Twenty-six candidates out of a total of 2.34 million aspirants were placed in the 100th percentile and secured a perfect score in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2026, according to the results released by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Monday. The number of students who achieved a perfect score exceeded 24 last year.
Out of the total 2,338,983 aspirants who cleared JEE (Main) this year, 1,304,653 appeared in Session 1 (held from January 21 to 29), and 1,034,330 appeared in Session 2 (April 2 to 8). A total of 800,516 candidates appeared for both sessions. All the 12 aspirants who secured 100 NTA marks in the first session also emerged among the 26 perfect scorers in the combined results of both sessions announced on Monday.
Of the 26 candidates who scored full marks, five each from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, followed by four from Rajasthan, three each from Delhi (NCT) and Haryana, and two candidates from Maharashtra. One candidate each from Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh also appeared in the list.
“For those candidates who appeared in both sessions of JEE (Main), their better scores from both the sessions have been declared. There are 26 combined toppers from all 19 shifts for Session 1 and Session 2 of JEE Main 2026,” a senior NTA official said.
JEE Main results are based on percentile scores, calculated from the raw scores after normalization.
The official said that the results of 57 candidates have not yet been announced after it was found that they used unfair methods or contradictions during identity verification.
JEE (Main) is the primary eligibility bar for JEE (Advanced), the qualifying exam for entry into leading Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). JEE (Main) scores also form the basis for admission into various engineering colleges like National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).
The JEE (Advanced) qualifying percentage for unreserved category rose marginally to 93.4 in 2026 from 93.1 last year. Likewise, the OBC non-creamy layer cut-off rose to 80.9 from 79.4 last year; For EWS, it has risen to 82.4 from 80.3 in 2025. For the SC class, the cut-off percentage for 2026 is 63.9, up from 61.1 last year, while for the ST class, it has risen to 52 in 2026 from 47.9 last year.
A total of 250,182 candidates qualified in all categories.
Shreyas Mishra from Delhi, who scored perfect marks in both the courses, said his ultimate goal is to ace JEE Advanced and secure admission into IIT Bombay, preferably in computer science or electrical engineering.
“In my mock papers, my marks ranged between 260 and 280 out of 300 and I was never able to reach the perfect score. So, when I scored 300 in the first session, I was surprised, and to make sure it was not just a fluke, I went back for the test in April,” said 17-year-old Mishra, a student of Kolachi Hansraj Model School in Ashok Vihar. “But my ultimate goal is to crack JEE Advanced, and to ensure I stay on track, apart from regular mock tests, the best option was to appear again in the JEE Main paper for the second session.”
(With inputs from Gargi Shukla)
