JEE Main 2026: The Joint Entrance Examination (Main) is the exam conducted by NTA for admission to BTech, BArch, and BPlan courses at NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs. BTech admission in IITs is through JEE Advanced, but students first need to qualify JEE Main to appear in JEE Advanced. The JEE Main exam is conducted twice every year in January and April, wherein students can appear in one or both sessions, and the rank is calculated considering the best of two scores.

NTA will release the JEE Main 2026 Notification tentatively in the first week of November 2025. The JEE Mains 2026 exam dates for the January and April sessions will be announced along with the notification. JEE Main Application Form 2026 will likely be released in November. The syllabus and exam pattern details for JEE Main 2026 will be released soon by the NTA. Candidates are provided here the previous year JEE Mains syllabus PDF and exam pattern details for all three courses to start preparation for the exam. Candidates can also check here JEE Mains 2025 question paper PDF and other JEE Main previous year papers to help understand the difficulty of the exam.

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JEE Main LogoWhat is JEE Main Exam?

The Joint Entrance Examination (Main), commonly referred to as JEE Main, is the exam conducted for admission to B.Tech, BArch, and BPlan courses at NITs, IIITs, other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). Many other private Institutions/universities and colleges managed by State Governments also provide admission through JEE Main. The JEE Main exam is also an eligibility test for JEE Advanced, conducted for admission to IITs. The JEE Main is held twice a year, providing students with two opportunities to secure a good score. Students have the option to appear in one or both attempts. The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the JEE Main exam every year.

Students must note that the NTA is only responsible for providing administrative and logistical support for conducting the JEE Main, whereas the Joint Admission Board (JAB) acts as the final authority for all policies, rules, and regulations. The JAB is the apex body consisting of members from NTA, IITs, NITs and other institutes and is responsible for setting up the policies and regulations of JEE Main as well as JEE Advanced. The function of JAB includes deciding the eligibility criteria, reservation guidelines, setting up the question papers, and overseeing the counselling process for admission. 

The JEE Main exam consists of three papers:

Engineering (Paper 1): The engineering exam, also called Paper 1, will have Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. JEE Main 2026 B.Tech paper will have a total of 75 questions, 25 questions of 4 marks each from Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Check JEE Main preparation tips for the engineering paper

Architecture (Paper 2A): The Architecture exam, also known as Paper 2A will have Mathematics, Drawing and General Aptitude questions.  In Paper 2A, 25 questions of 4 marks each will be from Mathematics, 2 questions from drawing, and 50 questions of 4 marks each from General Aptitude.

Planning (Paper 2B): The Planning exam (Paper 2B) will have Mathematics, Planning and General Aptitude. The Planning paper (2B) will have 25 questions from Mathematics, 25 from Planning, and 50 from General Aptitude, each question of 4 marks.

The NTA JEE Mains 2026 exam will be computer-based, except for the Drawing section of Paper 2, which will be conducted on paper. 

How Many Candidates Register for JEE Mains

The NTA releases data on how many candidates registered and appeared in JEE Main every year along with the result. Table below provides the total number of candidates registered in JEE Mains in previous years, sourced from NTA.

Year

No. of Registered Students

No. of Students Appeared

2025

 

January- 13,11,544

January- 12,58,136

April- 10,61,840

April- 9,92,350

2024

 

January- 1231874

January- 1170036

April – 1179569

April – 1067959

2023

January – 860064

January – 823967

April – 931334

April – 883367

2022

June – 872970

June – 769604

July – 622034

July – 540242

2021

February – 652628

February – 621033

March – 619641

March – 556248

 July – 709611

July – 543553

August – 767700

 August – 481419

2020

8,58,000

 8,00,532

2019

January – 9,29,198

January – 8,74,469

April – 9,35,755

 April – 8,81,096

2018

10,43,739

 10,01,543

2017

1186454

Online Exam – 165635

Offline Exam- 956716

2016

12,07,257

Online Exam- 10,22,808

Offline  Exam- 1,72,058

2015

13,04,646

Online Exam- 11,05,135

Offline Exam- 1,87,782

2014

13,56,805

Online Exam- 11,72,538

Offline Exam- 1,72,369

2013

12,60,219

11,89,777

2012

11,45,353

10,70,276

2011

11,14,880

10,53,833

2010

11,18,147

10,65,100

2009

10,10,061

9,62,119

JEE Main Over the Years

The current structure of JEE Main including the pattern and mode of exam, is the outcome of several changes over a period. The admission process of various engineering colleges in India until 2002 was governed by the institutes itself, which included written examination and/or merit of qualifying exam/personal interview.

It was in the year 2002, when the govt of India formed new NITs and IIITs, the need of a common entrance exam was felt which would serve as a single test for admission for the institutes of national importance. The All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) was started in 2002 and the responsibility to conduct the exam was given to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

In the year 2019, the govt formed a separate body, National Testing Agency (NTA), with purpose to organize entrance exams for various course. The CBSE continued organizing the exam until 2018 and from 2019, NTA started conducting the exam.

JEE Main Controversies

There have been several instances when the NTA’s credibility was questioned. In 2011, there were news of a paper leak in Lucknow hours before AIEEE exam. The CBSE eventually delayed the test and issued alternate papers moments before start time to protect fairness. In 2020, JEE Mains Assam state topper Neel Nakshatra Das was found guilty of letting dummy candidate appear in his name, leading to multiple arrests and spotlighting invigilation gaps in CBT settings. In 2022, widespread technical glitches and answer-key/response issues drew criticism. In 2024 Session 1 exam, several students claimed mismatch in their raw score and the percentile they got. In 2024 Session 2, AI and biometrics flagged one impersonation and nine cheating cases; leading to debarrment of total 39 candidates.