CSIR-CEERI PF-08/2026: What the Interview Is About

Advertisement PF-08/2026 does not print a question paper, a subject list, or a qualifying mark. A screening committee can set its own shortlist for each project. The interview is then about that project. Pay, tenure and the six-year bar are on the recruitment page.

There is no common paper

The heading of the advertisement says the interview may be online or in person. The body says shortlisted candidates join Microsoft Teams as a guest. Prepare for a conversation on the project, not for a 100-question objective test. If the committee later calls you in person, that instruction will be in the email. Do not travel on the assumption.

Read the project title before you revise anything else. A computer-science graduate on the endoscope post is not being interviewed for the same work as a computer-science graduate on the transformer post.

Match the degree to the code

Desirable work on 3407 is student outreach, AR and VR, a magazine, imaging software, databases and GitHub. That is the Jigyasa row. Do not carry that list into the sensor posts.

What to revise

For 3406, be ready to explain how you would watch a transformer: which quantity you measure, how it reaches a server, and what a fault looks like in the data. The desirable line names IoT platforms and Python, JavaScript or SQL.

For 3409, the project is a portable 3D endoscope for minimally invasive surgery. The interview is about imaging and electronics, not about performing surgery.

For 3410, the project is CSIR Aroma 4.0. Stay with sensing and electronics around that work. The advertisement does not ask you to recite a pharmacognosy textbook.

For 3411, the project is health of in-situ sensors, power, and intrusion detection in hydro-meteorological systems. For 3412, it is a non-contact millimetre-wave measurement of river level and velocity. Both are at Jaipur, both are JRF, both are Rs 37,000. They are not the same project. Apply for the one you can talk about.

The screening committee can use different criteria for different projects. A complete form with a visible percentage is the first filter. A certificate that does not show percentage or CGPA may be left out.

What follows is the work each title names. It is not a printed question paper.

3406, transformer health, Jaipur. The desirable line is IoT, Python or JavaScript or SQL, and a valid NET or GATE score. Be able to say which quantity you would read on a distribution transformer (oil temperature, load current, a dissolved-gas flag if the sensor exists), how that reading leaves the site, and how you would store it so a fault is a row you can query. The essential degree is still electronics, instrumentation, or computer science. The languages are desirable.

3409, portable 3D endoscope, Pilani. This is imaging electronics for minimally invasive surgery. Revise how a camera signal is captured, why lighting and white balance matter in a cavity, and what "3D" changes in the sensor or the display. You are not being asked to operate.

3410, Aroma 4.0. Stay with sensing and electronics. A gas or volatile measurement, a calibration, and a data path to a store is a complete answer. The row prints Rs 28,000. The footnote later sets Project Associate-II at Rs 35,000 when the candidate has CSIR-UGC NET, GATE, or a listed national selection, and Rs 28,000 otherwise. Say both. Do not upgrade the cell on your own.

3411 and 3412, Jaipur, JRF, Rs 37,000, age 30. 3411 is in-situ sensors, their power, and intrusion detection in a hydro-meteorological system. 3412 is a non-contact millimetre-wave measurement of river level and of velocity or discharge. Same degree line, different instrument. On 3411, talk about how a remote sensor stays powered and how you would know someone had opened the box. On 3412, talk about why a contact gauge fails in a flood and what a millimetre-wave return can give you instead.

3407, Jigyasa. The desirable work is student scientific projects, AR and VR, a magazine, imaging software, databases and GitHub. That list does not transfer to the sensor posts.

3408, smart agrotech. Physics, electronics, or agriculture for the associate, a diploma for Assistant-II, and 10th plus ITI for Assistant-I. The row prints Rs 25,000 for the associate, Rs 18,000 for Assistant-I and Rs 20,000 for Assistant-II. Do not replace those figures with the NET split used on other rows.

Anyone who has already been project staff for six years or more in CEERI or any CSIR laboratory, with every spell added, is ineligible. A shorter spell leaves only the remainder. The engagement is not a CSIR post and does not lead to absorption.