The SSB Interview Day-by-Day — What Actually Happens and How Candidates Get Screened Out

Every officer entry — NDA, CDS, AFCAT, TES, TGC, NCC Special, Navy SSC, Coast Guard — funnels through a Services Selection Board (SSB). The board runs for five days at centres such as Allahabad, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Kapurthala, Dehradun, Mysuru, Varanasi, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam.

Day 1 — Screening

• Officer Intelligence Rating (OIR): two booklets of verbal and non-verbal reasoning, about 40 to 50 questions each, roughly 30 minutes per set.
• Picture Perception and Description Test (PPDT): a hazy picture is shown for 30 seconds; you write a story in four minutes, then narrate it and take part in a group discussion to arrive at a common story.

Results are announced the same afternoon. Typically 50 to 70 percent of the batch is screened out and sent home.

Day 2 — Psychology

Four tests in one sitting, all timed to prevent overthinking:

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 11 pictures plus one blank slide, 30 seconds to view, four minutes to write each story.
• Word Association Test (WAT): 60 words, 15 seconds each.
• Situation Reaction Test (SRT): 60 situations in 30 minutes.
• Self Description (SD): what your parents, teachers, friends and you think of you — 15 minutes.

Days 3 and 4 — GTO and Interview

The Group Testing Officer runs nine tasks across two days: group discussions, group planning exercise, progressive group task, half group task, individual obstacles (ten obstacles, three minutes), group obstacle race, command task, lecturette and final group task. The personal interview with the Interviewing Officer is slotted into these two days and lasts 30 to 60 minutes; it is built almost entirely on your PIQ form.

Day 5 — Conference

All three assessors and the board president sit together. You face them for two to three minutes. Recommended candidates proceed to the medical board the same week; the rest leave that afternoon.

Why candidates fail

1. Treating OIR casually — screening-out is a numbers game and speed matters.
2. Fabricated PIQ entries that collapse under interview cross-questioning.
3. Memorised "ideal" TAT stories that do not match the person the GTO sees on the ground.
4. Poor physical conditioning for individual obstacles.
5. Inconsistency — the three assessors compare notes; any gap between your psychology responses, GTO behaviour and interview answers is fatal.

The Officer-Like Qualities framework has 15 traits across four factors: planning and organising, social adjustment, social effectiveness, and dynamic. The board does not look for perfection; it looks for a consistent, trainable personality.

Need structured preparation? Our free counselling connects you with ex-assessor mentors.