CEED Exam Date 2026 (Out): Check Complete M.Des Exam Schedule Here

CEED 2026 applications were open from October 1, 2025. The application had to be filled online at ceed.iitb.ac.in.

The candidate could apply with both regular and late fees.

All the details pertaining to the CEED 2026 application form have been updated on the admission portals, including the information brochure. The candidate needs to carefully go through the brochure to check their eligibility. Note that information entered by the candidate at the time of submitting their application form will be verified at the time of counseling. Any candidate who doesn’t meet the criteria will be disqualified.

IIT Bombay issued CEED 2026 admit card on January 02, 2026 at 1 pm. It is issued to all candidates who have applied for CEED exam. Candidates can download it online. 

To download admit card, log in to candidate portals using your login details. It is mandatory to carry Admit card on the day of exam.

To appear in the CEED 2026 exam, the candidate must have passed a degree, Diploma, or postgraduate degree exam of minimum three years. There is no limit on the upper age limit or number of attempts for appearing in CEED.

The eligibility criteria that candidates need to meet for appearing in the CEED have been explained below.

• Qualifying exam: The candidate must have completed a degree, Diploma, or postgraduate programme of a minimum of THREE years (after 10+2). Or, Appearing for the final exam of such a programme by July 2026 or, Must have passed the GD Arts Diploma programme (10+5) level by July 2025.
• Age limit - No upper age limit.
• Number of Attempts - The CEED exam can be attempted any number of times.

It is incumbent on the candidate to carefully go through the eligibility criteria before filling out the CEED application form. It is because if the candidate doesn't meet any of the criteria, then he or she can be disqualified at any stage of the admission process.

Check out the steps to prepare for CEED Exam.

• Go through CEED syllabus 2026 completely.
• Understand CEED exam pattern and marking scheme and prepare accordingly.
• Get all study material for CEED, such as prep books and previous year's question papers.
• Create a monthly plan on how much syllabus to cover daily.
• Solve question papers, sample papers and mock tests.

The difficulty level of CEED exam has been maintained by authorities over the years. However, most design aspirants share that if difficulty level of all design entrance exams conducted for PG level courses is compared then CEED is slightly easier than NID Entrance Exam. This is primarily because the drawing questions asked in NID that are considered to be tougher than those put forth in CEED exam. Note that CEED exam is for admission to the M.Des courses offered by the eight participating colleges. Meanwhile, the NID that for the M.Des programme has three participating colleges.

IIT Bombay will release the qualifying cut-off for Part A in the first week of February 2026. Cut-off is released in the form of mean and standard deviation. 

The mean and standard deviation for Part-A (CEED 2025) are 45.48 and 16.98, respectively and for Part A (CEED 2024) were 41.90 and 16.72, respectively.

The qualifying cut-off is the minimum marks a candidate needs to score in the paper to get shortlisted. Part B answer booklets will only be evaluated if the candidate gets shortlisted.

So, if you don’t meet Part A cut-off marks, you will not get shortlisted and you Part B answer booklets will not be evaluated. Also, note that only shortlisted candidates will be assigned a merit rank in CEED 2026.

It is very much possible to prepare for CEED without coaching. If you prepare for the exam on your own, you need to be serious and plan the preparation smartly. After going through the syllabus, you must be able to decide the difficulty level, the time it will take to cover the syllabus, and revise. 

Remember, there are many instances of toppers who managed to ace the CEED exam without the aid of any coaching. Further, the outcome may not depend on whether you do coaching or not, but on the quality of your preparation.

A total of 5090 candidates registered for CEED 2025, out of which 4371 candidates appeared, and 1848 candidates qualified in the exam. 

Seats available for CEED admission vary from one institute to the other (that accept the exam scores for admission). For e. g, IIT Hyderabad has 30 seats, while IISc Bangalore has 18 seats. Candidates are informed that CEED is just a qualifying exam. Thus, any aspirant who clears CEED exam may have to appear in further admission rounds that may be conducted by the participating college. The application process at the participating colleges typically open once the CEED entrance exam results are announced.

The difficulty level of CEED exam has been maintained by authorities over the years. However, most design aspirants share that if difficulty level of all design entrance exams conducted for PG level courses is compared then CEED is slightly easier than NID Entrance Exam. This is primarily because the drawing questions asked in NID that are considered to be tougher than those put forth in CEED exam. Note that CEED exam is for admission to the M.Des courses offered by the eight participating colleges. Meanwhile, the NID that for the M.Des programme has three participating colleges.

IIT Bombay launched the exam portal for CEED 2026 on October 1, 2025.

The admission portal was activated along with the release of the admission notification. Candidates can access the admission portal at ceed.iitb.ac.in.

The admission portals include segments like important dates, examination information, program, download, and contact information. The candidate can check the key exam date in the important date section. 

 

The updated application fee that candidates have to pay an application fee when applying for the CEED exam is shown below.

Women candidates - INR 2000

SC, ST, PwD candidates - INR 2000

All other candidates - INR 4000

The candidate will have to pay a fee as per the category they belong. If the candidate selects the wrong category and pay the wrong feels, he or she may be disqualified. So, care must be taken when selecting ones category.