SSC CHSL 2026: 2,536 Tentative LDC/JSA & DEO Vacancies — Sectional Timers, Tier-II Merit Logic & Tier-I Schedule

SSC CHSL 2026 is a central Group C recruitment examination for Lower Division Clerk (LDC)/Junior Secretariat Assistant (JSA), Data Entry Operator (DEO) and Data Entry Operator Grade 'A' in Ministries, Departments and Offices of the Government of India and other participating bodies. The official notice gives approximately 2,536 tentative vacancies, but it does not yet split those 2,536 seats post-wise or category-wise. That distinction matters: any table assigning the full 2,536 to one post, or manufacturing a reservation breakup before SSC releases it, would be misleading. SSC says updated post-wise/category-wise vacancies will be published later, and it does not centrally collect a state-wise/zone-wise vacancy breakup.

The 2026 opening tentative figure is 595 lower than the CHSL 2025 official opening tentative figure of 3,131, a reduction of about 19.0%. This is only a comparison of opening tentative counts, not a prediction of final vacancies or competition: SSC explicitly treats the 2026 figure as tentative and the firm vacancy position can change after user departments report final requirements.

A major eligibility trap is that '12th pass' is not identical for every DEO preference. LDC/JSA and most DEO/DEO Grade 'A' posts require 12th Standard or equivalent from a recognized Board/University. However, DEO/DEO Grade 'A' posts in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, the Staff Selection Commission itself and the Ministry of Culture require 12th Standard in the Science stream with Mathematics as a subject. Candidates who were appearing in Class 12 can apply provisionally, but the required qualification must be possessed on or before 7 October 2026. The current official 2026 notice lists only LDC/JSA and DEO-family posts; older CHSL post labels that do not appear in this notice are deliberately not carried into this record.

Age is 18-27 years as on 1 August 2026, corresponding to the normal birth-date window 2 August 1999 through 1 August 2008. The notified relaxations include SC/ST +5 years, OBC +3, PwBD (UR) +10, PwBD (OBC) +13, PwBD (SC/ST) +15, and the specified Ex-Servicemen/Defence Personnel/Central Government civilian employee/widow or divorced-woman concessions. Candidates should read the category-specific conditions rather than adding multiple relaxations mechanically. For any LDC vacancy reported in the Border Roads Organisation, the notice applies separate physical/medical standards and restricts those BRO vacancies to male candidates.

The normal application fee is Rs. 100, while women and eligible SC, ST, PwBD and Ex-Servicemen candidates are exempt. A useful but often missed distinction is that fee exemption does not make the correction window free: SSC charges Rs. 200 for the first corrected re-submission and Rs. 500 for the second, uniformly across categories and gender. The correction window is not a fresh application extension; only candidates whose application and required fee were completed within the original schedule can use it. The latest corrected submission becomes the operative application.

The application itself has rejection-sensitive identity/media rules. SSC's current application workflow uses a live photograph captured through the application module/mySSC workflow rather than relying on an old stored passport photo. The candidate should face the camera directly in good light with a plain background and without cap, mask or spectacles. The signature is separately uploaded in the prescribed JPG/JPEG format. These are not cosmetic requirements: unacceptable photograph/signature submissions can lead to rejection.

Tier-I has 100 questions for 200 marks, divided equally among English Language, General Intelligence, Quantitative Aptitude and General Awareness. CHSL 2026 uses a 15-minute sectional timer for each 25-question part, so each section allows a nominal average of only 36 seconds per question. Each correct answer is worth 2 marks and each wrong answer loses 0.50 mark; therefore four wrong answers mathematically cancel the marks from one correct answer. Tier-I is used for shortlisting to Tier-II rather than being added to the final 360-mark merit score.

Tier-II is more important than many short summaries imply. Session-I has Section-I (Mathematical Abilities + Reasoning and General Intelligence) for 180 marks, Section-II (English Language & Comprehension + General Awareness) for 180 marks, and the Computer Knowledge Test for 45 marks. That is 405 objective marks in Session-I, but only Sections I and II — 360 marks — count toward merit; the 45-mark Computer Knowledge module is qualifying. Wrong answers in the objective Tier-II sections attract a 1-mark penalty against 3 marks for a correct answer, so three wrong answers erase one correct answer's gain. Candidates must still qualify every prescribed section.

Tier-II Session-II contains the qualifying Skill Test/Typing Test. LDC/JSA requires 35 w.p.m. in English or 30 w.p.m. in Hindi over the prescribed typing-test duration; Hindi typing is in Mangal font. DEO skill-test standards are higher for the three special offices that also carry the Science-with-Mathematics qualification: 15,000 key depressions per hour, versus 8,000 key depressions per hour for other DEO posts. The medium/skill choice made in the application matters because the qualifying standard is post-specific.

Minimum qualifying percentages are not the same thing as the competitive cutoff. SSC prescribes 30% for UR, 25% for OBC/EWS and 20% for other categories in Tier-I and the relevant objective sections of Tier-II, but actual shortlisting cutoffs can be materially higher and may be fixed separately for different post groups. No genuine CHSL 2026 cutoff has been published yet, so this record does not recycle a previous-year cutoff as if it were a 2026 figure.

The original 7 September notification left the Tier-I schedule to be notified later. SSC subsequently issued an Important Notice on 1 October 2026 proposing Tier-I from 30 November through 31 December 2026. This newer official schedule is therefore the controlling exam-window update in this record. Candidate-specific date, shift and centre are not yet available. The notification framework says examination-city/timetable information is uploaded roughly 10 days before the exam, while the Admission Certificate is normally made available about 2-3 days before the candidate's exam.

There is no CHSL 2026 Tier-I answer key, result or numerical cutoff yet because the examination has not been held. Those lifecycle objects are therefore intentionally left empty. When SSC publishes the tentative answer key/response sheet, Tier-I result or Tier-II schedule, they should be linked to this same recruitment record rather than creating a duplicate job. Final merit is driven by Tier-II Sections I and II, subject to qualifying the Computer Knowledge and Skill/Typing modules and to the candidate's valid option-cum-preference/post eligibility.