RRB ALP CBT-1 2026: Exam 3–5 Nov, City Slip & Admit Card

The exam window is fixed: 3, 4 and 5 November 2026

The Railway Recruitment Boards will hold the first computer-based test (CBT-1) for Assistant Loco Pilot recruitment under Centralised Employment Notice CEN 01/2026 on 3, 4 and 5 November 2026. The schedule comes from the RRB exam-date notice dated 21 September 2026. This recruitment carries 11,127 Assistant Loco Pilot vacancies, and its application window — which ran from 15 May to 14 June 2026 — is long closed. If you applied, everything from here is about the test sequence, and the sequence starts in days, not weeks: the city intimation slips begin roughly ten days before the exam, which places them around 23 October 2026.

Two documents are coming, and candidates routinely confuse them. The city intimation slip comes first and tells you the city in which your exam will be held, so you can plan travel; it is not an admit card and it will not get you into the hall. The e-call letter — the actual admit card — follows about four days before your own exam date, and it carries your exact venue, shift and reporting time. A candidate sitting on 5 November should therefore expect the call letter later than a candidate sitting on 3 November. Check the RRB website of the board you applied to, and download from the official link only.

What an Assistant Loco Pilot is, for readers meeting this post for the first time

The Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) works in the locomotive cab alongside the Loco Pilot on Indian Railways trains — assisting in running the train, watching signals and instruments, and supporting the safe operation of the locomotive. It is one of the Railways' large technical entry routes, recruited centrally through the RRBs under a CEN, and CEN 01/2026 is this cycle's notice: 11,127 posts, applications invited in May–June 2026, and a multi-stage selection that is deliberately long because the job is safety-critical. Everyone reading this article is already inside that pipeline — applications closed on 14 June 2026 and no fresh application is possible in this cycle.

CBT-1: a screening test, and what that really means

CBT-1 consists of 75 questions in 60 minutes. Its job in the selection design is screening only: it exists to reduce a very large applicant pool to a manageable multiple of the vacancies for the merit-bearing stage that follows. Two consequences of that design deserve to be understood before you sit the test.

First, because CBT-1 is held across three days and multiple shifts, raw marks are not directly comparable between shifts. RRB normalises scores across shifts before shortlisting, so a harder shift does not disadvantage its candidates. Second, screening-only means CBT-1 marks shortlist you — they are not the marks on which the final panel is built. What CBT-1 decides is whether you reach CBT-2 at all. Treat it with full seriousness and correct perspective at the same time: you must clear it, and clearing it is not the finish line.

With 75 questions in 60 minutes you have roughly 48 seconds per question. That arithmetic, more than any syllabus summary, should shape your last fortnight: this is a pace and accuracy exercise, and the candidates who practise full-length timed attempts now will manage the clock better than candidates still reading notes in November.

The full selection chain: five stages, in order

CEN 01/2026 selection runs through:

1. CBT-1— 75 questions, 60 minutes, 3–5 November 2026; screening stage, normalised marks used for shortlisting.
2. CBT-2— the merit-bearing computer-based test for candidates shortlisted from CBT-1.
3. CBAT— the Computer Based Aptitude Test, the stage specific to the Loco Pilot line, applied to candidates who clear CBT-2.
4. Document Verification (DV)— original certificates checked against everything claimed in the application.
5. Medical Examination— fitness assessed to the standard the post requires.

Each stage is a gate, not a formality, and the order matters for how you prepare: there is no value in aptitude-test preparation before CBT-1 is cleared, and no recovery from a document problem discovered at DV — the time to reconcile name spellings, category documents and certificates is now, while the only test in front of you is CBT-1.

Your timeline from today

• Around 23 October 2026: city intimation slip — check your exam city and plan travel and stay if the city is not your own.
• About four days before your exam date: e-call letter download opens for your date — print it, read the reporting time and the instructions page, and keep your identity documents ready alongside it.
• 3, 4 or 5 November 2026: your CBT-1, in the shift printed on your call letter.
• After CBT-1: the CBT-2 schedule, and the shortlist built on normalised CBT-1 marks, will be announced by the RRBs. No CBT-2 date exists yet, and this article does not invent one.

Practical checks for admit-card week

Download the city slip and the call letter from your RRB's official website or the official application portal — never from a forwarded link, and never by paying anyone: both documents are free. Verify every printed field the day you download: your name, roll number, exam date, shift, reporting time and venue city. If the call letter's photograph or details are wrong, contact your RRB immediately rather than hoping the centre will overlook it. Plan to reach the venue well before the reporting time; railway exam centres close their gates on schedule, and a normalised score cannot be earned from outside the gate.

Official links

• Railway Recruitment Board, Chandigarh (regional RRB portal): https://rrbcdg.gov.in/
• RRB application portal: https://rrbapply.gov.in/

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