NID Entrance Exam MDes Colleges 2026: Admissions, Fees, Ranking, Placements

The B.Des DAT Mains Studio Test will be conducted in the last week of April 2026.

The details pertaining to the exam center reporting time, registration time, and exam timings, etc., will be mentioned on the admit card. 

M.Des DAT Mains 2026 exam was conducted on March 08, 2026. DAT Prelims comprises a Studio Test for the B.Des program. However, PG candidates are also required to take a Personal Interview. 

NID Studio Test is said to be the hardest. Here, students are asked to prepare a model using the material given. It checks creativity, imagination, and problem-solving skills. 

NID Centre can be changed only at the time of NID Application edit Window. After this, no centre can be changed.

Minimum qualifying criteria for NID DAT are the minimum marks candidate needs to secure for admission. Category-wise cut-off would be released at the time of counseling and seat allotment. Cut-off would be prepared by considering factors: total number of applicants, merit ranks of applicants in NID DAT, seat intake of applied programme, etc. 

Yes, the National Institute of Design has reserved seats for OBC, SC, ST, PwD and EWS categories. For the OBC-NCL category, the combined intake capacity is 114 seats. Candidates who belong to the OBC-NCL category need to select their admission category at the time of filling out the NID that application form. Note that only genuine candidate needs to apply under the category, because every information furnished by the candidate will be checked at the time of NID counseling. Also, the candidate will have to furnish the relevant category Certificate to be considered for admission under that category. During seat allotment, OBC-NCL candidates will also be considered for admission under the general category.

Total seats offered in B. Des courses at all the NID campuses is 425 seats. For M.Des course, NID seats on offer for admission are 347. The B. Des programme is offered at five institutes - NID Ahmedabad, NID Andhra Pradesh, NID Haryana, NID Madhya Pradesh, and NID Assam. The various faculty members under which the programme is available include Faculty of Communication Design, Faculty of Industrial Design, and Faculty of Textile, Apparel, Lifestyle, and Accessory Design. Meanwhile, the M.Des course is available at NID Ahmedabad, NID Bengaluru, and NID Gandhinagar. Admission to both the B. Des and M.Des courses will be through the NID DAT entrance exam.

If you want to get a good rank in NID DAT, sketching is very important. Practice live sketching daily. Sketch daily objects. Sketch from the previous year question paper.

The admission to the NIDs is conducted through a Design Aptitude Test (DAT). The DAT is a two-stage exam.

The candidate has to first appear in DAT Prelims and then, if shortlisted, have to appear in DAT Mains. The final merit list for admission will be prepared by giving weightage to both DAT Prelims and DAT Mains. If a candidate appear in DAT Prelims, but doesn’t appear in DAT Mains, he or she will not be considered for admission. 

The candidate needs to be born on or after July 1, 2004 for admission to the B. Des programme through NID DAT 2025 entrance exam. 

Note that relaxation of 3-years applies to candidates from following categories - Other Backward Class-Non Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL), Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST). Meanwhile, for candidates belong to the PwD category, the relaxation in the upper age limit is 5 years. The candidate before filling out the NID application form need to ensure that they meet the prescribed eligibility criteria. Note that if the candidate is found to be faking their age, he or she may be disqualified.

Cut-off for NID 2026 Entrance exam will be prepared based on factors like total number of applications, seat intake for the applied programme, category under which admission is sought, and merit rank of the applicant in NID DAT 2026. Each of these factors are variables. For example, number of applications may vary from one category to another. Cut-off would also vary. The cut-off represents the minimum marks a candidate needs to secure in his or her category to get admission to the B. Des or M.Des programme.

NID DAT Entrance Exam 2026 Prelims exam was conducted offline in pen and paper mode. It was conducted at the NID test centres.

NID DAT Mains exam: Studio Test and Interview, will be conducted offline at the test centres in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Gandhinagar.

NID Mains Admit card for M.Des was out on February 24, 2026. This admit card is for NID Studio Test and Interview.

NID will conduct the 2026 Studio test and Interview for NID DAT Mains exam in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Gandhinagar. Details of the centre will be mentioned in the NID Admit card.

NID Studio Test and Interview will be conducted on different days. NID will conduct Studio Test on March 08, 2026 for M.Des and Interview from March 21, 2026 to April 01, 2026 for M.Des. The Admit card will be the same for both.

Yes, you may be disqualified from the NID Admission Process if you do not follow the NID DAT guidelines during the exam.

The guidelines include

• Candidate must not indulge in cheating

• Canddiates must not disturb other candidates

• Carry barred items

• Do not leave the exam hall until the exam is over

Candidate must not under any circumstances wait for the dying hours to download admit card for NID DAT 2026. It is because in the last few hours, there may be a server crash or website slowdown issues due to heavy traffic.

If that happens, you may face difficulty in downloading the hall ticket.

Also, if there is any discrepancy in the admit card, you won't have much time to get it fixed if you don't download it soon after it is released

Five participating institutes of NID DAT exam offer B.Des program. These include NID Ahmedabad, NID Andhra Pradesh, NID Haryana, NID Madhya Pradesh and NID Assam.

Seat intake for the B. Des stands at 425. NID Ahmedabad has an intake of 125 seats, while the rest of the NIDs each have an intake of 75 seats. Note that seats are reserved for categories like General-EWS, OBC, SC, and ST categories.