These exams use the absolute cheapest keyboard and the cheapest keyboards tend to be membrane cheap keyboards who are very hard to type on and if you get used to mechanical keyboard YOU WILL FAIL YOU EXAM because membrane keybaords are that bad.
These keyboards usually are cheap recycled old keyboards and can vary wildly. Please do your own research in this regard as I have so much varience that it can be horrible and get a used keybaord from offline market instead of a new one.
Try to get a lot higher speed on these keyboards at home only then you will be able to get the required speed in exams as those keyboards can be horrible with some keys requiring multiple presses to register and it will drive you mad.
If I ever confirm which keyboards they actually use, I will add them here: -----
But from what I remember either they were Dell KB216 or HP K120 but if you know anything about tenders you also know the cheapest agency gets the contract and they bring whatever rubbish pile they have with them.
Note: A word of warning on these keyboard. Stop typing immediately on these keyboards if you fail pain in your wrists, arms, fingers, anywhere, don't push it. These keybaords are not meant to be typed for long time and they will injure you if you push through the pain. Stop it right away and try again another day.
Why?
Even the most expensive keyboards use switches which in theory are million click but in the real world are prone to failure and I have seen so many keyboards a few switches simply stopped working and it usually happens after the 1 year warranty. Just check any non swappable keyboards' negative reviews and you will see what I mean.
One solution is to solder switches manually like a madman or the other solution is to simply buy mechanical keyboards on which you can change the switches if the older one fails and you will only see those recommendations from me below.
DON'T F**K WITH MUSCLE MEMORY.
Makes it easier to work and makes it very easy to switch between brands.
Having arrow keys and page movement keybs and numpads and the function keys where they are supposed to, might not look cool but when you actually start using your keyboard for actual work that brings in money or helps you grow a skill it matters a lot. For this reason any keyboard that is not full size or doesn't follow the standard layout will be highlighted red.
I also live on the same planet although I am sick of what humans get upto so I completely understand the need to have a cute... cudly... little FUCK!. FUCK THAT BS.
Keyboard is an input device, it should serve it's purpose and it's purpose is to give you input points and the more the better, the standard the better. Just get a full size keyboard and never look back.
Show off something else on your instagram profile not your keyboard.
Blue Switch No Numpad
Red Switch No Numpad
Blue Switch Full Size
Red Switch Full Size
All From recommended sellers only.
Blue switches make clickly sounds and good feedback for typing for long time but are irritatingly loud.
Red switches don't have any feedback so you can't say if they are pressed or not and you end up pushign all the way through if you are a beginner. These are mainly to stay silent but expect to make a lot of mistakes with this keyboard.
More about switches on the switches page.
Before 2025, these keyboards were the only ones available in the budget range that were also swappable, even if it were only hot swappable.
Please check the other more expensive keyboards below before considering these keyboards as I have used them and they are just fine, not something I can recommend 100%.
Why not recommending these 100%?
The internal board had some soft of shorts happening on them which made a few keys unusable and me and another person both had issues installing outemu keyboards and one hole ring came out making these unusable.
I am not saying this will happend with everyone but it's enough to atleast try to get something better than this.
Some videos of the same:
Red Switches
All From recommended sellers only.
Blue Switches
All From recommended sellers only.
No Full Sized switch-swappable keyboards yet.
I actually ordered it and then cancelled it right away and wrote
Blue Switch No Numpad (Black colored keybaord)
Red Switch No Numpad (White colored keybaord)
Blue Switch Full Size (Black colored keybaord)
Red Switch Full Size (White colored keyboard)
All From recommended sellers only.
Blue switches make clickly sounds and good feedback for typing for long time but are irritatingly loud.
Red switches don't have any feedback so you can't say if they are pressed or not and you end up pushign all the way through if you are a beginner. These are mainly to stay silent but expect to make a lot of mistakes with this keyboard.
More about switches on the switches page.
After being fed-up with Cosmic Byte, I saw this from EvoFox who I remembered from their excellent gamepad that they imported and they are just a bit more than the Cosmic Byte Keyboards so it felt like an excellent opportunity.
Keyboards
Mechanical keyboards are expensive than normal membrane keyboard but last longer however the most important thing they are easy on the fingers so you can keep typing all day long on them.
However, many mechanical keyboards in India including the expensive ones come with pre-soldered keys(switches), though these switches are supposed to last long, one quick reviews of them will tell you that in a few months one of the keys stop working and the only way to fix it is to send it back to the manufacturer which is a pain if it's even available. However, swappable switches, keyboard where you can just change the switches if one fails on the fly are the way to go, but there is just one keyboard as of now having the same thing which is:
₹1.6k Mechanical Keyboard - Excellent Cosmic Byte Vanth 100% Blue/Red Switches Buy from Manufacturer or Amazon India
Videos: Swappable वाला mechanical keyboard क्यों लेना चाहिए | Mechanical Keyboard Swappable हीं लो, चाहे outemu swappable ही क्यों न हो |
I have two of this keyboard and have recommended this to many people. It's the only keyboard that has swappable switches in budget although it can only use Outemu Switches at least it's better than not having that functionality. It's a big keyboard but it's a damn useful keyboard. Since you will be using a big keyboard and if you have just one keyboard make sure to get a full size one with the numpad. I know gamers like smaller keyboard so that there is playable area beside the keyboard BUT don't get a small size one if it's your only keyboard. Get a full size one, once you have one full size keyboard than you can go with a small size one.
Other Mechanical Keyboard Recommendation<Rs.1700→ Cosmic Byte Pandora TKL Mechanical Keyboard Upgraded with Swappable Switches: Buy from Manufacturer or Amazon India (Outemu Swappable Only)
<Rs.2200→ Cosmic Byte Firefly TKL Per Key RGB Mechanical Keyboard Upgraded with Swappable Switches: Buy from Manufacturer or Amazon India (Also Outemu Swappable. There used to be this keyboard which was swappable with Cherry and Gatreon also but it was discontinued)
Only get the above keyboard if you already have a big keyboard or are very very sure that you don't need extra keys. Also avoid any keyboards that have a weird layout for example this keyboard where they have crammed the arrow keys into the layout. You don't want to fuck with muscle memory ever. You will be working soon and it's always better to have the full size keyboard standard layout that's used everywhere in your muscle memory.Or with this keyboard where they removed the gaps between Function keys at the top. No one knows the future. You might end up in a different place or the keyboard that you get used to now might stop manufacturing later. You NEVER FUCK WITH MUSCLE MEMORY and form muscle memory for standard things.
With all that warning here are the other keyboards that I might only recommend who knows that they definitely don't need the full size keyboard: