NDA After Class 12: NDA 2 2026 Exam on 13 September, 394 Vacancies

The Union Public Service Commission has published the official time table for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (II), 2026. The exam is on Sunday, 13 September 2026. Mathematics runs from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm, and the General Ability Test runs from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm — both on the same day, Indian Standard Time. UPSC uploaded the time table to its site on 12 August 2026.

NDA is one of the very few national exams a student can sit straight out of Class 12, and this round carries 394 vacancies across the National Defence Academy and the Indian Naval Academy. Applications for it closed in June 2026, so only candidates who already applied will sit on 13 September. If you missed it, the next attempt is already dated: NDA & NA (I) 2027 is notified on 2 December 2026 and held on 11 April 2027.

NDA 2 2026 exam date and timings: the official time table

Date & day	Timing	Subject	Subject code
13.09.2026 (Sunday)	10:00 am – 12:30 pm	Mathematics	01
13.09.2026 (Sunday)	2:00 pm – 4:30 pm	General Ability Test	02

You can read the schedule yourself on the official UPSC page for NDA & NA (II) 2026, which lists both the notification and the time table document. As of this writing, UPSC has not yet posted an e-admit card release date for this exam — when it appears, it will appear there and nowhere else first.

Who can sit the NDA exam after Class 12

Condition	What the notification says
Age and marital status	Only unmarried male and female candidates born not earlier than 1 January 2008 and not later than 1 January 2011
Army wing of NDA	Class 12 pass of the 10+2 pattern, or an equivalent exam of a State Education Board or University
Air Force and Naval wings of NDA, and the 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme at the Indian Naval Academy	Class 12 pass with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics
Students still in Class 12	Candidates appearing in the Class 12 exam may also apply
Date of birth proof	Only the Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate date is accepted — no affidavits or horoscopes

The Physics–Chemistry–Maths condition is the one worth noticing early. A Class 11 student who takes Science without Maths, or takes Commerce or Humanities, can still apply for the Army wing — but the Air Force wing, the Naval wing and the Naval Academy entry are closed to them. That is a subject decision made two years before the exam, not two months before it.

What the two papers carry

Subject	Code	Duration	Maximum marks
Mathematics	01	2½ hours	300
General Ability Test	02	2½ hours	600
Written total	—	—	900
SSB Test / Interview	—	—	900

Three things follow from that table. Both papers are objective type only. Both question papers are set bilingually, in Hindi as well as English, so a Hindi-medium candidate is not at a language disadvantage in the written stage. And there is a penalty for wrong answers — negative marking applies, so blind guessing costs you marks. Note also that the interview stage carries 900 marks, exactly as much as the entire written exam. Clearing the written paper is half the selection, not most of it.

Since Mathematics alone is 300 marks and the paper is objective, speed on standard Class 11 and 12 topics matters more than depth on unusual ones. If you are revising, our chapter notes on Application of Derivatives for Class 12 Maths cover one of the areas that shows up repeatedly in objective papers.

Where the 394 vacancies sit

Academy and service	Male	Female	Total
NDA — Army	198	10	208
NDA — Navy (all Executive branch)	37	5	42
NDA — Air Force (Flying)	90	2	92
NDA — Air Force (Ground Duties, Tech)	16	2	18
NDA — Air Force (Ground Duties, Non-Tech)	8	2	10
Naval Academy (10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme)	21	3	24
Total	370	24	394

After the written exam: the two-stage SSB

Candidates who clear the written exam go to a Selection Centre, Air Force Selection Board or Naval Selection Board — and the notification is explicit that this is a two-stage procedure. Every candidate takes the stage-one test, a Psychological Aptitude Test and Intelligence Test, on the first day of reporting. Only those who qualify stage one are admitted to the second stage and the remaining tests. Candidates who do not clear stage one go home that same day.

Those who qualify stage two must produce original certificates along with one photocopy each: the original Matriculation pass certificate (or equivalent) as proof of date of birth, and the original Class 12 pass certificate (or equivalent) as proof of educational qualification. A candidate who is still awaiting a certificate should sort that out well before the SSB call, not in the week of it.

The five-day answer key window most candidates miss

This is the part that rarely gets written about. UPSC gives candidates who actually sat the exam a chance to make representations on the questions asked and on the provisional answer keys — but the window is short and fixed. It runs for five days, from the third day after the exam date to 6:00 pm on the seventh day. For an exam held on 13 September 2026, that means the window falls in the third week of September. There is no extension and no offline route. If you think a question was wrong, that is the only time you can say so.

Missed NDA 2 2026? NDA 1 2027 is already dated

Stage	Date
Notification of NDA & NA Examination (I), 2027	2 December 2026
Last date for receipt of applications	22 December 2026
Exam date	11 April 2027 (Sunday), one day

For a student now entering Class 12, that is the realistic target — and there is enough time to fix the two things that disqualify people quietly: the subject combination, and the date of birth recorded on the Matriculation certificate. Both are administrative, and both are far easier to correct in Class 11 than in the month of the SSB. We keep a running list of confirmed exam and admission dates on the Important Dates calendar.

Where NDA sits among the after-Class-12 routes

Selected candidates join the National Defence Academy or the Indian Naval Academy as cadets and are commissioned as officers in the Army, Navy or Air Force after academy training. It is a full career decision taken at 17 or 18, and it is not reversible in the way a college course is — which is precisely why it is worth understanding the selection process before committing a year of preparation to it.

NDA is one of a small set of national entrances that open straight after Class 12. The others worth comparing it against include the five-year law route — see our guides to what the 5-year integrated LL.B. actually involves and to CLAT 2027 dates, eligibility and exam pattern. Whichever you pick, read our note on the entries you cannot undo on an online exam form before you fill anything in — for NDA, the date of birth and the category fields are the ones that end applications.

Where to check, and what to ignore

Every date, the e-admit card and the result for this exam will be published on the UPSC website, and applications are filled only at the UPSC online application portal. Nothing else counts. UPSC also runs a candidate helpdesk on 011-24041001 and 011-40303444, listed on its own homepage.

One safety point, because defence exams attract a lot of fake coaching and “confirmed selection” messaging: no genuine official — UPSC, a Selection Centre or an academy — will ever ask you for your password, an OTP, or a payment to secure a seat. Ignore anyone who does, whatever they claim.

Always confirm on the official website before acting.