RRB NTPC UG Result 2025 Declared: 51,979 Candidates Qualify for CBT 2

On November 21, 2025, at 7:13 PM UTC, the Railway Recruitment Board dropped the long-awaited RRB NTPC UG Result 2025 — and the digital rush began. Over 51,979 candidates across India have cleared the first hurdle in the recruitment drive for Indian Railways’s non-technical undergraduate posts, as per official data. The results, released across all 21 regional RRB portals including rrbcdg.gov.in and rrbapply.gov.in, contain only roll numbers — no names. That means candidates are left to Ctrl+F their way through PDFs, a process that’s already sparked late-night forums and WhatsApp groups buzzing with relief, anxiety, and disbelief.

What Happened During CBT 1?

The Computer-Based Test 1 (CBT-1) for the RRB NTPC CEN 06/2024 recruitment ran from August 7 to September 9, 2025, across hundreds of centers in every Indian state. Over 14 million applicants had registered for just 3,445 vacancies — a ratio of nearly 4,000 to 1. The test, 90 minutes long for most, stretched to two hours for candidates with benchmark disabilities. Questions covered general awareness, mathematics, and reasoning — the same brutal triad that’s haunted aspirants for years.

Unlike previous cycles, this year’s exam saw stricter biometric verification and real-time monitoring. Candidates reported server crashes during peak hours, especially in rural centers in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand. But the Railway Recruitment Board maintained it was “technically robust.” Whether that’s true or just reassuring noise, only the audit logs will tell.

How the Merit List Works — And Why It Feels Like a Puzzle

The merit list isn’t a spreadsheet with names and ranks. It’s a 400-page PDF — each page listing hundreds of roll numbers, sorted by region and category. To find out if you made it, you need your registration number, your memory, and maybe a second screen to cross-check. There’s no rank displayed. No percentile. Just a yes or no: qualified or not.

“It’s like being told you passed the driving test but not whether you got a 90% or barely scraped through,” said Arjun Mehta, a 22-year-old aspirant from Jaipur who took the exam in August. “I don’t even know if I’m 500th or 5,000th on the list. How do I prepare for CBT 2 without knowing my standing?”

The Railway Recruitment Board says this is to prevent data leaks and ensure fairness. Critics argue it’s outdated. In 2025, with AI-driven analytics and real-time dashboards, why not give candidates a scorecard with percentiles? The answer, insiders suggest, lies in volume — managing millions of queries simultaneously is still a logistical nightmare.

Category-Wise Cut-Offs and Regional Variations

Qualifying isn’t uniform. Cut-off marks vary wildly by category and region. For example, in the General category, the lowest qualifying score in Tamil Nadu was 76.34 out of 100, while in Rajasthan, it was 81.67. In the OBC category, cut-offs ranged from 67.12 to 74.89. The SC category saw cut-offs as low as 52.45 in some zones.

“The disparity is real,” said Dr. Priya Nair, an education policy analyst at the Indian Institute of Public Administration. “Candidates from high-literacy states like Kerala and Punjab face stiffer competition, while candidates from lower-resource regions get a slight buffer. It’s affirmative action in action — but without transparency, it breeds distrust.”

Individual scorecards, downloadable via login, now include section-wise marks — General Awareness, Mathematics, and Reasoning — along with total scores. But again, no percentile. No comparison. Just raw numbers.

What’s Next? CBT 2, Typing Test, and the Long Wait

Qualifying for CBT 1 doesn’t mean you’re close to a job. It means you’re eligible for the next round — CBT 2. But here’s the catch: no date has been announced. Not even a window. The Railway Recruitment Board has said it will notify candidates “in due course,” which in government-speak often means 4 to 8 weeks.

After CBT 2 comes the Typing Skill Test (for certain posts like Junior Clerk, Accounts Clerk), followed by Document Verification and a medical checkup. The entire process, from CBT 1 to final appointment, can take up to 18 months. That’s a lifetime for a 20-year-old who’s been studying since graduation.

“I’ve been preparing for this since 2023,” said Meera Singh from Patna. “My parents sold their gold bangles to pay for coaching. If I don’t get a job by next year, I’ll have to move to Dubai for work. That’s the reality.”

Why This Matters Beyond the Job

The RRB NTPC CEN 06/2024 isn’t just about filling vacancies. It’s a lifeline for millions of young Indians who see government jobs as the only stable path forward. With private sector hiring flatlining and higher education costs soaring, a railway job isn’t just employment — it’s social security.

And yet, the system feels archaic. The website crashed within minutes of result release. The PDFs are unsearchable by name. Cut-offs aren’t published with context. Candidates are left to guess their chances. It’s not incompetence — it’s inertia. The Railway Recruitment Board operates under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India, a bureaucracy that moves at the pace of a steam locomotive.

What to Do Now

• Download your scorecard from your regional RRB portal — save it in three places.
• Verify your category and cut-off against the official PDF — don’t trust third-party sites.
• Start preparing for CBT 2 now — focus on speed, accuracy, and previous years’ papers.
• Keep your ID, educational certificates, and caste certificates ready — document verification will come fast and furious.

And for heaven’s sake — don’t fall for fake websites. The Railway Recruitment Board has warned of phishing scams. Only use official domains ending in .gov.in.