The interview plays a crucial role in your recommendation in SSB. It is said to carry the maximum number of marks and is taken by an officer of fairly high rank. Therefore Interview is like that one star-marked question that can change the course of things and fetch you the highest marks on the Test. Obviously, there are a lot of things associated with interviews. Your conduct and your behavior in the interview play a vital role in deciding the course of your interview. And the most important thing in any interview is the questions asked in it.

SSB interview, being no different, has certain questions which decide your selection in the SSB. Obviously, these questions alone won’t get you selected, and you need to work on other things as well, in order to clear it.

So here are few questions that are not specific to our textbook knowledge, these questions are based on your personality, social relationship, surroundings, family background, your day to day activities, intellectualism, and reasoning abilities, in fact, these questions hold more importance than current affairs questions. Your replies to such questions hold more importance than answering current affairs questions, so, you must always prepare about yourself and things around you. Having self-knowledge and of our surroundings is of utmost importance to excel in life.

SSB Interview Questions That Decide Your Selection

1. Tell me something about yourself: The answer to this one question can speak volumes about you, your life and your personality. If you answer this question well, you create a good impact for yourself. You need to speak in detail about your personality. What a person speaks about himself, in such a short notice tells a lot about that person. Basically, you have to sell your personality in this question in a subtle way.
2. The comprehensive question: This is a long question, and candidates fear it a lot of times. They forget the questions in between and think that they have messed up their interview doing that. The most important thing about the comprehensive question is the quality with which your answer. Cover all the points. The simple trick is that these questions follow a pattern and can be connected easily. Your confidence in this is very important.
3. Why you want to join: People think that this is a light question, and like every other private organization interview they attend; they just have to answer it for the sake of answering it. Others go on and say made up things about passion, patriotism, and other stuff which are idealistic. In this question you have to give practical answers, which are related to you, and not something you have read or heard somewhere. You have to be a pragmatist.
4. Why did you fail/ How is this attempt different from previous: This is an important question for repeaters. Again here you need to answer practically, and the truth. Analyze your mistakes and prepare in a better way. Introspect yourself, and your attempt, then only you’ll be able to answer this question properly.
5. In relation to your near and dear ones: If you can’t answer questions related to your family or friends properly, this goes on to show how unaware you are of your surroundings. And officers have to be aware of their surroundings. So prepare well about the qualities and work of your friends and family.
6. Situational questions: In the interview, you are slowly and very smartly pitched in a situation reaction test. The interviewing officer will ask you in a very friendly way that what will you do if your parents won’t let you marry the person you want. Or if you are forced by your parents to not join the Armed Forces, or how did you organize a match of football in your college ( if you have mentioned about playing football) or any other such situation. The key here is not to deny the situation and accept it, and answer in a mature way, corresponding to your personality.
7. Self-awareness question: Knowing oneself is the toughest task. We can analyze others, comment on them, but very rarely do we know fully about ourselves. Many times you’ll be asked questions which demand an insight into your own personality. Maybe he’ll ask you to back your answers about your hobbies, your routine, as you might have mentioned in the PIQ.
8. The questions which you don’t have an answer for: Interviews are not meant to check how much you know. They are meant to examine how you deal with the questions you don’t know. The key to this is not beating about the bush and being honest and upfront, yet calm and composed and saying that you don’t have much knowledge about the subject to answer it.

People think that their knowledge and GK help them in getting recommended, however, they are not as important as the above questions.

During the SSB interview, candidates are generally asked a wide range of questions that aim to assess their personality traits, cognitive abilities, social skills, and overall suitability for the job. Some of the most common types of questions that recommended candidates may face during the SSB interview are:

1. Personal questions about your family, background, hobbies, interests, etc.
2. Questions to test your verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
3. Questions related to your academic and professional qualifications.
4. Questions to assess your problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
5. Questions to evaluate your leadership qualities and team management skills.
6. Questions to test your mental and emotional stability under pressure.
7. Questions related to current affairs, general knowledge, and social issues.
8. Questions to assess your attitude towards life, work, and society.
9. Questions to evaluate your physical fitness and medical history.
10. Questions to test your adaptability and flexibility.
11. Questions related to your goals and aspirations.
12. Questions to assess your creativity and imagination.
13. Questions to evaluate your sense of responsibility and accountability.
14. Questions related to your ethical and moral values.
15. Questions to test your decision-making skills in real-life situations.

Not every candidate who clears the SSB interview is guaranteed to join the academy for training. There are cases where recommended candidates may not make it due to either not meeting the required merit standards or being deemed medically unfit. In such cases, these recommended candidates can reapply for the SSB interview and undergo the complete selection process again.

If you have undergone an SSB interview, you may have encountered some recommended candidates in your group who could not join the academy due to various reasons. These individuals are required to go through the entire selection process again, just like any other candidate, to prove their worthiness. There is a common belief that recommended candidates have an advantage over freshers and repeaters. However, whether this is true or not, we will explore in our next article. In this article, we will address the 15 most frequently asked questions by recommended candidates during the SSB interview.

15 Questions Only SSB Recommended Candidates Will Face

1.  Why didn’t you join the academy last time?
2.  What was the reason for being medically unfit? 
3.  What was the reason behind not making it in the merit list, what do you think?
4.  Why didn’t you join the academy when you were fit and in the merit list? (For candidates who don’t join the academy even being in the merit list)
5.  You got recommended for IAF/Army/Navy but why are you apply for IAF/Army/Navy this time, why not apply for the same service? (For candidates who get recommended for a different service and again apply for a different one)
6.  What if you are declared medically unfit again?
7.  What if you don’t make it in the merit list again?
8.  How did you improve this time, what changes have you made in your SSB preparation to get in the merit list?
9.  How did you make yourself medically fit?
10.  What if you don’t get recommend this time?
11.  Being a recommended candidate, who do you think is performing well in your group and why?
12.  What was your reaction after knowing that you are merit out/medically unfit?
13.  Do you think you will be recommended this time?
14.  Compare your SSB performance this time v/s last time?
15.  This time what different you did to make sure you make it in the merit list?

There could be more questions, so we ask all the recommended candidates to post them below in the comment section. 

More SSB Questions:

1. How did you prepare for the SSB interview?
2. What is your opinion on the current state of the armed forces?
3. How do you handle stress in high-pressure situations?
4. Can you describe a time when you showed leadership skills?
5. Why do you want to join the armed forces?
6. What are some of the qualities that make a good leader?
7. Can you tell me about a time when you had to work as part of a team to accomplish a goal?
8. How do you approach decision-making when faced with limited information?
9. Can you describe a situation where you had to think on your feet and adapt to changing circumstances?
10. What are your strengths and weaknesses, and how do they affect your performance in a team environment?

Rapid fire is the most crucial part of SSB interview. Rapid fire is a bunch of questions that IO asks the candidate in a sequence and expects the candidate to answer them in the same order. If answered correctly, Rapid fire can feel the performance of a candidate. Aspirants find it hard to face rapid fire as they are not aware of the technique of handling it and fail to give a proper response to the questions asked. Firstly, there are some rules to handle in rapid fire questions. 

• Remember the questions in sequence
• Answer in the sequence
• Don’t skip any question

Trick to handle rapid fire

• Rapid fire is asked in the sequence as given in PIQ form
• Provide limited reply to avoid confusion in sequence and answering
• Make a mind map of questions and follow it

Now let’s go through some of the most asked rapid fire questions and an outline over how to drive them as per your personality.

Tell me something about your city

• In this question, you have to give some basic points about your city, like a bit history is possible, current architecture, governance, education, tourism placed, etc.

About your family members

• This question sticks to the details given in the PIQ form. So whatever you write, just memorize it and stay ready for further probing like a field in which father/siblings working, their future plans etc.

Your relations with family and society

• Generally, this question is asked after asking detailed of family members. Here you have to show your, good relations with family and society. Your contribution and help in day to day task in family and relations with the society like casual time spent, topics of discussion with them, playing any sports with them etc.
• Tell me something about your education and academics
• This is also a question that adheres to the info given by you in the PIQ form. So candidate has to reply as per info of PIQ. 

Best teacher/teacher you don’t like

• This question needs to be handled carefully. When it comes to your favorite teacher, you must say that all teachers are best but you like XYZ because for his closeness with students and his method of deep teaching. There is no concern about any bad teacher.

Friends you like/ don’t like

• Again, this question is almost same like the question above. Here also you have to say that I have many friends from school college, society but out of them, 3-4 are my best friends who are X,Y, Z. none of my friend has bad qualities and I like all of my friends

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Reason behind marks fluctuation from 10^th to graduation

• Most of the students have ups and downs in marks in 10th, 12th and graduation marks. So this question becomes obvious in an interview. That depends on candidate’s marks but generally, candidates should reply that I am an average student and I have worked hard at all these stages. I could have done well, but sir, this is my level. In case candidates have a huge gap in marks, then he must stay prepared with the reason and respective questions from IO.

Sports achievements

• The candidate must disclose his sports achievements. Some candidates are also there who have either participated in any sports but don’t have any achievements or any even don’t have any participation experience. So in the second case, the candidate can mention any sports he had played in society or school as just for practice. Red alert: candidates must have knowledge about the sports and some basic experience also. So you are required to gather live experience by playing some sports in society or college. 

Extracurricular involvement

• It is the simplest question in which you have to answer as per your participation and experiences along with any achievement if achieved. Or you will be asked about the event related question depending on situations.

Any special experience in sports or curricular activities

• Every person some experience in these activities, whether good or bad, but stay alerted from other questions by interviewing officer targeting you.

Read More:

• 10 Ways To Boost You Confidence Before A Personal Interview
• The Right Approach To Public Speaking During SSB Interview
• AFSB Interview Rapid Fire Questions