Eligibility Calculator for Age, Qualification and Attempts

A notification's eligibility clause is a short checklist. You must be inside the age band on the cut-off date, hold at least the qualification asked for, and in a few exams you must have attempts left. These sit in different paragraphs of a long PDF, and it is easy to clear two and miss the third.

This calculator puts all of it on one screen. You enter your date of birth, category and highest qualification on one side, and the cut-off date, age limits, required qualification and attempt cap from the advertisement on the other. Each criterion gets its own pass or fail line with the reasoning spelt out.

It is deliberately generic. SSC CGL, RRB NTPC, IBPS, a state PSC or a police constable post all work the same way here, because the tool compares the numbers you type rather than hard-coding one exam.

1. Under 'Your details', enter your date of birth and choose your category and your highest completed qualification.
2. Under 'From the notification', set 'Age as on' to the cut-off date printed in the advertisement.
3. Type the minimum and maximum age exactly as the notification states them, before any relaxation.
4. Pick the qualification the post requires from the list.
5. If the exam caps attempts, enter the cap and the number you have already used; otherwise leave the limit blank.
6. Read the eligibility panel, which marks each criterion as met or not met and explains why.

Age is computed calendar-wise on the cut-off date (years, then months, then days), and only the completed years are used in the comparison. The upper limit is raised by the relaxation attached to your category, following the central-government pattern. The minimum age is never relaxed.

Qualification is a ladder. Each level has a rank, and you pass when your rank is equal to or higher than the required level's rank. The attempts check appears only when you enter a cap greater than zero, and an empty 'Attempts already used' counts as zero. The panel turns green only when every check present passes.

• Minimum age: completed years on the cut-off date must be at least the minimum
• Maximum age: completed years must be at most the printed maximum plus relaxation (0 for General and EWS, 3 for OBC-NCL, 5 for SC / ST, 10 for PwD General, 13 for PwD OBC, 15 for PwD SC / ST)
• Qualification ladder, lowest to highest: 8th pass, 10th / Matriculation, ITI, 12th / Intermediate, Diploma, Graduation (any stream), Post Graduation, PhD
• Attempts: attempts already used must be fewer than the cap; the panel also shows how many remain

Hypothetical: a graduate born on 10/03/1998, category SC / ST, checks a post with age 18 to 27 years as on 01/08/2026, qualification 12th / Intermediate, and a cap of 6 attempts of which 6 have been used.

Age on 01/08/2026 works out as 2026 minus 1998 for 28 years, August minus March for 5 months, and 1 minus 10 for minus 9 days. The negative day borrows a month, so months become 4 and days become 22 (31 days in July 2026). The candidate is 28 years 4 months 22 days, treated as 28.

The panel reports '1 of 4 criteria are not met'. Switching the category to General would also fail the maximum age, because 28 is above 27 with no relaxation, and the panel would then read '2 of 4 criteria are not met'.

Each line carries its own explanation. The maximum-age line shows the arithmetic (upper limit plus relaxation equals the relaxed limit) next to your completed age, so you can match it against the notification's own table.

A failed attempts line with zero remaining means you cannot sit the next cycle under that cap. Attempt caps are rare outside UPSC Civil Services and some state PSC exams, and the cap itself often depends on category, so enter the figure that applies to you. The panel appears only once a date of birth is entered.

• Typing the relaxed maximum age from a category table as the maximum. Enter the unrelaxed general-category figure; the tool adds relaxation itself.
• Choosing a qualification you are still studying for. Most notifications want the degree complete by the closing date, so pick the level whose final result you already hold.
• Treating a diploma as higher than 12th for every post. The ladder ranks Diploma above 12th, yet a post that asks for 12th with specific subjects (say Physics and Maths) may not accept a diploma.
• Counting attempts by the number of forms filled. For UPSC, an attempt is counted only when you appear in at least one paper of the prelims.
• Leaving 'Age as on' at today's date rather than the cut-off date.

Only the three criteria on screen are tested. Physical standards for police and defence posts, domicile for state quotas, typing or language tests, experience, medical fitness and percentage-of-marks conditions sit outside this tool and must be read from the advertisement.

Relaxation figures are the central norms used by most central notifications. States differ and many add relaxations for women, domicile candidates or sportspersons. If your notification prints a different figure, enter the relaxed upper limit yourself as the maximum age with the category set to General.

The qualification comparison is about level only. A graduate in any stream passes a 'Graduation (any stream)' requirement here, which suits clerical and general posts and says nothing about technical posts that specify an engineering branch or a particular degree.

The eligibility panel is a reading aid, not an official determination. The recruiting body decides eligibility at document verification against its own rules.