NDA 1 2026 Final Result Out: Merit List, Marks Date and Joining

The Union Public Service Commission has declared the final result of the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I), 2026. The press note (PIB release 2333280, 5 November 2026) lists, in order of merit, the candidates who cleared the written examination held on 12 April 2026 and then the interviews of the Services Selection Board. If your roll number is on it, congratulations. If it is not, there is a section further down written for you, and it is not a consolation prize.

Below is what the press note says, what it leaves to other websites, and what to do this week. If you only have two minutes, read the short answers.

The short answers

1. How do I check my name? Open the merit-list PDF on upsc.gov.in and search your roll number, not your name. The steps →
2. Why are there more names than seats? The list is longer than the advertised vacancies, and the medical has not been applied to it. The numbers →
3. When do I see my marks? After 15 days from the declaration, so from about 20 November. What to do with them →
4. When do I join? Both courses were notified for January 2027; your own reporting date comes from your joining instructions. Where it comes from →
5. Where do my certificates go? To Army Headquarters in New Delhi, never to UPSC. The address →

Find your path

• You are on the list — check, then secure your documents and medical. Go →
• You are waiting on a medical or an appeal — read this before you decide anything. Go →
• Your name is not there — the next NDA window opens in December. Go →
• You just want the contact numbers — UPSC and the three service helplines. Go →

How to check the result and find your name

The result is published on the UPSC website, upsc.gov.in, and the press note says so directly. Go to the written and final results section, open the entry for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I), 2026 and download the merit-list PDF.

Then do the one thing that saves the most confusion: search by roll number, not by name. Use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and type your full roll number exactly as it appears on your admit card. Names are spelt in different ways across applications and certificates, and many candidates share a surname. A roll number is unique. If the search finds nothing, try the first few digits to rule out a typing error, and page through the PDF before you conclude anything, since scanned files can defeat Ctrl+F.

The list is in order of merit. Your position in the PDF is your rank. The press note does not say how the three wings and the Naval Academy are allocated among these ranks, and your wing is decided by the merit order together with the service preferences you filled in and the vacancies available to each wing.

What the merit list means against the vacancies

The press note reports 617 candidates on the merit list. The notification of December 2025 advertised 394 vacancies in all, and described them as tentative. Here is the split as the notification reported it.

Wing or course	Men	Women	Total
Army wing, NDA	198	10	208
Navy wing, NDA	37	5	42
Air Force, Flying	90	2	92
Air Force, Ground Duties (Technical)	16	2	18
Air Force, Ground Duties (Non-Technical)	8	2	10
Naval Academy, 10+2 Cadet Entry (119th INAC)	21	3	24
All together	370	24	394

The Army, Navy and Air Force lines together make up the NDA intake of 370, and the 24 Naval Academy seats are the Indian Naval Academy course. These figures come from the notification, not from the press note of 5 November, and the notification itself called the distribution tentative. Services can revise the intake, so treat the table as a guide to proportions rather than a promise of seats.

The merit list is longer than the vacancy count: 617 names against 394 seats, roughly 223 more. That is not a typing error and it is not unusual. Last year's NDA (I) 2025 final list was reported at 735 names against 406 advertised vacancies. The press note does not explain the gap, but the sensible reading is easy to see. Candidates are listed after the interview, before the medical examination. Paragraph 2 of the press note says exactly that: "The results of Medical Examination have not been taken into account in preparing these lists." Some listed candidates will be found medically unfit, some will not be able to submit their certificates in order, and some will decline. Seats are filled down the list as that happens.

Being on the list is a very good place to be. It is not the same as holding a joining letter.

The press note gives no rank cut-off, and nobody outside the Services can tell you where your wing's line falls.

Marks: when they come and what to do with them

The press note says marks will be available on the UPSC website after 15 days from the date of declaration of the final result. The result was declared on 5 November 2026, so the earliest realistic date is about 20 November 2026. Check upsc.gov.in from that day, and do not rely on a Telegram group to tell you.

When the marks appear, here is how to read them. The NDA final merit is built from the written examination and the SSB: the written exam carries 900 marks (Mathematics 300, General Ability Test 600) and the SSB carries 900 marks, so the final total is out of 1,800. UPSC's recommended-candidate lists for earlier years show those columns: written, SSB, final total. Our explainer on the NDA selection process sets out the whole sequence.

Use them for two things. The split between written and SSB marks shows where your profile is stronger, which matters if you re-attempt. And if you were just short, the gap tells you whether you need a few more questions right or a different kind of preparation. Nothing about marks is a reason to delay your paperwork: your certificates and medical are what decide whether you join.

The cut-off question

Everyone searches for "NDA 1 2026 final cut-off" today, and most of what they find is a guess. We will not add to that. UPSC does not publish a cut-off on the day of the final result. It publishes the marks of recommended candidates afterwards, and those lists show each listed candidate's written, SSB and total marks. The last name on that list, within the vacancies actually filled, is the cut-off in practice. Any figure you see today, before those marks are published, is a coaching centre's estimate.

When the real numbers arrive, remember that the cut-off moves from year to year with the paper's difficulty and the vacancies on offer, and that the SSB half is what moves ranks most. A written-stage cut-off from an old cycle tells you little about the final list.

Joining date for the 157th NDA Course and the 119th INAC

The press note does not give a joining date. It tells candidates to visit three Ministry of Defence websites for the date of commencement: joinindianarmy.nic.in, joinindiannavy.gov.in and careerindianairforce.cdac.in.

What we can say from the notification is that both courses were advertised as commencing from 1 January 2027. That is the course's formal start, as the notification reported it. Your own reporting date is a separate matter: it is the date printed in the instructions you receive from your service, and it can differ from the nominal start by a day or two. Do not book travel on the strength of a date on a website. Book it on the strength of the letter.

The two courses are in different places. The NDA is at Khadakwasla, near Pune, and the Indian Naval Academy is at Ezhimala in Kerala. The Army, Navy and Air Force wings of the NDA train together at Khadakwasla before moving to their service academies. Our guides to a career in the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force describe what the wings lead to.

Medical: what "not taken into account" really means

Paragraph 2 of the press note is the most misunderstood sentence in the document. It says the medical results have not been taken into account in preparing the lists. Read it in two parts.

First, it means your name is on the list on merit alone. A medical board has not yet cleared you for commissioning, and the list can change when it does.

Second, it means the medical is still ahead of you, or still being completed. A candidate found temporarily unfit may be given time to correct a curable condition. A candidate found unfit can appeal: there is an Appeal Medical Board and, at the authorities' discretion, a Review Medical Board. The service concerned runs this, and the instructions given to you at the board are the ones to follow.

We are deliberately not quoting appeal time limits or fees: the sources we checked disagree, and only the official instructions count. Practically, get your medical status in writing, note the dates, and keep every report from any civil specialist who has treated you.

Documents and certificates: the address that matters

The press note makes your candidature provisional, subject to your submitting the certificates for date of birth, educational qualifications and so on, directly to the Additional Directorate General of Recruiting, Adjutant General's Branch, Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Army), West Block No. III, Wing-I, R.K. Puram, New Delhi 110066. It adds, in underlined type, that this is not to UPSC. The words "wherever this has not already been done" matter too: if you handed over your originals at the SSB and were told they are with the board, you do not have to send them again. If you are unsure, ask before you post anything.

The press note names date of birth and educational qualifications; for the full list, rely on what you were told at the board. Our documents checklist is a good starting point for assembling the file. The recurring trap is a mismatch: a name spelt differently on the application and the Class 10 certificate is a classic reason a provisional candidature stalls, so compare them today.

If your address changes, tell Army Headquarters at the same address promptly. Joining instructions travel to the address and email you registered, and a missed letter is a missed course.

Joining instructions and the call letter

Your joining instructions will not come from UPSC. They come from the service headquarters that holds your candidature, and the three websites named in the press note are where each service publishes its notices. Check the one that matches your first choice, check your registered email daily, and look in the spam folder.

Treat the letter as the only instruction that matters. If something in a group chat contradicts it, the letter wins.

What to carry to Khadakwasla and Ezhimala

We will keep this general, because the joining letter gives the precise list and it varies by service and year. Expect to carry original documents with copies, photographs, your joining letter and any medical papers. Do not buy a trunk of kit before the letter arrives. One piece of advice that is on no list: arrive fit, and do not stop training because the result is out.

Helplines and contacts, from the press note

The Commission lists these numbers, and they are the ones to use rather than any number you find on a social media post.

For	Contact
UPSC Facilitation Counter (in person)	UPSC campus, working days, 10:00 to 17:30
UPSC Candidates' Helpdesk	011-24041001 and 011-40303444, all days, 09:00 to 20:00
SSB queries, Army first choice	011-26175473 or joinindianarmy.nic.in
SSB queries, Navy or Naval Academy first choice	011-23010097, officer-navy[at]nic[dot]in, or joinindiannavy.gov.in
SSB queries, Air Force first choice	011-23010231, Extn 7645, 7646 or 7610, or careerindianairforce.cdac.in

Use UPSC for questions about the result and marks, and your service's number for anything about the board, medical or joining.

If your name is not on the list

Say this plainly, because at seventeen or eighteen a missing name feels like a verdict. It is not. It means that on this cycle, at one board, your total was not enough for the vacancies. NDA has no stated cap on the number of attempts and the examination is held twice a year; your limit is the age window.

There are five routes, and they are not mutually exclusive.

1. NDA (II) 2026, if you applied and qualified. The written result of NDA (II) 2026 was declared on 9 October 2026, for the 158th NDA Course and the 120th Indian Naval Academy Course. If your roll number was on that written list, you go through a fresh SSB for that cycle. Candidates were required to register on joinindianarmy.nic.in within about two weeks of that result, so if you have not done so, log in today and check your status. Our NDA 2 2026 result and SSB plan has the full detail.

2. NDA (I) 2027. According to the UPSC examination calendar for 2027, the notification is scheduled for 2 December 2026, the last date to apply is 22 December 2026 and the examination is on 11 April 2027. The calendar's dates are tentative, so confirm them on upsc.gov.in when the notice appears. NDA (II) 2027 is scheduled with notification on 12 May 2027, a last date of 1 June 2027 and an examination on 19 September 2027. The window is short, about three weeks. Take the age rule from the notification itself: our guide to NDA eligibility, age limit and attempts explains how to read it.

3. CDS, later. The Combined Defence Services route is for graduates, so it is a plan for after your degree, not for next year. The daily CDS and OTA current affairs is where that preparation starts.

4. 10+2 TES and similar entries. The Technical Entry Scheme for Class 12 students runs through its own application and its own SSB. It is a different route to an Army commission. See our TES SSB coaching page and the step-by-step guide to applying for the Army TES. The Navy has its own 10+2 cadet entry: see how to apply for the Navy 10+2 B.Tech entry.

5. Re-attempting the SSB. If you reached the SSB and were not recommended, work out where you lost it. Being screened out on day one points at the group and at how you present yourself. Being out at the conference points at the consistency between your tests, interview and tasks. They need different work. Our guide to the conference round explains the last stage, and the written side of a re-attempt is covered by NDA previous year papers and NDA study material.

If you are a young woman reading this, our page on NDA for girls covers how the vacancies work for you. The 24 seats for women in the table above are across all wings and the Naval Academy.

What to do this week

1. Download the PDF from upsc.gov.in and confirm your roll number yourself.
2. Check the email and address you registered with the service, and correct them with Army Headquarters in writing if they have changed.
3. Compare your date-of-birth and education certificates with your application, and send what is outstanding to the Army Headquarters address above, not to UPSC.
4. Find out your medical status and keep all papers together.
5. Look for your marks on upsc.gov.in from about 20 November.
6. If you are not listed, put 2 December on your calendar and start preparing for NDA (I) 2027 now.

Where we come in

The Cavalier has been preparing candidates in Delhi since 2001. For those who are on this list, we help with the practical side: understanding your first-choice service, preparing for medical and documentation, and getting fit for the first weeks at an academy. For those who are not, our SSB interview coaching is built around the ground tasks and the interview, and our daily NDA current affairs keeps the written side moving. Current batches are on the upcoming courses page, and you can write to us through contact us. If you would rather judge us by outcomes, read the success stories first.

Frequently asked questions

When was the NDA and NA (I) 2026 final result declared?
On 5 November 2026. The written examination was held on 12 April 2026, and the list covers candidates who then cleared the Services Selection Board interviews.

How do I check my name in the NDA 1 2026 merit list?
Download the merit-list PDF from upsc.gov.in and search by your roll number using Ctrl+F. Searching by name is unreliable because spellings differ.

Which courses is this list for?
The 157th NDA Course, for the Army, Navy and Air Force wings, and the 119th Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC).

Does being on the list mean I am selected?
It means you are on the merit list. Your candidature is provisional, subject to your certificates for date of birth and education, and the medical examination has not been taken into account in preparing the list.

When will my marks be available?
After 15 days from the date of declaration of the final result, so from about 20 November 2026, on the UPSC website.

What is the NDA 1 2026 final cut-off?
UPSC does not publish it with the result. The marks of recommended candidates are published later, and the lowest total on that list is the practical cut-off. Treat any figure quoted before that as an estimate.

Where do I send my certificates?
To the Additional Directorate General of Recruiting, Adjutant General's Branch, Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Army), West Block No. III, Wing-I, R.K. Puram, New Delhi 110066. Not to UPSC.

When do the 157th NDA Course and 119th INAC start?
The notification advertised both as commencing from 1 January 2027. Your own reporting date is in the joining instructions from your service, and the press note refers candidates to joinindianarmy.nic.in, joinindiannavy.gov.in and careerindianairforce.cdac.in.

Why are there 617 names when the vacancies were 394?
The list was prepared before the medical examination and before certificates were verified, so some listed candidates will not be able to join. The press note does not give an explanation, and the vacancy figure in the notification was tentative.

What if I am found medically unfit?
The process runs through the service medical boards, including an appeal medical board and, at the authorities' discretion, a review board. Follow the instructions you were given at the SSB and ask the helpline of your first-choice service.

What if my name is not on the list?
You can still be in the NDA (II) 2026 SSB if you qualified in that written exam. NDA (I) 2027 is scheduled to be notified on 2 December 2026 with an examination on 11 April 2027, and CDS and 10+2 TES are other routes.

This article summarises the Union Public Service Commission's press note of 5 November 2026 (PIB release 2333280) on the NDA and NA Examination (I), 2026 final result, together with the notification for the examination. Vacancy figures, dates and procedure should always be confirmed against the official UPSC notification on upsc.gov.in and your own joining instructions.