Puducherry Combined Graduate Level (CGL) Examination 2026

Basic eligibility paths

• ✓Only Indian citizens who are natives of the Union Territory of Puducherry, or residents by continuous residence in the UT for the five years immediately preceding the date of notification, may apply; a fresh Nativity/Residence Certificate from a Revenue and Disaster Management officer not below Deputy Tahsildar must be produced at certificate verification.
• ✓Only applications successfully filed through the Puducherry online recruitment portal are accepted; incomplete applications, or applications with partial, wrong or junk information, are summarily rejected, and candidature is provisional at every stage.
• ✓Applicants must apply separately for each post and furnish the post codes online; a candidate who applies for more than one post covered by the common examination is later called to state a preference, and that option is final.
• ✓Applicants who had already applied under the Port Department's notification dated 5 Dec 2022 for Junior Engineer (Mechanical), post code 1004/2026, need not apply again.
• ✓Reserved-category claims need a fresh community certificate from a Revenue and Disaster Management officer not below Deputy Tahsildar — MBC/OBC/EBC/BCM/BT certificates must state that the candidate does not belong to the creamy layer under DoPT O.M. No.36012/22/93-Estt.(SCT) dated 08.09.1993, SC claims are under the Constitution (Puducherry) Scheduled Castes Orders 1964 and 2002 in respect of 'Puthirai Vannan', and ST claims under the Constitution (Puducherry) Scheduled Tribes Order 2016.
• ✓EWS candidates must produce an Income and Asset certificate; the crucial date is 13 Apr 2026, the certificate must have been issued for financial year 2025-2026 and must be valid for 2026-2027. Reservation and inter-se exchange for Persons with Benchmark Disability follow DoPT O.M. No.35035/02/2017-Estt(Res) dated 15.01.2018.

Relaxations & certificates

• SC/ST, OBC-NCL, PwBD and ex-servicemen relaxations follow the applicable notification.
• Always check the certificate format and cut-off date in the official notice.

Selection stages

1. 1Online application on the Puducherry recruitment portal
2. 2Written competitive examination — Paper-I (common) with Paper-IIB for post codes 1001/2026 to 1017/2026 and 1019/2026, or Paper-IIA (common) for Upper Division Clerk, post code 1018/2026
3. 3Answer key publication and key challenge on the recruitment portal
4. 4Provisional short list of three times the notified vacancies
5. 5Verification of original age, education, nativity or residence and community certificates by the Puducherry Examining Authority
6. 6Final provisional select list

Syllabus snapshot

• The scheme of examination and the indicative syllabus are in Annexure-I of Advertisement No.01/CGL/PEA/2026; the Controller of Examinations, Puducherry Examining Authority may vary or revise the indicative syllabus, number of questions, number of papers, marks, time allowed and weightage at any time before the examination and will notify the change on the online recruitment portal.
• Negative marking is 0.25 for every wrong answer, and multiple answers are treated as a wrong answer.
• Weightage: for post codes 1001/2026 to 1017/2026 and 1019/2026, Paper-I (common paper) carries 25% and Paper-IIB — specific to the syllabus indicated in Annexure-I — carries 75%. For post code 1018/2026 (Upper Division Clerk), Paper-I and Paper-IIA are both common papers and carry equal weightage. There is no re-evaluation or re-checking of answer sheets.
• Minimum qualifying marks in each paper: 30% for UR, 25% for OBC/MBC/EBC/BCM/BT/EWS and 20% for SC/ST/PwBD/XSM. A candidate must appear in both Paper-I and Paper-IIA or Paper-IIB to enter the merit list.
• Paper-I and Paper-IIA are bilingual in English with Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam, and the preferred language must be indicated in the online application; Paper-IIB is in English only, and questions on English language, grammar, comprehension or literature are not translated into any regional language.
• Answers are marked by shading the correct option with a black ball point pen on an OMR sheet; mutilation, multiple markings or stray marks may lead to rejection of the sheet or negative marking.
• Ties in the examination score are resolved first by date of birth, with the older candidate placed higher, and then by alphabetical order of names.