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About this tool
Defence exam countdown for NDA and CDS covering the written date, paper-wise marks and the SSB interview window with its 5-day schedule.
This countdown tracks the two clocks a defence aspirant lives by: days to the UPSC written paper (NDA or CDS) and days to the SSB interview reporting date, including the prep window between them. It encodes the real paper structures — NDA Mathematics 300 marks and GAT 600 marks, CDS papers of 100 marks each — and UPSC's one-third negative marking rule, plus the standard 5-day SSB schedule from screening to conference.
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Counts down to the written date and the SSB reporting date, and shows the prep window between them.
Marks per question and the one-third penalty are derived from each paper's actual marks and question count.
The 5-day board schedule — screening, psychology, GTO days and conference — is laid out day by day.
The NDA & NA written exam has two papers on one day: Mathematics — 300 marks, 120 questions, 2½ hours — and the General Ability Test — 600 marks, 150 questions, 2½ hours — for a written total of 900 marks. The SSB interview that follows carries a further 900 marks, so the written and the interview weigh equally in the final merit list.
Yes. UPSC deducts one-third of the marks assigned to a question for every wrong answer in both NDA and CDS. In NDA Mathematics each question carries 2.5 marks, so a wrong answer costs about 0.83; in the GAT each carries 4 marks, so a wrong answer costs about 1.33. A guess breaks even only above 25% expected accuracy.
There is no fixed gap — SSB call-ups follow the written result and are spread over batches, commonly landing a few months after the paper. The reporting date on your call-up letter is the only authoritative one, which is why this tool asks for it directly instead of guessing an offset.
Day 1 is screening (OIR test and PPDT), after which only screened-in candidates stay; day 2 is the psychology battery (TAT, WAT, SRT, self-description); days 3 and 4 are GTO ground tasks such as group discussion, progressive group task, command task and lecturette, with personal interviews slotted across days 2–4; day 5 is the board conference where results are announced. Recommended candidates then proceed to the medical board.