Education and Career Forum

My name is Hritik Hansda and I am in standard 8th from West Bengal. I love my motherland India very much and eager to serve my country. I want to join in Indian air force. Please someone guide me to become an IAF officer. Thank you.

To join Air Force as an officer right now you do not have sufficient educational qualification.

The candidates have to appear and qualify in NDA entrance for final selection for it. The examination is conducted twice in year.

The eligibility to appear for examination is :-

Candidate must have passed or pursuing in 12th from a recognised board.

Candidate must have PCM as main paper.

Candidate's age must be between 16.5-19.5 years.

So, you have to wait till the 12th to appear for examination. The examination is conducted in two stages as written and SSB.

To be an officer in Indian Air force you basically have the options given here under :-

--> The very first option is through joining NDA ( National Defense Academy ) for which you will need to qualify NDA entrance examination. Also for appearing in the same examination, you need to be an unmarried Indian male candidate with your age lying within 16.5 years to 19.5 years. Apart from this you need to hold higher secondary school degree with PCM group along with English from a recognized board of education.

--> Further you will have the option of joining Air force Academy through CDS ( Combined Defense Services ) entrance examination. For appearing in this examination your age need to lie within 19 years to 23 years and you must be graduated with Physics or Mathematics or Engineering stream from a recognized university.

--> Final option is through AFCAT ( Air force Common Admission Test ) for which your age need to lie within 20 years to 24 years apart from the educational qualification as required for appearing in CDS entrance examination.

For more details and updates regarding these entries you can log on to the link www.careerairforce.nic.in.

To join Indian Air Force as an officer, you should have passed 12th standard or an equivalent examination from a recognised board. You need to appear in NDA examination to be eligible to join Indian Air Force.

Eligibility criteria required to join Indian Air Force to appear in NDA examination is mentioned below :-

1. You should be a citizen of India.

2. You should be in between 16 1/2 to 19 1/2 years.

3. You should have completed 12th standard or equivalent with Physics and Mathematics subjects from a recognised board.

4. You should be an Unmarried Male candidate

5. You should be Physically fit as per physical standards mentioned in the UPSC NDA examination notification.

To join Indian Air Force as officer you have to complete 12th standard with PCM with at least 60% marks and after passing you have to appear in NDA exam that is conducted by UPSC twice in year.
Selection procedure:

written exam

Physical Test

One who wishes to join Indian Air Force as an Officer should appear for AFCAT exam.

AFCAT stands for Air Force Common Admission Test. One can apply for Technical Branch,Flying branch and Ground Duty branch of Indian Air Force through AFCAT exam .

Eligibility criteria required to appear for AFCAT exam are as under :-

Flying branch :

-The candidate age limit should be in between 20 to 24 years .

-The candidate should have passed Graduation in any discipline with at least 60% marks from a recognized university .

-The candidate should have passed 10+2 with Physics and Mathematics .

-The candidate should have passed Pilot Aptitude Battery Test (PABT).

Physical standards :

Height : 162.5cms for both men and women with correlated weight

Eyesight : 6/6 in one eye and 6/9 in another.

Technical Branch:

-The candidate age limit should be in between 20 to 26 years .

-The candidate should have passed Bachelor of Engineering with at least 60% marks from a recognized university .

Physical standards :

Height :

For Men : 157.5 cms

For Women : 152 cms

Ground duty branch :

-The candidate age limit should be in between 20 to 26 years .

-The candidate should have passed Post Graduation degree in any stream with at least 50% marks from a recognized university . .

Physical standards :

Height :

For Men : 157.5 cms

For Women : 152 cms


Selection of candidate is made based on their performance in Screening Test, Psychological Test and Group discussion & Interview .