Everyone who desires to get admitted in Indian Army, Navy or Air Force has to fulfill certain eligibility criteria. If the applicant finds himself suitable then only apply in CDS exam otherwise its wastage to apply.

The eligibility is checked on the basis of nationality, age limit,sex, marital status, educational qualification & physical standards.

CDS Eligibility Criteria :

1. Nationality – To be eligible to apply, a candidate must be an Indian, Bhutan or Nepal citizen. Or he can be a Tibetan refugee who came to India before 1st Jan 1962.
2. Age, Sex & Marital status -
   * for Indian Military Academy – The candidate should be male, unmarried & should have birth year between 2nd July 1981 to 1st July 1986.
   * for Naval Academy – unmarried male born not earlier than 2nd July 1983 & not earlier than 1st July 1986 are eligible.
   * for Air Force Academy – those are are unmarried male & born 2nd July 1982 & 1st July 1986 are eligible.
   * for Officers Training Academy -  Male candidates (both married & unmarried) born between 2nd July 1980 to 1stJuly 1986 are eligible.
3. Educational Qualification -
   * for IMA & Officers Training Academy – the candidate should have degree or equivalent from a recognized university.
   *for Naval Academy – should have at least Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or B.Sc. with Physics & Mathematics as compulsory subjects.
   *For Air Force Academy – should have either degree from a recognized university with physics & mathematics at 10+2 level or Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
4. Physical Standards – The candidate should be medically fit in all respects according to the prescribed physical standards which is mentioned below.
   a.  He should be in free from any mental or physical disease or disability which at any point of time interfere with his duties.
   b.  He candidate should not be over weight or have weak constitution or any body defects.
   c.   He should be at least 157cms in height (157.5 cms for Navy & 162.5 cms for Air Force).
   d.   You have to undergo a medical test fro ear wax, refractive error of eyes, fungal infection of skin on your own before appearing for SSB interview.
   e.    You should have a chest expansion after full inspiration of 5cms at least. The chest should be ell developed. Chest X-ray is to be taken to rule out any disease.
   f.     The bones & joints should be healthy with no disease.
   g.    There should be any history of fits or metal disease.
   h.     There should not be any history of disease of ear, nose & throat. The hearing capacity should be normal.
   i.     The blood pressure should be normal & candidate should not have any functional or organic disease of heart & blood vessels.
   j.     Abdominal system should be normal with no evidence of liver or spleen enlargement.
   k.    The candidate should not have any un operated hernia. If there is any & has been operated, then it should be at least 1 year prior to interview with full healing.
   l.     There should not be any hydrocele, varicocele or piles.
   m.   Urine examination should be normal.
   n.    Vision should be normal. A candidate should be able to read 6/6 in a distant vision chart with each eye with or without glasses (For navy and Air Force without glasses only) Myopia should not be more than 3.5D and hypermetropia not more than 3.5D including Astigmatism. Internal examination of the eye will be done by means of ophthalmoscope to rule out any disease of the eye. A candidate must have good binocular vision. The color vision standard will be CP-3. A candidate should be able to recognize red and green colors.
   o.   The candidate should have sufficient no. of natural & sound teeth.
   p.    X-Ray examination of the chest will include the lower part of cervical spine for presence of cervical ribs. X-Ray examination of other parts of spine will be taken if the SMB considers it necessary.

You should also aware of the CDS Exam Selection Procedure & Common Defence Service CDS exam syllabus. This will help you a lot in the exam & chances of your clearly the exam will be increased.

All the best.

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