JEE Advanced

Overview

JEE (Advanced) is the second-stage national entrance exam for admission to undergraduate programmes at the 23 IITs and at IISc Bengaluru. Only candidates who qualify JEE (Main) can appear for it. The exam is organised each year by one of the IITs on a rotating basis.

Who can apply

For JEE (Advanced) 2026, a candidate had to meet all of the following:

• Rank among the top 2,50,000 candidates (across all categories) in the JEE (Main) 2026 B.E./B.Tech paper, with the total distributed roughly as 40.5% Open, 27% OBC-NCL, 15% SC, 10% General-EWS and 7.5% ST, plus a 5% horizontal reservation for PwD candidates within each category.

• Be born on or after 1 October 2001 (SC, ST and PwD candidates get a 5-year relaxation: born on or after 1 October 1996).

• Have appeared for the Class 12 (or equivalent) examination for the first time in either 2025 or 2026, with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as compulsory subjects (candidates whose board declared results after 18 June 2024 have a limited exception).

• Not have accepted an IIT seat in an earlier year (a maximum of two attempts is allowed, in two consecutive years).

Exam pattern

JEE (Advanced) is a computer-based test with two papers, Paper 1 and Paper 2, both compulsory. Each paper is 3 hours long. Questions are objective, in a mix of formats — single-correct, multiple-correct and numerical-answer type — and the overall exam pattern for 2026 was stated to remain broadly consistent with recent years, as detailed in the official Information Brochure.

Syllabus

The syllabus covers Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at the Class 11–12 level, going deeper into problem-solving and application than JEE (Main), as published in the official JEE (Advanced) syllabus document each year.

Marking and results

Marks vary by question type across the two papers, as specified in the Information Brochure; overall category-wise ranks (Common Rank List and category-specific lists) are published after the result.

Important dates

For JEE (Advanced) 2026, the exam was held on Sunday, 17 May 2026, as a computer-based test. Registration ran from 23 April to 2 May 2026 (extended to 5 May 2026, 11:59 pm), with the fee payment deadline on 4 May 2026, and the result was declared on 1 June 2026.

How to apply

Only candidates who qualify JEE (Main) and fall within the top 2,50,000 (category-wise) are permitted to register for JEE (Advanced), online at jeeadv.ac.in, where they complete registration and pay the fee within the notified window; registration is incomplete without fee payment.

After the exam

Admission based on JEE (Advanced) rank is conducted through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), the same single online counselling platform used for JEE (Main)-based admissions. JEE (Advanced) ranks are used for seats at the IITs and, from the 2026–27 academic year, for B.Tech admission to IISc Bengaluru as well. Seat allocation runs over several rounds (for the 2026 cycle, further rounds continued through July 2026), with candidates filling preferences, submitting documents, and paying a seat acceptance fee at each stage; candidates can choose to freeze, float or slide their allotted seat across rounds.

Preparation tips

Because JEE (Advanced) tests deeper conceptual application than JEE (Main) within the same Physics-Chemistry-Mathematics syllabus, practice should move from formula-based recall toward multi-step, application-heavy problems, including multiple-correct and numerical-answer formats. Timed practice with past JEE (Advanced) papers (rather than JEE Main papers alone) gives a more accurate sense of the difficulty and question style.