Typing test for government exams in India: the SSC, CPCT and RRB rules

What are the typing test rules for SSC, CPCT and RRB?

"Qualifying" means you must pass but the speed doesn't add to your rank; your notification says whether that holds for your post.

The conversion worth keeping in your head: at five key depressions per word, 35 WPM is 175 a minute and 10,500 an hour, and 30 WPM is 9,000. SSC's 2022 notice for the CHSL 2020 skill test puts the English passage at about 1,750 key depressions, exactly 35 WPM for ten minutes. The DEST's 2,000 in 15 minutes is 133 a minute, about 27 WPM: the slowest test on paper and often the hardest in practice, because the passage carries figures, capitals and punctuation.

CPCT, the Madhya Pradesh computer proficiency test, is the one row we still can't source to the exam body. An education portal, Entrancezone, gives 15 minutes for each language and 30 net WPM in English and 20 in Hindi. Entrancezone adds that each typing test is preceded by an unscored mock, five minutes in English and ten in Hindi. Some quote 25 net WPM for Hindi, so treat 20 as a floor and aim well above it.

How does SSC count full and half mistakes?

Secondhand accounts disagree most about how errors are penalized, and here an SSC document finally gives us something firm. SSC's Eastern Region website carries revised guidelines for evaluating typing test and DEST scripts in English and Hindi, which sort errors into two classes.

Full mistakes are the omission of a word or figure, the substitution of a wrong word or figure, the addition of a word or figure not in the passage, spelling errors (letters repeated, added, left out or swapped), a repeated word, and an incomplete word.

Half mistakes are spacing errors (no space between two words, or a stray space inside one), wrong capitalization, which the guidelines say doesn't apply to Hindi scripts, punctuation left out, added or substituted, transposed words, and paragraph errors.

The guidelines don't say how the two classes become a pass or fail. You'll often see it described as full mistakes counting one, half mistakes counting half, and a percentage cut-off by candidate category. We couldn't find that arithmetic in an SSC document, so check your notification for the allowance.

Editing differs between boards. SSC's 2022 notice let CHSL candidates use the arrow keys and backspace to correct words; RRB's CBTST instructions say editing tools for correcting mistakes are not permitted. Practice for the rule your board wrote.

How our scoring compares

Our net WPM counts only words typed completely correctly, including every matra and conjunct in Hindi and the trailing space. A word with one wrong character contributes nothing. That is harsher than a full-and-half scheme, where a capitalization slip costs half a mistake, not the whole word. The formulas are on the metrics page.

So if you clear a board's speed here, you probably have a margin on the exam's formula, though only the exam's marking decides. 40 WPM at 97% accuracy on a ten-minute test is a better sign than 45 at 92%. The results screen can also show characters per minute; times 60, that's key depressions per hour, and 133 CPM is the DEST line.

Mangal vs Kruti Dev: fonts and layouts

This is where candidates lose months. Four names get called "the font" for Hindi, and they aren't the same kind of thing.

Mangal is a Unicode Devanagari font. If an exam says Mangal, the text is standard Unicode Hindi, and the question is which keyboard layout produces it.

Inscript is the government-standard Unicode keyboard for Indian scripts, first standardized in 1986 through the Department of Electronics. Its layout is common to all the Indian scripts, and it's what new learners often pick.

Remington GAIL is a Unicode layout based on the Remington typewriter layout for Hindi; Keyman, which publishes an implementation, describes it in exactly those terms. Wikipedia's Devanagari article notes that the Remington typing method is similar to the Kruti Dev typing method, which is why Kruti Dev typists usually find it the easiest switch.

Kruti Dev is different in kind. It is a legacy, non-Unicode font that maps Devanagari glyphs onto ordinary ASCII character positions, typed with a Remington-style key mapping. Text typed in it can look like Hindi on screen and still be Latin character codes underneath.

The SSC 2022 notice shows why candidates mix these up: its Hindi keyboard options were Inscript, Krutidev, Remington GAIL and Remington CBI, a font name in a list of layouts. Choose the option your notice names, and if it names Kruti Dev, practice in Kruti Dev too.

Our Hindi tests read the characters your operating system produces. Set Inscript or Remington GAIL, and the test scores what you type against Unicode Hindi word lists. We don't emulate Hindi layouts, and Kruti Dev output won't match the test text. If your exam uses Kruti Dev, build speed here with Remington GAIL, whose typing method is similar, and practice the font itself in the software your center uses.

One thing we found while building the Hindi word list: an average word in it is 4.22 Unicode characters, about 5.22 with its space. At 30 WPM under the five-character convention you type 750 characters in five minutes, which is about 144 everyday Hindi words, fewer than the 150 the arithmetic suggests in English. SSC's 2022 notice defines a word as a run of keys followed by a space, so check which measure your exam uses before you compare.

How long are the tests, and how should you build stamina?

Ten and fifteen minutes are long. Most candidates practice on one-minute tests, then meet a ten-minute passage for the first time on exam day. The per-second chart on our results screen shows the cost: on a long test the line often sags in the second half, and errors cluster there. The fix is boring: take the full-length test at least twice a week for a month before the exam. The 10-minute test, the 15-minute test and the Hindi 10-minute test exist for this, and the exam pages lock the duration so you can't shorten it by accident.

For DEST, practice reading from paper too, if your passage is printed: type a newspaper page into a text editor on a 15-minute timer with the printout beside you.

Practice advice that survives the rule changes

Whatever the notification says this cycle, these hold.

Accuracy before speed. The SSC guidelines count a misspelled word as a full mistake, and our net WPM throws the whole word away. Aim for 97% and let the speed follow; the 40 to 80 WPM practice plan explains why that works.

Choose your Hindi layout early and don't switch; changing halfway through preparation throws away weeks.

Keep numbers and punctuation on for DEST; the heatmap on the results screen shows which keys you miss. The numbers test and the keystrokes per hour test are the shortest route, and practice drills the keys the heatmap flags.

Check the notification, then the admit card, then the instructions on screen at the center, which can differ from both.

The exam pages

Each exam page locks the board's duration and text options and shows the requirements with their sources:

• SSC CHSL typing test: ten minutes, English, switch to Hindi in the ribbon.
• SSC CGL DEST: fifteen minutes with numbers and punctuation on.
• CPCT Hindi typing test: fifteen minutes in Devanagari.
• RRB NTPC typing test: ten minutes, English or Hindi, with the 300 and 250 word minimums explained.
• Court stenographer and typist: five minutes with punctuation.

We'd rather say "we couldn't verify this" than claim a rule we can't trace to a board. CPCT is still in that position: its figures come from exam-prep publishers, not from the exam body. If you have a notification that states a rule plainly, we'd like to see it. Bank clerical exams aren't covered yet, because we couldn't pin down their rules; the DEST preset is the closest in character.

Frequently asked questions

What is the typing speed for SSC CHSL?

SSC's skill test instructions set 35 WPM in English or 30 WPM in Hindi over ten minutes for LDC/JSA posts, which is 10,500 or 9,000 key depressions an hour. Data Entry Operator posts are measured at 8,000 key depressions an hour.

Is backspace allowed in the SSC typing test?

SSC's 2022 notice for the CHSL 2020 skill test allowed the arrow keys and backspace for corrections. RRB's typing test instructions forbid editing tools. Rules can change by cycle, so read the instructions for yours.

Mangal or Kruti Dev: which should I practice?

The one your notice names. Mangal is a Unicode font you type with Inscript or Remington GAIL; Kruti Dev is a legacy non-Unicode font. If you know Kruti Dev, Remington GAIL is the closest Unicode layout.