Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: A total of 26 candidates secured a perfect 100 NTA score in JEE (Main) 2026, even as 2,50,182 candidates qualified for JEE (Advanced), the gateway to the IITs. The number of perfect scorers has risen from 24 last year, underlining intensifying competition at the top end. Among the 26 perfect scorers, one candidate belongs to the general-EWS category and one to OBC-NCL.Among the 26 toppers, there is no female candidate with a 100 percentile this year. Telangana’s Mallavarapu Aasna emerged as the highest-scoring female candidate with a near-perfect 99.998 percentile. The absence of a female 100-percentiler marks a shift from 2025, when at least one girl featured among the top scorers.State-wise, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana dominated the perfect scorers list with five candidates each. Rajasthan followed with four, while Delhi accounted for three. Maharashtra and Haryana had two each, and one each came from Chandigarh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Gujarat, reflecting a continued concentration of top ranks in a handful of states.No candidate from SC or ST categories featured among the 100 percentile scorers, continuing a pattern seen in previous years.In comparison, JEE Main 2025 had 24 candidates with a 100 NTA score, including 10 from the April session alone. Rajasthan had led the tally with seven toppers, followed by Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. Notably, 2025 had at least one female topper among the perfect scorers, indicating a slight shift in gender representation this year. JEE (Advanced) remains one of the toughest entrance examinations globally, serving as the sole gateway to the Indian Institutes of Technology. Only the top-performing candidates in JEE (Main), based on category-wise cut-offs, are eligible to appear for it. The exam ultimately filters candidates for roughly 17,000 IIT seats, making the selection ratio extremely competitive.This year, 96,873 candidates from the general category qualified for JEE (Advanced), followed by 67,597 OBC candidates, 37,522 SC, 25,009 EWS and 18,790 ST candidates, taking the total to 2,50,182 .Overall, 16,04,854 unique candidates registered for JEE (Main) 2026 across both sessions, of whom 15,38,468 appeared. In the April session alone, 11,10,904 candidates registered and 10,34,330 appeared, reflecting a high attendance rate of over 93% The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main is India’s largest engineering entrance test and serves as the gateway to undergraduate programmes in institutions such as the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other centrally funded technical institutions. Conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the exam is held in two sessions each year in a computer-based format, with candidates allowed to appear in one or both sessions and their best score considered for ranking. Scores are reported as NTA percentiles, which normalise performance across multiple shifts.Key highlightsPerfect scorers26 candidates scored 100 NTA percentileUp from 24 in 2025Topper distribution (100 percentile)Andhra Pradesh: 5Telangana: 5Rajasthan: 4Delhi: 3Maharashtra: 2Haryana: 2Others (1 each): Chandigarh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, GujaratCategory snapshot (100 percentile)General-EWS: 1OBC-NCL: 1Qualified for JEE (Advanced): 2,50,182General: 96,873OBC: 67,597SC: 37,522EWS: 25,009ST: 18,790Participation (both sessions combined)Registered: 16,04,854Appeared: 15,38,468Repeat performersPasala Mohith from Andhra Pradesh and Shubham Kumar from Bihar the two candidates who scored 100 percentile in both the sessions (January and April).
