What is JEE?
JEE, the Joint Entrance Examination, is how India's national engineering institutes choose their B.Tech students, and it runs in two stages.
JEE Main is set by the NTA: one three-hour computer-based paper of 75 questions in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, offered in a January and an April session, and its rank leads to NITs, IIITs and other government-funded institutes through JoSAA. The top 2,50,000 candidates of that paper may then sit JEE Advanced, two compulsory three-hour papers set by the IITs, and that rank decides seats at the 23 IITs.
Key Points
- In JEE Main 2026 each subject had 25 questions: 20 multiple choice and 5 with a numerical answer, marked +4 for right and −1 for wrong.
- No calculator of any kind was allowed in JEE Main 2026, including an on-screen one, as NTA clarified on 2 November 2025.
- JEE Main 2026 was offered in 13 languages, with English and Hindi at every centre in India. JEE Advanced 2026 was set in English and Hindi.
- IIT and NIT admission also asks for 75% in Class 12 (65% for SC, ST and PwD) or your board's top 20 percentile, as per the 2026 rules.
- NTA's calendar of 16 September 2026 proposes 22–24 and 28–30 January 2027 for Session 1 of JEE (Main) 2027.