Kruti Dev Typing for Exams

Hindi typing tests are part of many recruitment processes, and a lot of preparation advice still revolves around Kruti Dev. This guide covers the part we can stand behind: how the Kruti Dev keyboard works and how to practise efficiently. It deliberately does not state exam rules, because those are set by each conducting body, differ by post and change between years.

Read the official notification first. Whether your test uses Kruti Dev, another legacy font or a Unicode font, which keyboard layout is allowed, how long the passage is, the time limit and how mistakes are counted are all in the official notice for your exam. Treat anything else, including this guide, as general background.

Candidates for SSC, court typist and state recruitment tests often ask about Kruti Dev. The SSC CHSL 2023 Tier II instructions, for example, listed a Kruti Dev layout among the Hindi options, while CPCT practice is usually done on Remington GAIL or InScript. None of these is covered here rule by rule, on purpose.

What Kruti Dev is, in one paragraph

Kruti Dev 010 stores Hindi as ordinary English letters and draws Devanagari with the font. Its keys follow the Hindi typewriter arrangement. If you learned on a Remington-style keyboard, the positions will feel familiar. If your exam uses a different layout, such as InScript, this guide’s key positions do not apply to you.

How the keys work

Most letters sit on a single key, so typing is quick once your fingers know the map. The things that trip people up are the order of keystrokes:

Vowel signs after the consonant: k gives ा, h gives ी, q gives ु, w gives ू, s gives े, S gives ै. So d + k = का, and d + s = के.
Short-i is typed first. The sign ि comes from f and is typed before the consonant, because that is where it appears on the page. f + g = हि.
Reph is typed last. The sign र् above a syllable comes from Z and is typed after the syllable, so dk;Z produces कार्य.
Half forms are often their own key. Capital letters frequently give the half form of a consonant (U is न्), which is why fgUnh produces हिन्दी: हि + न् + दी.

Seeing it once makes the pattern obvious. Type “भारत” as Hkkjr: Hk = भ, k = ा, j = र, r = त. The full table of keys is in the Kruti Dev mapping chart, where you can search by key or by letter.

Setting up your practice

Install the font the exam names. If it says Kruti Dev 010, use exactly that. The numbered variants (011, 016, 021…) are not guaranteed to be identical.
Practise in the same program, if you can. If the exam software is known (for instance a browser-based test or a specific typing tutor), practise there. Differences in autocorrect, line breaks and spacing can cost you accuracy.
Turn off autocorrect and autoformat in your practice document. Word may turn straight quotes into curly ones, which changes what the keys produce.
Check your keyboard layout. The Kruti Dev font does not change your physical keys. You type English-layout keys, and the font draws Hindi. Make sure your operating system’s keyboard is set to English, so you aren’t also switching an input method.

Finding good practice passages

Practice passages are often found in Unicode on websites and newspapers. To type them in Kruti Dev, paste the Unicode text into Unicode to Kruti Dev, copy the result into Word, set the font to Kruti Dev 010, and print or display it for dictation or copying. The loss report shows if a passage contains characters the font cannot show.

To check your own typing, do the reverse: paste what you typed into Kruti Dev to Unicode and compare the result with the original passage. If a word comes out unexpectedly, you typed a different key sequence than you intended. That makes it a good tool for spotting systematic errors, such as a habit of typing Z before a syllable instead of after.

Building speed and accuracy

Accuracy before speed. Errors usually cost more than speed gains in any scoring scheme, but check how your exam scores them.
Learn the conjunct keys. Common ligatures have their own keys, which is faster than typing the pieces: = is त्र, K is ज्ञ, J is श्र, and { is the half form of क्ष (so {k is क्ष).
Drill the order rules (short-i first, reph last) until they are automatic. Most Kruti Dev mistakes in practice are order mistakes.
Use touch typing. Keep your eyes on the passage, not the keyboard.
Type full passages at test length, not just short drills, so you build stamina.
Practise special characters. Punctuation like the danda (।), quotation marks and numerals may sit on keys you rarely use.

Questions to answer from the official notification

Before you commit to a practice setup, find the answer to each of these in the notice, not on a forum:

Which font is used, and is the exact name given?
Which keyboard layout is allowed?
Is the passage shown on screen, or dictated?
How long is the test, and how long is the passage?
How are errors counted, and do spacing and punctuation count?
Are backspace and editing allowed?
Is there a qualifying standard, and is it measured in speed, accuracy, or both?

If the notice has changed since last year’s, last year’s advice may no longer apply.

After the exam

Once the test is behind you, the sensible default is to type Hindi in Unicode for anything shared, searched or published, and convert to Kruti Dev only on the rare occasions that something demands it. Kruti Dev vs Mangal explains that trade-off.

How to type in Kruti Dev for Hindi typing exams