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Services Selection Board (SSB) is an organization that assesses the candidates for becoming officers into the Indian Armed Forces. The board evaluates the suitability of the candidate for becoming an officer using a standardized protocol of evaluation system which constitutes of personality, intelligence tests, and interviews. The tests are of both types i.e. written and practical task-based. An SSB comprises the panel of assessors, who are officers in Indian Armed Forces and having their specialization as Psychologist, GTO (Group Task Officer) and Interviewing Officer. In total there are thirteen Service Selection Boards across India, out of which four boards are for Indian Army, four boards are for Indian Air Force and five boards for Indian Navy. SSB is a 5–6 days evaluation process.

Introduction

There are a variety of pathways to a commission as an officer in Indian Armed Forces. This applies to both for civilians (after 10+2, graduation and post graduation), as well as for serving armed forces personnel. All except army medical corps members must succeed in the “SSB interview”. There is no limit to the number of attempts that can be made. The interview involves a battery of psychological tests of personality, to assess the candidate’s suitability for commission to the armed forces. The tests help the SSB select candidates with officer like qualities (“OLQs”). The Services Selection Board is not concerned with the number of commissions available. Its responsibility is just to assess and then, recommend. Successful candidates have a medical examination and if satisfactory are recorded on a “merit list” before training and commission.

Procedure

The candidates who have passed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) written examination, or who, in the case of the Territorial Army have been recommended by a Preliminary Interview Board (PIB), or, who have been asked to present to the Service Selection Board are allocated a SSB centre to attend. Service candidates attend via movement orders made by their superiors. Various entries like Technical entry and NCC special entry gets direct call letter to attend SSB. The selection is based on the concept of Manasa, Vacha and Karmana. The personality of the candidate is observed by the officers using various tests for the candidates like psychology test, interview and GTO tasks. There is no right or wrong answers in SSB as every individual acts in different way to the same situation. The aim is to check whether the candidate is right fit to become an officer in the defense force.