JEE Main Result 2026 Soon; Last 3 Years Witness Rising Competition and Qualifying Cutoffs

The number of unique candidates appearing for JEE Main Paper 1 grew by 32.5% between 2023 and 2025. This steady increase in participation has increased the JEE Mains percentile cutoffs required for JEE Advanced eligibility. Competition has got tougher over the years. Check complete report below.

JEE Main Result 2026 Soon; Last 3 Years Witness Rising Competition and Qualifying Cutoffs

Shiksha.com dived into the past three years' analysis of JEE Main results, and we found an increase in participation and a rise in JEE Main cutoff for IIT JEE Advanced qualification. Participation in JEE Main increased consistently over the three years. In 2023, 11,13,325 unique candidates appeared for the exam. This number rose by 27.1% in 2024, reaching 14,15,110 candidates. The growth continued in 2025, with total participation reaching 14,75,103, which was 4.2% increase from the previous year.

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JEE Mains Result: Participation and cutoff Percentiles (2023 - 2025)

Check below the data on the number of candidates participating in JEE Mains and the rise in cutoff over the past 3 years:

The 27.1% rise in candidates in 2024 led to a direct increase in qualifying percentiles across all categories. The unreserved (UR) category cutoff increased by 2.7%, from 90.77 in 2023 to 93.23 in 2024. The increase was larger for reserved categories. The EWS and OBC cutoffs rose by 7.5% and 8.2%, respectively. The SC and ST category cutoffs recorded the highest jump, increasing by 15.6% and 25.4% compared to 2023.

In 2025, the 4.2% participation growth resulted in cutoff growth across some categories, if not all. For the UR category, the cutoff decreased slightly by 0.13 percentile to 93.10. The EWS and OBC cutoffs also recorded a decrease of 1.1% and 0.3%, respectively. However, the cutoffs for SC and ST candidates saw an upward trend, increasing by 1.7% and 2.6% from 2024 to reach 61.15 and 47.90.

For engineering aspirants, these trends indicate that the competition has increased permanently. The addition of over 3,61,000 candidates since 2023 in JEE Mains means students must perform better to qualify for JEE Advanced.