Engineering Entrance Exams 2026: JEE Main from January 21; multiple admission routes, shifting career choices

As 2026 begins, engineering aspirants across the country will shift focus to crucial entrance exam preparations that will decide admissions to IITs, NITs, IIITs, state, and private engineering colleges. From JEE Main to JEE Advanced to key state and university-level engineering entrance exams, the coming months will determine college and career choices for lakhs of students.

While traditional disciplines such as core engineering courses - computer science engineering (CSE), electrical and mechanical engineering remain top preference - recent years saw a notable shift in interest towards new-generation specialisations like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science, data analytics , reflecting the industry demand and evolving career requirements.

Lakhs of candidates compete for limited seats in the top premier institutes such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) through JEE Advanced 2026. Last year, 54,378 candidates qualified in the JEE Advanced exam — for 18,000 seats in IITs.

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State-wise BTech entrance exams 2026

Engineering entrance exam dates for BE, BTech, BArch, and BPlanning admissions:

JEE Main 2026 – The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the third-largest entrance exam JEE Mains in two sessions for admission to National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and centrally-funded technical institutes (CFTIs).

It is also the qualifying exam for JEE Advanced 2026 for admission to IIT admissions. Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) will conduct a combined counselling session for both JEE Main and JEE Advanced qualifiers.

As per the schedule, the NTA will conduct the JEE Main session 1 exams from January 21 to January 30 and the advance city intimation slip will be issued in the first week of January. The NTA JEE Mains session 2 exams will be conducted between April 1 and 10.

JEE Advanced 2026 - IIT Roorkee will conduct the JEE Advanced exam 2026 , exclusively for admission to IITs. The JEE Advanced cut-offs for all top IITs are comparatively higher than any other engineering colleges in India.

The JEE Advanced registration 2026 will be available from April 23 to May 2. The exams will be conducted after JEE Main results are declared. Only the top 2.5 lakh rank holders will be eligible to appear for the JEE Adv scheduled to be held on May 17 from 9 am to 12 noon and 2:30 to 5:30 pm.

This year, the JEE Advanced registration fee for NRI candidates has been hiked by IIT Roorkee, while application fee for Indian students remains unchanged.

AP EAPCET 2026 – The Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) will conduct the AP EAMCET 2026 exam on May 12, 13, 14, 15, and 18 for engineering admissions, and the agriculture and pharmacy tests will be conducted on May 19 and 20, as per reports.

Nearly 3 lakh aspirants appear for the state-level entrance exam every year.

TS EAMCET 2026 - Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH) will conduct the Telangana State Engineering Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test ( TS EAMCET 2026 ) for engineering admission on May 9, 10 and 11, and agriculture and pharmacy on May 4 and 5.

TNEA 2026 - Tamil Nadu holds a common counselling process for engineering admission at Anna University, Annmalai University, its affiliated colleges, and private engineering colleges in the state. Unlike other states, Tamil Nadu will admit students for BE, BTech courses based on Class 12 marks alone.

Students of Tamil Nadu need not appear for engineering entrance exams separately.

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MHT CET 2026 – The Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test Cell (CET Cell) has announced its decision to make APAAR ID and Aadhaar card mandatory for MHT CET exam 2026. The Maharashtra Admission Regulating Authority (ARA) is also planning to hike the MHT CET exam fee by 10%.

Candidates can expect the MHT CET application for engineering admission at Maharashtra engineering colleges soon on the official website, cetcell.mahacet.org.

As per the schedule, MHT CET exam date 2026 for engineering is April 11 to 19. Aspirants will have to opt for Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (PCM) group if they are seeking admission to BTech courses.

GUJCET 2026 – The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) has announced the GUJCET exam date 2026 for engineering and pharmacy courses. As per the schedule, the state-level entrance test will be held on March 29 from 10 am to 4 pm.

Nearly 1.3 lakh candidates appear for the exam every year. The test will be conducted at district-level exam centres across the state. The GUJCET registration has already begun and will be available till January 6 on the official website, gseb.org or gujcet.gseb.org.

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University-level engineering entrance exams 2026

Several deemed and private universities will hold their own entrance exams for BE, BTech admissions. Some also allow JEE-qualified candidates to apply, however, the final selection will be based on meeting the eligibility criteria.

BITSAT 2026 - Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS) has announced that it will conduct BITS Admission Test (BITSAT 2026) in two sessions - session 1 exams will be conducted from April 15 to 17 and session 2 from May 24 to 26.

The BITSAT registration process is underway and will remain active till March 16 on the admission portal, admissions.bits-pilani.ac.in.

VITEEE 2026 - Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) has announced the exam dates along with the admission details through the VIT Engineering Entrance Examination (VITEEE 2026). The application form has been uploaded on the portal, viteee.vit.ac.in, and will be available till March 31.

The VITEEE exam is scheduled to be conducted between April 28 and May 3 for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes offered at all campuses.

SRMJEEE 2026 - The SRM University of Science and Technology has also started the SRM Engineering Entrance Examination (SRMJEEE) application process. The exam will be held in three phases – phase 1 from April 23 to 28, phase 2 from June 10 to 15, and phase 3 from July 4 to 5.

SRMJEEE 2026 registration last date is April 16.