UCEED 2026: Registration (OUT), Exam Date (Jan 18), Syllabus, Previous Question Paper, Preparation

Undergraduate Common Entrance Examination for Design (UCEED) is a national-level exam conducted by IIT Bombay for admission to the B.Des program at the following institutes: IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Hyderabad, and IIITDM Jabalpur. The UCEED exam is conducted once every year, usually in January. In the previous edition of the exam, more than 15,000 candidates registered for the exam, out of which around 13,500 candidates appeared in the exam.  

Admission is based on UCEED merit. The candidate has to appear in the UCEED entrance exam, which is conducted by IIT Bombay. Merit lists for admission are prepared considering the marks of UCEED 2026. Also, the scores will be used to shortlist candidates for counseling. UCEED scores are also used by result-sharing institutes.  However, the result-sharing institutes will use UCEED 2026 scores to fill available seats in their UG courses.

UCEED 2026 is expected to be offered in seven institutes: IIT Bombay (IITB), IIT Delhi (IITD), IIT Guwahati (IITG), IIT Hyderabad (IITH), IIT Indore (IITI), IIT Roorkee (IITR), and IIITDM Jabalpur (IIITDMJ). IIT Bombay will process the common application form and conduct the joint seat allocation process for UCEED 2026.

The highlights of the UCEED 2026 Exams are as follows:

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The Application form for UCEED 2026 will start from October 01, 2025. Candidates who meet the prescribed eligibility criteria for the B.Des program must apply before the last date. The candidate can apply for UCEED 2025 with regular and late fees. The late application fee is INR 500 along with the regular registration fees.

How to fill out the UCEED Application Form?

To get registered, the candidate had to follow these steps.

1. Online registration: Click on the registration link. You will be redirected to a registration form. Fill in details like a valid email ID and mobile number. An applicant account will be created. 
2. Fill in the form: The application form will have sections, like personal, academic, and contact details. Fill in all the sections. Candidates will also be required to select an exam city from the drop-down menu. Select the exam cities in the order of priority.  
3. Upload documents: The candidate has to upload documents, like a photograph, signature, date of birth proof, and qualifying exam certificates in the prescribed format.
4. Pay the application fee: The fee has to be paid in online mode. The application fee for the OPEN category is INR 4,000 and INR. 2,000 (approx.) for reserved category candidates.

Eligibility Criteria for UCEED 2026:

The candidate needs to meet the following conditions for admission to the B.Des program offered by the UCEED 2026 participating institutes.

Who is not Eligible for UCEED 2026?

Those who appeared for the first time in their qualifying examination in 2024 or earlier are NOT eligible.

UCEED 2026 Reservation Criteria

The category-wise reservation criteria for the B.Des course at participating colleges are given in the table below.

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The UCEED 2026 exam is divided into two parts - A and B. As per the official UCEED 2025 exam pattern, Part B will include Two questions: one on Drawing and the other on Design aptitude. The duration of Paper B will be 60 minutes. The question in Part B will be displayed on the computer screen, and the answer has to be written/drawn in the answer book provided by the invigilator only. Further, Part B will be evaluated only if the candidate qualifies Part A.

UCEED 2026 Exam Pattern

The expected pattern of UCEED 2026 are:

IIT Bombay revised the UCEED Syllabus in the previous edition of the entrance exam.

The key points about the UCEED syllabus 2026:

1. The UCEED 2026 question paper will have two parts: Part A and Part B
2. Part A will be administered through a computer-based test and will consist of three sections (NAT, MSQ, and MCQ).
3. Part B will now have TWO questions: one on Drawing and the other on Design aptitude. The question in Part B will be displayed on the computer screen, and the answer has to be written/drawn in the answer book provided by the invigilator only.
4. The duration for Part A will be 120 minutes, while Part B will be 60 minutes.

Part A will have questions on the following topics:

• Visualization and spatial reasoning: Ability to visualize and transform 2D shapes and 3D objects and their spatial relationships.
• Practical and scientific knowledge: Know-how of scientific principles and everyday objects.
• Observation and design sensitivity: The capacity to detect concealed properties in daily life and think critically about them. Attention to detail, classification, analysis, inference, and prediction.
• Environment and society: General awareness of environmental, social, and cultural connections with design.
• Analytical and logical reasoning: Ability to analyze qualitative and quantitative information.
• Language: Proficiency in reading and comprehending Standard English.
• Creativity: Verbal and non-verbal analogies, metaphors, signs, and symbols. 

Part B will have questions on the following topics:

• Drawing: Practice drawing products, people, or scenes in proportion with good line quality, composition, proportion, perspective, and shading.
• Design aptitude: Capability to practically and appropriately respond to problems/situations with ingenuity and empathy.

Note: The topics listed above are exhaustive and indicative of the nature of the questions. However, the UCEED 2026 may not cover all the topics.

Admit cards for UCEED 2026 will be out tentatively in the first week of January 2026. The admit card will be issued to all candidates who have duly completed the application process. The candidate has to download the admit card from the UCEED - IIT Bombay admission portal.

The UCEED admit card will contain details like the date and time of the UCEED Entrance Exam 2026, the name and address of the exam center, exam timings, including reporting time, and exam-day guidelines. On the day of the exam, candidates had to bring with them a valid photo ID proof along with the admit card. Candidates will be allowed to take the exam without the admit card.

How to download the UCEED Admit Card 2026?

1. Go to the UCEED 2026 candidate portal.
2. Click on the UCEED 2026 admit card download link.
3.  A login window will OPEN.
4. Enter your email ID and password.
5. On login, the admit card will be displayed in downloadable PDF format.
6. Download and take a printout of the admit card.

Note: In case of any discrepancy in the UCEED admit card, contact the exam officials and get it rectified without any delay. The deadline to fix discrepancies will be announced on the admission portal.

UCEED Examination Centre 2026

The UCEED 2026 exam will be held in approximately 27 cities across India. The candidate is allowed to select a maximum of three cities at the time of filling out the application form. The details of the exam center allocated to the candidate will be mentioned on the UCEED 2026 admit card.

On the day of the exam, the candidate needs to report to the exam center as per the reporting time. 

The expected list of UCEED 2026 Test cities is below:

There will be seven participating institutes in UCEED 2026. Each of these institutes offers the B.Des course, with admission to be conducted based on UCEED 2026 merit. So, to be eligible for admission, the candidate needs to have secured a rank in the UCEED 2026 exam. IIT Bombay will conduct a Joint Seat Allotment process (or counseling) for shortlisted candidates.

UCEED 2026 - Participating Institutes and Seat Matrix

The Participating institutions of UCEED 2026 are as follows:

UCEED Result-Sharing Institutes 2026

A few other institutes will also use the scores of the UCEED 2026 exam in addition to the participating colleges. These institutes, known as UCEED 2026 result-sharing institutes. These institutes will fill some of their undergraduate seats based on UCEED 2025 scores. The remaining seats may be filled considering other entrance exams, including exams conducted by the institutes. However, UCEED result-sharing institutes will not participate in the joint seat allotment process conducted by IIT Bombay.

List of UCEED 2026 Result-sharing institutes

The Undergraduate Common Entrance Examination for Design (UCEED) 2026 scores are accepted by several result-sharing institutes across India for admission into their Bachelor of Design (B.Des) programs.

The UCEED Application Process 2026 for BDes programs at IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Indore, IIT Roorkee, and IIITDM Jabalpur will start tentatively in the second week of March 2026, at 10:00 AM.

There will be a common application form for admissions to the respective B. Des programmes. The UCEED Office, IIT Bombay, will process the common application form and conduct the joint seat allocation process. The common application form will be available through the IIT Bombay Admissions Portal. The B. Des admission application counselling processing fee for applicants of all categories and genders will be around  ₹4,000 (Rupees Four Thousand only). This fee is non-refundable and non-transferable.

UCEED 2026 Admission Process

The step-wise UCEED 2026 admission process to the B.Des program at UCEED 2026 participating institutes is given below.

UCEED Selection Process 2026

UCEED 2026 Counselling will begin in the third week of April 2026. UCEED Round I seat allotment for B.Des 2026 will be announced in the last week of April, 2026. The window for seat acceptance fee payment will open on the same day. Candidates will be given an opportunity to withdraw their seat or exit the seat allocation process between the last week of April 2026 and to second week of May 2026, by 6:00 PM.

Admission Schedule for UCEED 2026

The Admission Schedule for UCEED 2026 is as follows:

Seat Allotment Round	Date of Announcement	Payment of Seat Acceptance Fees – Start Date	Payment End Date / Time	Withdrawal of Seat / Exit – Start Date	Withdrawal End Date / Time
I	Third week of April 2026	Third week of April 2026	Last week of April 2026	First week of May 2026	Second week of May 2026
II	Third week of May 2026	Third week of May 2026	Last week of May 2026	Last week of May 2026	Second week of June 2026
III	Second week of June 2026	Second week of June 2026	Mid-June 2026	Third week of June 2026	Third week of June 2026
IV	Last week of June 2026	Last week of June 2026	Last week of June 2026	End of June 2026	First week of July 2026
V	First week of July 2026	First week of July 2026	Second week of July 2026	–	–