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AFCAT (Air Force Common Admission Test)

Evidence status: ⚪ unverified. The official portal afcat.cdac.in is currently unreachable. The exam is managed via afcat.edcil.co.in, which is not on the official-domains allowlist. This page cannot be verified against an official document this run.

AFCAT selects graduates for commissioned officer entries in the Indian Air Force's Flying, Ground Duty (Technical) and Ground Duty (Non-Technical) branches. It is held twice a year.

At a glance
Conducted by Indian Air Force
Stages AFCAT written → Air Force Selection Board (AFSB) testing → medicals
AFCAT written 100 objective questions, 300 marks, 2 hours, English only
Marking +3 correct, −1 wrong, 0 for unattempted
Who can apply Indian citizens; Flying branch 20–24 years (up to 26 with a valid DGCA Commercial Pilot Licence), Ground Duty 20–26 years
Fee Rs 550 + GST, non-refundable; no fee for NCC Special Entry
NCC Special Entry No written exam; holders of the NCC Air Wing Senior Division 'C' certificate go straight to AFSB

Official sources

Exam pattern

AFCAT (all entries): one online paper of 100 objective questions in English only — general awareness, verbal ability in English, numerical ability, and reasoning and military aptitude — to be finished in 2 hours for a maximum of 300 marks. +3 for each correct answer, −1 for each wrong answer, no marks for unattempted questions. When the exam runs in more than one shift, marks are normalised across shifts, and the IAF fixes the minimum qualifying marks.

AFSB testing: Stage-I is screening (Officer Intelligence Rating Test with the picture perception and discussion test) on day one; Stage-II is the psychological test, group tests and interview over the next five days. Flying-branch candidates who are recommended also take the Computerised Pilot Selection System, a once-in-a-lifetime test. Final merit rests on the written + AFSB total, with separate minimum qualifying marks in each.

Syllabus

Numerical ability is set at matriculation (Class 10) level; the other subjects are at graduation level:

  • English: comprehension, error detection, sentence completion, synonyms/antonyms, cloze test, idioms and phrases, analogy, sentence rearranging, one-word substitution, transformation of sentences, homonyms.
  • General awareness: history, geography, sports, national and international organisations, art and culture, personalities, environment and ecology, Indian polity, economy, basic science, science and technology, current affairs (national and international), defence.
  • Numerical ability: decimal fractions, time and work, average and percentage, profit and loss, ratio and proportion, simple and compound interest, time–distance (trains, boats and streams), area and perimeter, number system and number series, mixture and alligation, HCF and LCM, elementary mensuration, height and distance, probability, statistics (mean, median, mode).
  • Reasoning and military aptitude test: verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

How to prepare (free, in order)

  1. Accuracy over attempts: +3/−1 punishes guessing.
  2. Rebuild Class 10 arithmetic speed first; it is the only section with a school-level standard.
  3. Practise verbal and spatial reasoning: the AFSB tests both again at Stage-I.
  4. Get running-fit early: the notification asks candidates to aim for 1.6 km in 10 minutes, 10 push-ups and 3 chin-ups before reporting for AFSB.

Free resources