To join National Defence Academy a candidate must appear in the NDA  entrance exam conducted by Union Public Service Commission, twice a year, normally in month of March and August. Candidate must be a unmarried male. To join NDA one must pass written followed by SSB, medicals and finally to be in merit list.

         The eligibility criteria include nationality, age limit, educational qualification and physical standard. As per NDA eligibility criteria 2019, candidates must be between 16.5 and 19.5 years of age. Candidates having appeared or appearing in class 12 (10+2) examination will be eligible to appear for NDA 2019.

Also, candidates from PCM branch can join all the 3 services namely, Army, Navy, Airforce. However, candidates from other streams can only join Army.

NDA 2019 Exam will be organized two times in a year through offline mode (written test). NDA (I) will be held on 21st April 2019 & NDA (II) will be held on 17th November 2019. Here we have mentioned the detailed exam pattern of NDA exam:

Exam Mode: The exam will be conducted through offline mode.
Answer Mode: Candidates must use black ball point pen to mark their answers.
Exam Duration: The duration of the examination will be 2 hours 30 minutes.
Type of Question: The question paper will be objective type questions.
Paper: The NDA exam consists of 2 papers i.e. Mathematics and General Ability.
Total Marks: The Mathematics paper contains 300 marks while General Ability test holds 600 marks. The written test will be of total 900 marks.
Negative Marking: For every incorrect response, their will be negative marking in the examination. For maths 0.83 marks, for English, 1.33 and for GK 1.33 marks will be deducted.
SSB Interview: After clearing the written test, candidates have to go through the SSB Interview. The interview process will have total 900 marks.
Language: The question paper of Mathematics and PART B of General Ability test will be available in both English and Hindi languages.

Subjects Marks

a) Mathematics 300 marks       

b) General Ability Test (Section-1: English) 200 marks
    General Ability Test (Section-1: General Knowledge) 400 marks

Total Marks 900     +   SSB Interview 900        = Grand Total 1800

NDA I tentative dates

Availability of application form 7th Aug 2020
Last date for the submission of application form 3rd Sep 2020
Date of entrance test 17th Nov 2020
Result Declaration Date October 2020

The cut off of NDA will be released by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). NDA cut off is the minimum qualifying marks that candidates will have to secure to qualify the exam and become eligible for the next round of selection process. NDA 2019 cut off will be released for written exam and final selection. To be selected for Army, Navy, Air Force and Naval Academy, candidates are required to secure minimum qualifying marks separately for written exam and SSB Interview. On the basis of NDA cut off 2019 of written exam, candidates will be called for SSB Interview.

The sectional cut off refers to the minimum qualifying marks that candidates will have to secure to qualify each section of exam. The sectional cut off is calculated out of the total marks of each section. To qualify each section, candidates are required to secure the prescribed sectional cut off. The sectional cut off varies every year for NDA 1 and 2. As per cut off analysis for NDA 1 2018, the sectional cut off was 25%. The sectional cut off for the year 2017 of both NDA 1 and 2 was also 25%. In 2016, the sectional cut off for NDA 1 was 25% while it was 20% for NDA 2.