The Union Public Service Commission has announced the final result of the Combined Defence Services Examination (I), 2026, bringing the selection process a step closer for candidates seeking entry into the armed forces. The result was declared on 2 November 2026, and 243 candidates have been recommended in order of merit for the Indian Military Academy, the Indian Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
According to the commission, the recommended candidates are distributed as 155 for the 162nd (DE) Course of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun; 63 for the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala; and 25 for the No. 221 F(P) Pre-Flying Training Course at the Air Force Academy, Hyderabad. The merit lists are drawn from the written examination held on 12 April 2026 and the Services Selection Board interviews conducted by the Ministry of Defence.
Selection basis and provisional status
The commission has clarified that some candidates appear in more than one academy list. Medical examination results were not factored into the preparation of the final recommendation list. The candidature of all recommended candidates remains provisional until date of birth and educational qualifications are verified by Army Headquarters.
The earlier written-test qualification figures stood at 2,601 for IMA, 770 for INA and 640 for AFA, taking the total number of candidates qualified in the written examination to 4,011. The final recommendation figures after the SSB stage are 155, 63 and 25 respectively, against government-intimated vacancies of 100 for IMA, 26 for INA and 32 for AFA, with the total shown as 158 excluding OTA.
Vacancy and recommendation details
For the Indian Military Academy, the vacancy figure includes 13 seats for NCC ‘C’ Certificate – Army Wing. For the Indian Naval Academy, the 26 vacancies include 6 for NCC ‘C’ – Naval Wing and 1 for Hydro. For the Air Force Academy, the 32 vacancies include 3 for NCC ‘C’ – Air Wing through NCC Special Entry.
The commission also noted that the number of candidates finally recommended reflects performance after the SSB stage conducted by Army Headquarters. The final list therefore represents the complete merit position after the written examination and interviews, subject to later verification requirements.
Top rank across all three academies
Lohitaksh Mahajan with Roll No. 0500513 has secured Rank 1 in the merit lists of IMA, INA and AFA. He is from Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. The source notes that he had earlier scored 99.988 percentile in JEE Main 2021 as the J&K topper and studied Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay. His repeated first position across all three academy lists stands out in the final result.
Top 10 candidates
In the Indian Military Academy merit list, the top 10 are Lohitaksh Mahajan, Lakshya Verma, Shubham Parmar, Sumit Kumar, Naman Singh, Ashutosh Kumar, Shivam Bisht, Aayush Raghav, Udit and Himanshu Sharma.
In the Indian Naval Academy list, the top 10 are Lohitaksh Mahajan, Naman Singh, Aayush Raghav, Udit, Aditya Sharma, Saurav Singh Sigroha, Aryan, Abhay Pratap, Dhruv Khatri and Ansh Sharma.
For the Air Force Academy, the first 10 names are Lohitaksh Mahajan, Aditya Sharma, Ashwani Pawar, Aryan, Sourav Sharma, Yadav Abhinav Salikram, Ansh Sharma, Shubham Narwal, Aaryan Mishra and Jagat Singh Kalita.
Next steps for recommended candidates
The commission has said that medical examination results were not included in the final recommendation. It has also instructed candidates to send original certificates, along with attested photocopies, to the Army, Naval or Air Headquarters according to their first choice, as verification of date of birth and educational qualifications is still in progress. Any change of address should be reported promptly to the relevant Headquarters.
UPSC has stated that the marks of candidates will be published on its website only after the final result of the Officers’ Training Academy course of CDS (I) 2026 is declared. The result is available on the official UPSC website and through the Press Information Bureau, and candidates may also contact the UPSC Facilitation Counter or the Candidate’s Helpdesk at 011-24041001 / 011-40303444.
This final result opens the next stage for the recommended candidates as they move toward further service-specific requirements such as medical checks, document verification and joining formalities, subject to the instructions issued by the respective Service Headquarters.
