable posts across all the central armed police forces, requires a Class 10 pass. Many state constable recruitments also set matriculation as the bar, though a number now ask for 12th pass — Delhi Police and several state forces among them. Constable tradesman, driver and technical posts in the central forces are also matriculation-level, and are the least crowded police recruitment available.

How do I become a police officer directly, without starting as a constable?

Three routes. The Indian Police Service through the UPSC Civil Services Examination, which is the senior-most entry and starts you as an Assistant Superintendent of Police. Deputy Superintendent of Police through your state public service commission, which is the state equivalent and often the largest direct officer intake in a state. And Assistant Commandant in the central armed police forces through the UPSC CAPF examination. Sub-Inspector through SSC CPO or a state board is the fourth entry point and the most accessible of them, though it is a supervisory rank rather than a gazetted officer post at the outset.

Is the physical test scored or only qualifying?

In most police recruitments the Physical Standard Test and Physical Efficiency Test are purely qualifying — you either clear the measurement and the timing or you are out, and doing well adds nothing to your merit position. Some state forces are the exception and award marks for physical events, which changes preparation entirely because a strong runner can bank marks rather than merely survive. Check whether your state scores the PET or only qualifies on it before deciding how much of your preparation belongs on the track.

Which medical conditions disqualify a police candidate?

The recurring ones at the detailed medical examination are knock knees, flat feet, bow legs, varicose veins, deformed limbs, defective speech or hearing, and eye conditions — colour blindness, night blindness, squint, or vision short of the prescribed uncorrected standard. Most are identifiable long before you apply, and some, such as flat feet or varicose veins, can be assessed by a doctor in an afternoon. Candidates who find out at the medical stage have usually spent a year preparing for a post they were never going to be passed for.

Which police recruitment has the least competition?

The tradesman, driver, technical and ministerial streams inside the central armed police forces. CISF, CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB each advertise constable tradesman, constable driver, head constable ministerial and assistant sub-inspector posts separately from the big SSC recruitments, on their own websites and on their own timetables. The vacancy counts are smaller, but so is the applicant pool by a much wider margin, and the pay and service conditions are identical to those of a general duty constable of the same rank.

Police Vacancy Guide: Constable, SI, Physical Standards

More people apply for police jobs in India than for any other kind of government post, and more people are eliminated by something other than the written exam. Height, chest, a running time, a vision test, a pair of knees — these decide police recruitment far more often than general knowledge does, and they are the part almost nothing written about "police vacancy 2026" bothers to explain.

This guide covers every route into policing: the central armed forces, the state constabularies, Delhi Police, the intelligence and investigation agencies, and the officer cadres — with the physical and medical standards that actually govern each one.

Who actually recruits the police

There is no single police recruitment in India. There are three separate tiers, and confusing them is the first mistake candidates make.

Central armed police forces. BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles work under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Their constables come through the SSC GD Constable examination and their Sub-Inspectors through SSC CPO. Postings are anywhere in India.
State police. Every state and union territory runs its own constable and Sub-Inspector recruitment through its own board — UPPRPB in Uttar Pradesh, CSBC and BPSSC in Bihar, TNUSRB in Tamil Nadu, and so on. Standards, syllabus, pay and calendar are all set by the state, and postings stay inside it.
Officer cadres. IPS through the UPSC Civil Services Examination, Deputy Superintendent of Police through state public service commissions, and Assistant Commandant in the central forces through the UPSC CAPF examination.

A candidate who wants to be posted near home should be watching their state board. A candidate who wants a central government job with all-India liability should be watching SSC. These are different careers, not different doors to the same one.

Route 1: SSC GD Constable — the central forces

The single largest police recruitment in the country. One examination fills General Duty Constable posts across BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB, Assam Rifles, the Secretariat Security Force and the Narcotics Control Bureau.

Eligibility is a Class 10 pass. Selection runs as a computer-based test, then the physical tests, then a detailed medical examination.

The physical standards for the general category:

Height — 170 cm for men, 157 cm for women.
Chest — men only, 80 cm unexpanded with a minimum 5 cm expansion to 85 cm. Women are not measured on chest.
Run — men 5 km in 24 minutes; women 1.6 km in 8.5 minutes.

Scheduled Tribe candidates and candidates from specified hill and north-eastern regions get relaxed height and chest standards, and the running requirement is different for candidates from Ladakh. The chest expansion catches people out more than the base measurement does — a candidate who measures 80 cm relaxed but cannot expand a full 5 cm fails the standard just as surely as one who is too short. See SSC GD Constable and constable pay.

Route 2: SSC CPO — Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police and the CAPFs

The graduate entry to a supervisory rank, filling Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police and Sub-Inspector in the central armed police forces.

Selection is Paper I, then the physical tests, then Paper II, then the medical. The physical standards for general category candidates are the same 170 cm and 80–85 cm chest for men and 157 cm for women, but the endurance test is considerably harder than the constable one:

Men — 100 m in 16 seconds, 1.6 km in 6.5 minutes, long jump 3.65 m, high jump 1.2 m, shot put (16 lb) 4.5 m. Three chances at each jumping and throwing event.
Women — 100 m in 18 seconds, 800 m in 4 minutes, long jump 2.7 m, high jump 0.9 m. Three chances at the jumps.

The jumps and the shot put are where non-athletes fail. They are technique events, not fitness events, and a candidate who has never practised a long jump approach will not clear 3.65 m on stamina alone. See SSC CPO and sub-inspector pay.

Route 3: Delhi Police constable and head constable

Delhi Police is recruited by SSC separately from both the CAPFs and the state forces, with its own notifications for Constable (Executive), Head Constable (Assistant Wireless Operator/Tele-Printer Operator) and Head Constable (Ministerial). The ministerial and wireless streams carry typing or technical requirements instead of the heavier physical ones, which makes them a realistic target for candidates who want a police service career without meeting executive physical standards. See Delhi Police Constable, Head Constable (AWO/TPO) and Head Constable (Ministerial).

Route 4: state police — the largest volume of all

Most police vacancies in India are state vacancies, advertised by state recruitment boards on their own schedules. The pattern is broadly consistent — a written examination, then physical measurement and efficiency tests, then document verification and medical — but every number inside it is set by the state.

What varies, and what you therefore cannot assume from another state's notification:

Height and chest differ by state, and within a state by gender and by category. Most states relax standards for Scheduled Tribe candidates, and hill states relax them for candidates from designated hill districts.
The running event itself differs — some states run 5 km, some 1.6 km, some use a 10 km walk or a timed march, and several use gender-specific distances that do not match the central pattern at all.
Whether the physical test is scored or merely qualifying. This is the big one. In most recruitments the PET only qualifies you; in several states it carries marks, which changes how you should be preparing.
Extra events. Long jump, high jump, shot put and rope climbing appear in some state notifications and not others.
Weightage for NCC certificates, sports achievements, ex-servicemen status and home-district or domicile status.

The live hubs for the larger state recruitments: UP Police Constable and UP Police SI, Bihar Police Constable, MP Police Constable, Rajasthan Police Constable, Maharashtra Police Bharti, Tamil Nadu Police, Karnataka Police PSI and PC, West Bengal Police, Punjab Police and Kerala Police Civil Police Officer. The full set is under police recruitment.

Route 5: the Railway Protection Force

RPF is a central force but recruits on the railway calendar rather than the home ministry's, with the RRBs conducting its computer-based test. Constable is a matriculation-level post at Pay Level 3 and Sub-Inspector a graduate post at Level 6, both with physical efficiency and measurement tests. Recent cycles have reserved a large share of constable vacancies for women. See RPF Constable, RPF SI, and our railway recruitment guide for how it fits alongside the other railway streams.

Route 6: the officer cadres

Indian Police Service — through the UPSC Civil Services Examination, allotted on rank and preference. Officers join as Assistant Superintendent of Police and rise through Superintendent, Deputy Inspector General, Inspector General and Director General.
Deputy Superintendent of Police — through your state public service commission's combined services examination, and in most states this is a far larger direct officer intake than the IPS allotment to that state. Candidates fixated on the IPS routinely overlook it.
Assistant Commandant in the CAPFs — through the UPSC CAPF Assistant Commandant examination, a graduate-level entry into BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP and SSB as a gazetted officer, with written papers, physical tests and an interview.

Route 7: intelligence and investigation

Intelligence Bureau recruits directly, not through SSC. ACIO Grade II Executive is a graduate-level post filled by written examination and interview, and Security Assistant and MTS is the matriculation-level stream, which does carry physical standards.
CBI Sub-Inspector is filled through SSC CGL, with its own physical standards and medical requirements attached to the post preference — a detail CGL candidates often discover only after ranking.
Assistant Sub-Inspector in the CAPFs and similar posts come through SSC's CAPF ASI recruitment.

Route 8: the quiet one — tradesman, driver, technical and ministerial

Each central force advertises its own recruitment for constable tradesman, constable driver, constable technical, head constable ministerial and assistant sub-inspector posts, separately from anything SSC runs. These appear on the force's own website, on no fixed schedule, and they are the least crowded police recruitment in the country by a wide margin — the vacancy counts are smaller, but the applicant pool is smaller by much more.

Pay and service conditions are the same as for a general duty constable of the same rank. See CISF Constable Tradesman, CRPF departmental recruitment, BSF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles Technical and Tradesmen.

The standards, in one place

These are the central force figures for general category candidates, which are national and fixed. State figures are set state by state and are not reproduced here for a reason — see the note below the table.

Recruitment	Qualification	Height (M/F)	Chest (men)	Endurance
SSC GD Constable	Class 10	170 / 157 cm	80–85 cm	M: 5 km / 24 min · F: 1.6 km / 8.5 min
SSC CPO Sub-Inspector	Bachelor's degree	170 / 157 cm	80–85 cm	M: 1.6 km / 6.5 min + jumps, shot put · F: 800 m / 4 min + jumps
RPF Constable	Class 10	Per notification	Per notification	PET and PMT
RPF Sub-Inspector	Bachelor's degree	Per notification	Per notification	PET and PMT
State constable	Class 10 or 12	Set by the state	Set by the state	Set by the state
State Sub-Inspector	Bachelor's degree	Set by the state	Set by the state	Set by the state
CAPF Assistant Commandant	Bachelor's degree	165 / 157 cm	81–86 cm	Timed runs, jumps, shot put

Scheduled Tribe candidates, and candidates from notified hill and north-eastern areas, receive relaxed height and chest standards in almost every one of these. We do not print state-wise height tables. They differ by state, by gender, by category and sometimes by district, they are revised without much notice, and a wrong figure copied from an aggregator is the kind of error that costs somebody a year. The number that governs your application is the one in your state's notification, and nowhere else.

The medical examination — where candidatures actually end

More prepared candidates are lost here than at any written stage, usually to something they could have checked years earlier.

Vision. Executive and combat posts generally require 6/6 distant vision in both eyes without glasses. Colour blindness, night blindness and squint are disqualifying, as is any other morbid condition of the eye or lids.
Knock knees, bow legs and flat feet. The classic rejections. A doctor can tell you in one appointment whether you will pass, and some degrees of flat foot are correctable with time and training.
Varicose veins, deformed limbs, defective speech and defective hearing are all standard disqualifications.
Tattoos. Central force policy permits permanent tattoos only on the inner side of the forearm of the non-saluting limb or on the back of the hand, restricted to religious symbols, figures or names, and small relative to the body part. A tattoo on the saluting arm, or a large or objectionable one, has been treated as a disqualification. Courts have been narrowing blanket rejections in recent years, but litigation is not a recruitment strategy — check the annexure before you apply.

Get a private medical opinion against the notification's medical annexure before you commit a year of preparation. It is the cheapest insurance available in this entire process.

Where candidates lose it

Training for the written exam and not the run. The written stage is the one candidates can see, so it gets the preparation. The physical is the one that eliminates.
Chest expansion. Trainable in months. Almost nobody trains it.
Technique events. Long jump, high jump and shot put in SSC CPO and several state recruitments are skills, not fitness. Three chances, no fourth.
Discovering a medical disqualification at the medical. Entirely avoidable, and completely final when it happens.
Domicile, category and NCC or sports certificates in the wrong format or issued by the wrong authority, produced at verification and rejected there.
Character and antecedent verification. Police recruitment includes a police verification that other government recruitment does not. A pending case, or a suppressed one declared nowhere on the form, ends the candidature regardless of merit.

How to track police vacancies properly

ssc.gov.in — GD Constable, CPO, Delhi Police, CAPF ASI and CBI Sub-Inspector through CGL.
Your state police recruitment board's own site — the only reliable source for state constable and SI notifications, standards and results.
The individual force websites — BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles, for the tradesman, driver, technical and ministerial recruitments that appear nowhere else.
upsc.gov.in — Civil Services for the IPS, and the CAPF Assistant Commandant examination.
mha.gov.in and the IB recruitment portal — for ACIO and Security Assistant.

Aggregators, this site included, exist to alert you — not to replace the notification. Our guide on how to read a government job notification covers what to check, and upcoming exams tracks the cycles.

Red flags

Nobody can arrange a relaxation. Height, chest and medical standards are measured on the day by a board. Any agent claiming to fix a measurement or a medical result is running a fraud, and police recruitment is one of the most heavily targeted areas for it.
"Physical standards will be relaxed this year" is not news until the notification says so. Relaxations are printed in the notification, not announced on social media.
Beware the wrong state's numbers. Most of the height and chest figures circulating online are copied between sites without a state attached. Read your own notification.
Verify the domain. State board and force websites are government domains. Our guide on spotting fake job notifications covers the tells.

A realistic plan, depending on where you stand

10th pass, physically fit — SSC GD Constable as the national route and your state constable recruitment as the local one. Start running now and train chest expansion deliberately; both are slow adaptations. See the 10th pass listings.
10th or 12th pass, cannot meet executive physical or vision standards — the tradesman, driver, technical and ministerial streams in the central forces, and Head Constable (Ministerial) in Delhi Police. Same uniform, same pay scale, a fraction of the competition. See the 12th pass listings.
Graduate wanting a supervisory rank quickly — SSC CPO for Sub-Inspector, and your state SI recruitment in parallel. Practise the jumps and the shot put, not just the run. See the graduate listings.
Graduate aiming at officer rank — UPSC CAPF Assistant Commandant is the most overlooked of the three officer routes, your state PSC is the largest, and the Civil Services Examination is the longest shot with the highest ceiling.

If you are weighing the police against other central options, our guides to railway vacancies, India Post vacancies and Income Tax Department vacancies set out those routes the same way.

The takeaway

Police recruitment rewards a kind of preparation most candidates never start. The written paper is the visible obstacle and the smallest one; the measurable, trainable things — a running time, five centimetres of chest expansion, a long jump technique — decide who is standing at the end, and the medical decides whether any of it counted. Find the standards for the specific force you are targeting, get an honest medical opinion against them, and train for the stage that actually eliminates.

Police Vacancies in India: Every Force, Post and Physical Standard