The Cavalier — Where Officers Are Made
The Cavalier was founded in 2001 by retired officers of the Indian Armed Forces — at a time when the Service Selection Board (SSB) was a closed, opaque world to most aspirants and structured SSB coaching simply did not exist in North India. Today, more than two decades later, we remain what we were on day one: an academy run by officers, for officers-in-the-making.
Our Story
In 2001, the SSB was a near-mythical filter — feared by aspirants, misunderstood by parents, and serviced by no formal coaching ecosystem in North India. The few institutes that did exist focused on the written exam; the SSB was something candidates were expected to face cold, on instinct, with whatever guidance they could scrape together from family or friends in uniform.
A small group of retired Armed Forces officers — men who had themselves served as Interviewing Officers, GTOs and Psychologists at India's Selection Boards — saw the gap and decided to fill it. They had watched too many genuinely deserving candidates fail the SSB simply because no one had explained to them what the assessors were actually looking for. They had the institutional knowledge, the time after retirement, and the conviction that this should be taught properly.
That conviction became The Cavalier — North India's first dedicated SSB coaching academy, opened in Rajouri Garden, Delhi in 2001. The name was chosen deliberately: the cavalier in military tradition is the mounted officer who leads from the front, mobile, decisive, courageous. It is what we wanted our students to become.
In the years since, we've added written exam coaching for NDA, CDS, AFCAT, CAPF and Territorial Army — but the SSB programme remains our soul. Our SSB faculty are not actors playing the part of assessors; they are the people who, until very recently, were the assessors. There is no shortcut to that experience.
Milestones
Founded in Rajouri Garden, Delhi by retired Armed Forces officers as North India's first dedicated SSB coaching academy.
Early students convert in their first or second SSB attempt, validating the assessor-led training model.
In response to repeated student requests, full NDA and CDS written-exam coaching is added — taught by subject experts, not generalist tutors.
Dedicated outdoor GTO ground built to actual Selection Board specifications — Progressive Group Task, Half Group Task, Snake Race, Command Task, and the full obstacle course.
Expansion into Air Force, paramilitary and Territorial Army officer-entry exam preparation.
Following the Supreme Court's 2021 ruling opening NDA to women, The Cavalier coaches its first batch of female aspirants — many subsequently commissioned through both NDA and CDS routes.
A quarter-century of preparing officers for the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force — and still run on the same principle as on day one.
Impact in Numbers
Our students wear the uniform across the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force — from infantry battalions in Ladakh to fighter squadrons at Hindon, from naval warships at sea to the corridors of South Block. Many of them now send their juniors to us. That, more than any number, is the verdict that matters.
SSB Faculty
Our SSB programme is led by retired officers who served as Interviewing Officers, Group Testing Officers (GTOs), and Psychologists at India's Service Selection Boards. They are not commentators on the SSB process — they ran it. Mock interviews, GTO ground sessions, and psychological test analyses are conducted by the people who, until recently, were the actual assessors.
Brig Sandeep Mohla, SM (Retd)
Ex-President & Interviewing Officer 33 SSB Jalandhar
Col DN Sharma (Retd)
Senior GTO, 19 SSB Allahabad Senior GTO, 17 SSB Bangalore
Col Vijayant Thakur (Retd)
Psychologist, 20 SSB Bhopal
For a deeper look at our SSB programme — the 5-day mock SSB, the GTO ground sessions, and the psychological tests — see our SSB Interview Coaching page or explore individual stages: Screening Test, Psychological Tests, GTO Series, Personal Interview.
Written Exam Faculty
Our written-exam faculty are subject specialists with deep experience preparing aspirants for NDA, CDS, AFCAT, CAPF and Territorial Army written examinations. Each faculty member has a specific subject focus — Mathematics, English, GAT, GK, Reasoning, Current Affairs, Science and History — and brings years of test-pattern analysis to the classroom.
Narendra Singh
Senior Faculty Mathematics — NDA & CDS
Ankit Shukla
Faculty — General Ability Test NDA · CDS · AFCAT
Nupur Gulati
Faculty — English & Comprehension NDA · CDS · AFCAT
Arpit Tomar
Faculty — Reasoning & Aptitude AFCAT · CAPF · TA
Abhishek Thakur
Faculty — Current Affairs & GK NDA · CDS · CAPF
Sharad Mudgal
Faculty — Science & History NDA GAT · CDS GK
Our coaching programmes pair written-exam preparation with SSB foundation from Day 1 — see NDA Coaching, CDS Coaching, AFCAT Coaching, CAPF Coaching, Territorial Army.
How We Teach
Three principles have stayed constant since 2001:
- Officers teach officers. Our SSB faculty are former assessors at India's Selection Boards. Our written faculty are subject specialists who have lived with these question patterns for years. There is no junior staff or freshly-minted graduate fronting a class.
- The ground matters. SSB's Group Testing Officer phase cannot be simulated in a classroom. We built — and maintain — a 5-acre GTO ground in Delhi with the actual obstacle dimensions, the full task suite, and the same scoring rigour. Our students arrive at the real SSB having already run the playbook.
- Honesty over flattery. The SSB is a 5-day high-stakes assessment. Our mock SSB results are reported honestly — a candidate who isn't ready hears it, with specific feedback on what to fix. We'd rather lose a student than send them to the actual board unprepared.
For day-to-day insights into our training, see our outdoor training, , and success stories.
Walk Into the Academy
The first counselling session is free. Come over any working day, meet our faculty, see the ground, and decide for yourself. We are 300m from Rajouri Garden Blue Line metro.