Typing test practice for government exams

The exams at a glance

The SSC and RRB figures come from their own published instructions. The CPCT figures come from its scorecard scale. All were checked in November 2026. Recruitment rules change from cycle to cycle, so always check the notice for your own exam before you sit it.

SSC CHSL typing test

For Lower Division Clerk and Junior Secretariat Assistant posts, SSC's own skill test instructions ask for 35 words per minute in English or 30 in Hindi, typed on a computer for 10 minutes. In key depressions, that's about 10,500 an hour in English and 9,000 in Hindi, counting five key depressions as one word. Data Entry Operator posts are measured differently: 8,000 key depressions an hour over 15 minutes.

Our SSC CHSL preset runs a 10-minute test. For the DEO version, use the keystrokes per hour test and multiply your characters per minute by 60 to get key depressions per hour.

SSC CGL Data Entry Speed Test (DEST)

DEST applies to certain CGL posts, such as Tax Assistant. SSC's own instructions describe a passage of about 2,000 key depressions with 15 minutes to type it. That works out to 8,000 key depressions an hour, or a little under 27 WPM. The speed bar is low. Accuracy is what catches people out.

The SSC CGL DEST preset gives you 15 minutes of text with numbers and punctuation switched on.

RRB NTPC typing skill test

Railway Recruitment Board notices set a minimum of 30 WPM in English or 25 WPM in Hindi over 10 minutes. The notices also say you have to type at least 300 words in English, or 250 in Hindi, or your transcript isn't evaluated at all. Editing tools aren't allowed during the test.

Use the RRB NTPC preset and pay attention to your word count as well as your speed. Stopping to fix things costs time you may not have. The arithmetic is simple: 300 words in 10 minutes is exactly 30 words a minute, so if you can't hold 30 net WPM here for the full 10 minutes, you aren't there yet. Build up to that before worrying about anything else.

CPCT

The Computer Proficiency Certification Test, run in Madhya Pradesh, has a 15-minute English typing test and a 15-minute Hindi one. Each is scored on a scale, and you need at least 50% in a skill to qualify. On the CPCT scorecard, 50% starts at 30 net WPM in English and 20 net WPM in Hindi, so those are the minimums. Some guides quote 25 for Hindi, but the scorecard scale is the figure to trust. Hindi can be typed on the Remington (GAIL) or Inscript layout. Individual employers can still ask for more than the CPCT minimum, so read the job advertisement too.

The CPCT Hindi preset gives you 15 minutes in Devanagari. Set Remington or Inscript in your operating system first. The test reads whatever characters your keyboard produces.

Court stenographer and typist tests

High Courts and district courts each set their own rules: different speeds, lengths, languages and marking. One High Court's clerk recruitment, for example, asked for 30 WPM in English and 25 in Hindi over 10 minutes, with up to 10% mistakes allowed. Stenographer posts usually add a shorthand dictation test as well, which is outside what this site measures. Our court stenographer preset is a 5-minute English test, which is a reasonable warm-up, but take the actual numbers from your court's recruitment notice.

How exam scoring differs from ours

This part matters. Our presets copy the length, language and kind of text. They don't copy each board's marking rules or passages, and we aren't connected to any exam body.

We score with strict net WPM: a word only counts if you typed it completely right. Exam boards use their own formulas. Many ignore a small share of mistakes, often 5% of the words typed, and subtract the rest. Some split mistakes into full and half mistakes, some turn off editing tools, and some measure key depressions instead of words. So the same typing can score higher or lower there than here, depending on the board and on the kind of mistakes you make. Use our number to track your progress, and leave yourself a margin rather than treating it as a pass mark.

Two things carry over directly:

1. Length. A 10-minute test feels very different from a 1-minute one. Your speed drops as you tire, and only full-length practice shows you by how much.
2. Accuracy. Every board penalises mistakes. Aim for 95% accuracy or better in practice.

A four-week plan

1. Week 1: take your exam's preset once a day at full length. Don't chase speed yet. Just note your net WPM and accuracy.
2. Week 2: add ten minutes of practice a day. It builds drills out of the keys and words you get wrong.
3. Week 3: if your exam includes numbers or punctuation, mix in the numbers and punctuation tests.
4. Week 4: go back to full-length presets and aim for a margin above the requirement, around 5 WPM, so a bad day doesn't sink you.

Which preset should you start with?

If you know your exam, start with its preset and nothing else. Full-length practice on the right test beats an hour of general typing.

If you're applying to more than one, start with the longest test you'll face. CPCT and SSC CGL DEST both run for 15 minutes, so if you can hold your speed for 15 minutes, a 10-minute RRB or SSC CHSL test will feel easier.

If you're not sure what your exam asks for yet, take the 5-minute test a few times. It's long enough to show how much your speed drops as you tire, and that drop is usually the thing exam candidates underestimate.

On the day

Read the instructions for your exam carefully, especially whether you can use backspace or editing tools. RRB, for example, doesn't allow editing tools. If your exam limits corrections, practise the same way here: keep going after a mistake instead of stopping to fix it, and see what that does to your net WPM.

Check the keyboard and font before the timer starts. Practising on one Hindi layout and being tested on another can undo weeks of preparation.

And pace yourself. Starting at your best one-minute speed and fading halfway through usually scores worse than a steady pace you can hold to the end.

Typing in Hindi

All the Hindi presets use Devanagari text. Our test reads the characters your system produces, so set up your layout (Inscript, or Remington GAIL if your exam allows it) in your operating system before you start. Some exams also name a font. RRB, for example, has listed Kruti Dev and Mangal in its notices. Check which one your exam uses, because it can decide which keyboard layout you should be practising on. If you're new to Hindi typing, the 5-minute Hindi test is a gentler place to start than the full exam length.