SSC CGL Answer Key 2026: Expected Date, Fee, Cut-Off

The SSC CGL answer key 2026 isn’t out yet. Tier 1 is running from 30 September to 30 October 2026, and SSC puts up the tentative answer key with your response sheet only after the last shift.

Going by the last two years, expect it in early November 2026. When it comes, you’ll get a short window (3–5 days) to check your answers and challenge any wrong ones. Here’s how to get ready for that, how to work out your score, and what last year’s cut-off tells you.

Detail	Information
Exam	Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGLE) 2026, Tier 1
Conducting body	Staff Selection Commission (SSC)
Tier 1 dates	30 September to 30 October 2026
Tentative vacancies	10,731 (as on 24 September 2026)
Answer key date	Not announced (likely early November 2026)
Challenge fee	₹100 per question as per the notice (₹50 was charged in 2025)
Marking	+2 for correct, −0.50 for wrong
Tier 2	December 2026 (tentative, as per the notice)
Official site	ssc.gov.in

SSC CGL answer key 2026 date: what to expect

SSC doesn’t announce the answer key date in advance. It just puts up a notice on ssc.gov.in on the day. So the best guide is what happened in the last two cycles. These dates are from SSC’s own notices:

Cycle	Last Tier 1 exam	Tentative key out	Challenge window
CGL 2024	26 Sep 2024	3 Oct 2024	3–6 Oct 2024 (₹100 per question)
CGL 2025	14 Oct 2025 (re-exam)	16 Oct 2025	16–21 Oct 2025, extended (₹50 per question)
CGL 2026	30 Oct 2026	Not announced	Not announced

The gap was 7 days in 2024 and 2 days in 2025. So for 2026, somewhere between 1 and 7 November looks likely. That’s our estimate, not an official date. We’ll update this page the day SSC puts out the notice.

One more thing. In 2025, SSC extended the challenge window from 19 October to 21 October. Don’t count on an extension. Treat the first deadline as the real one.

How to download the SSC CGL Tier 1 answer key

Once the notice is out, the steps are the same as last year:

1. Go to ssc.gov.in and log in with your registration number and password.
2. Open the Answer Key Challenge option.
3. Click Click Here. This takes you to the exam agency’s portal, where your response sheet opens.
4. Your response sheet shows each question, the option you chose and the correct option as per SSC.
5. Save or print it. SSC says response sheets won’t be available after the window closes, and it won’t send them on request later.

Note: in the challenge module, the order of questions and options can be different from what you saw in the exam. SSC uses one common order for everyone in a shift. Your selected answers are still shown correctly.

CGL Tier 1 is online, but working out your score is the same idea. Photo: lecroitg / Wikimedia, CC0

How to calculate your SSC CGL Tier 1 score

Tier 1 has 4 sections of 25 questions each: Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English. That’s 100 questions for 200 marks.

• Correct answer: +2
• Wrong answer: −0.50
• Not attempted: 0

Score = (correct × 2) − (wrong × 0.5)

Example: 72 correct, 16 wrong and 12 left out gives 144 − 8 = 136.

Two things to keep in mind:

• Your score from the key is a raw score. Since Tier 1 runs in many shifts, SSC normalises marks before setting cut-offs. A tough shift can push your marks up a little and an easy shift can bring them down. So treat a score near the cut-off as “borderline”, not as safe or failed.
• Count only from the official key. Coaching “answer keys” on YouTube are often wrong for 3–5 questions per shift. That’s 6–10 marks, which is the gap between many people’s result and the cut-off.

How to challenge a wrong answer

If you think SSC’s answer is wrong, you can challenge it inside the same window:

1. Pick the question in the challenge module.
2. Choose the answer you think is correct and give your reason (a textbook reference or an official source helps).
3. Pay the fee online. The 2026 notice says ₹100 per question, non-refundable. Last year the answer key notice charged ₹50. Go by the fee in the 2026 answer key notice.
4. Submit before the deadline. SSC doesn’t accept challenges by email, letter or any other mode.

SSC checks all challenges and changes the key where needed. The final key is used for the result. You won’t get a reply on your challenge. You only see the outcome in the final key.

My advice: challenge only when you’re sure, with a source. If SSC’s answer is clearly wrong, other people will challenge it too. Paying ₹100 on a doubtful question rarely helps.

SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 cut-off (last year)

This is SSC’s official 2025 Tier 1 cut-off from the result notice of 18 December 2025. These are normalised marks out of 200, for all posts other than JSO and Statistical Investigator Grade-II (the list most candidates fall under):

Category	2025 cut-off	Candidates shortlisted
UR	136.83	20,035
OBC	130.37	43,260
EWS	127.42	20,268
SC	114.97	25,338
ST	106.37	11,729
ESM	92.80	3,511
OH	100.87	1,667
HH	68.80	1,550
VH	72.00	1,615
Others (PwD)	41.71	1,445

A total of 1,30,418 candidates were shortlisted for Tier 2 in this list. The cut-off was higher for JSO (UR 153.46) and Statistical Investigator Grade-II (UR 152.47), because those posts have their own lists.

The minimum qualifying marks in Tier 1 are 30% for UR (60 marks), 25% for OBC and EWS (50 marks) and 20% for others (40 marks). But the actual cut-off is always much higher than that.

Expected SSC CGL 2026 cut-off

SSC sets the cut-off only after the result, so any “expected cut-off” is a guess. Ours is based on two official numbers:

• Fewer posts. The 2026 tentative vacancy list shows 10,731 posts. CGL 2025 ended with 15,125 final vacancies. That’s about 29% fewer, though the 2026 count can still go up before the final list.
• More than 28 lakh applications, as per SSC’s notice of 23 June 2026.

Fewer posts with this many applicants usually means a higher cut-off. If the paper level is similar to last year, a UR score of around 140 or more (normalised) would put you in a comfortable position for the general list. If you’re 10–15 marks below last year’s figure for your category, start Tier 2 prep anyway. Waiting for the result in December wastes a month.

Again: this is our estimate, not SSC data.

What comes after the answer key

• Tentative key and challenges: likely early November 2026.
• Tier 1 result and cut-off: last year it came about 2 months after the key (16 October to 18 December 2025). No 2026 date yet.
• Final key and marks: SSC puts these up after the result. In 2025 they came on 9 January 2026, about 3 weeks after the result.
• Tier 2: the notice says December 2026 (tentative). Last year Tier 2 moved to January, so check ssc.gov.in.

If you’re also writing other SSC exams this season, CHSL Tier 1 is proposed for 30 November to 31 December. See our SSC CHSL 2026 guide. For how SSC shows cut-offs in a result, our SSC GD result 2026 post is a good example.

My take

If your exam is already done, don’t wait for the key to start Tier 2 prep. Tier 2 Paper-I has Maths, Reasoning, English, General Awareness, a computer test and a typing test (DEST), and the typing part catches many people out. Start 15 minutes of typing practice a day now.

When the key comes, download your response sheet on day one and save the PDF. Then check SSC’s answers against good sources, not against Telegram channels.

Always go by the official notice on ssc.gov.in. If anything there differs from this page, follow SSC.