Updates as of September 22, 2026
The most recent ACC written examination that the public record documents is the combined ACC-134 and SCO-59 paper held on 5 January 2026. Applications for that cycle were reported as open from 10 November to 9 December 2025, with a correction window on 10 to 12 December 2025 and admit cards on 26 December 2025. This timeline comes from the coaching site PhysicsWallah, not from an Army release.
PhysicsWallah (coaching site)As of 22 September 2026 no notification for the next ACC course is visible in any public source we could reach. The Join Indian Army portal could not be read, and the coaching trackers that cover ACC still show the next notification, application window, exam date and result as pending. Treat any date circulating for the next cycle as unverified until your unit receives the order.
Prepp (coaching site)ACC is not an open competitive examination. Trishul Defence Academy and Major Kalshi Classes both describe applications for ACC-134 being routed through the chain of command, with the Commanding Officer running an initial written test and interview and only then forwarding the application upward for screening. There is no public application portal equivalent to a UPSC registration page.
Major Kalshi Classes (coaching site)Published accounts of the ACC-134 cycle do not agree on the paper structure. Major Kalshi Classes and Trishul Defence Academy both describe a single three-hour, 300-mark paper of 150 questions across six subjects with 0.5 negative marking, while PhysicsWallah describes five separate papers totalling roughly 1,200 marks. Nothing we could read resolves the conflict, so verify the pattern from the notification your unit receives.
Trishul Defence Academy (coaching site)Centurion Defence Academy states that the ACC entry runs twice a year, with examinations in April and October and notifications in February and August, and roughly 75 vacancies per course. That periodicity does not match the reported 5 January 2026 sitting, which is a further reason to treat published ACC calendars as indicative rather than firm.
Centurion Defence Academy (coaching site)ACC entry at a glance
| Item | Reported position | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Who may apply | Serving personnel of the Regular Army, Territorial Army, Navy or Air Force | Coaching site |
| Minimum service | Two years from enrolment; three years embodied or four unembodied for Territorial Army | Coaching site |
| Age | 20 to 27 years, reckoned at course commencement | Coaching site |
| Education | 10+2 or equivalent, any stream; married and unmarried both eligible | Coaching site |
| Seats per course | About 75 | Coaching site |
| Training | Three years at ACC Wing, Dehradun, then one year pre-commission at IMA | Coaching site |
Every row above is drawn from defence coaching sites, because the Army's own ACC notification is distributed through unit and formation channels rather than published as an open web document. Trishul Defence Academy additionally reports a SHAPE-1 medical standard, clean confidential reports and no red ink entry in the preceding year, and states that successful cadets take a B.A. or B.Sc. from Jawaharlal Nehru University before commissioning as Lieutenants.
Source: Trishul Defence Academy · Centurion Defence Academy · Prepp
Dates and windows
| What | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ACC-134 / SCO-59 application window | 10 November to 9 December 2025 (as reported by PhysicsWallah) | Closed |
| ACC-134 / SCO-59 application correction window | 10 to 12 December 2025 (as reported by PhysicsWallah) | Closed |
| ACC-134 / SCO-59 admit card | 26 December 2025 (as reported by PhysicsWallah) | Closed |
| ACC-134 / SCO-59 written examination | 5 January 2026 (as reported by PhysicsWallah) | Closed |
| ACC-134 written examination result | Not published in any source we could read | Tentative |
| Next ACC course notification | Not announced publicly as of 22 September 2026 | Tentative |
| Course commencement for the ACC-134 intake | January 2027 (as reported by Major Kalshi Classes) | Tentative |
Two of the dates above conflict with the twice-yearly April and October rhythm that Centurion Defence Academy publishes, and an older Trishul Defence Academy post dates the ACC-134 application window to June and July 2025 rather than November and December. Do not act on any of these without the notification as received in your unit.
What this means for your preparation
The single most common mistake with ACC is treating it like a public recruitment examination and waiting for a website to tell you when to apply. It is an in-service entry, and the binding document is the notification that reaches your unit. The second mistake is copying a paper pattern off a coaching page: the published descriptions of the ACC-134 paper contradict each other outright, and preparing to the wrong one wastes months.
The unit screening is a real filter
Both Major Kalshi Classes and Trishul Defence Academy describe the Commanding Officer conducting a written test and an interview before an ACC application is forwarded at all. That means the first competitive event happens inside your own unit, months before the Army-level written paper, and it is decided partly on documents you cannot improve at short notice. Trishul lists clean annual confidential reports, no disciplinary action, and specifically no red ink entry in the preceding year. If you intend to apply at the next cycle, the work on the service record has to be done in the year before the notification, not after it. Confirm with your Subedar Major or the unit clerk exactly which documents the screening board will call for.
Two incompatible paper patterns are in circulation
Major Kalshi Classes and Trishul Defence Academy both describe one paper: 150 questions, 300 marks, three hours, six subjects at 25 questions each, two marks per question and a 0.5 mark deduction for a wrong answer. PhysicsWallah describes something quite different, a five-paper sitting of General Mental Ability, Current and General Awareness, Objective English, Descriptive English and an Academic Content Test, summing to about 1,200 marks over roughly twelve hours. Prepp gives a third variant with four papers. These cannot all be right. The safe preparation is the overlap: reasoning, school-level mathematics, general knowledge and current affairs, general science and English, with written English practice in case a descriptive component appears.
Age is reckoned at course commencement, not at application
The 20 to 27 year band that Trishul Defence Academy, Major Kalshi Classes and Centurion Defence Academy all quote is tied to the date the course begins, not to the application deadline or the examination date. Major Kalshi Classes reports the ACC-134 intake commencing in January 2027 against an examination held in January 2026, which is a full year of gap. For a soldier close to the upper limit that one year is the difference between eligible and not. Work the arithmetic from the stated course start date in the notification rather than from the day you fill the form, and if you are near the boundary raise it with the unit before the application is forwarded.
The written paper is only the first of four gates
The sequence reported consistently across sources is unit or formation screening, then the Army-level written examination, then the Services Selection Board interview, then a medical to officer standards, then merit. PhysicsWallah and Centurion Defence Academy both place SSB and the medical after the written stage. Trishul Defence Academy quotes a SHAPE-1 medical requirement. With roughly 75 seats per course, clearing the written paper is not the finish line, and an SSB attempt taken cold after a year of purely academic preparation is a common way to lose the seat. Group tasks, the personal interview and officer-like qualities need separate, earlier work.
Treat the public calendar as unreliable
Centurion Defence Academy publishes an April and October examination rhythm with February and August notifications. PhysicsWallah reports an actual sitting on 5 January 2026. Trishul dates the ACC-134 application window to June and July 2025; PhysicsWallah dates it to November and December 2025. None of these sources is the conducting authority. The practical consequence is that you cannot plan leave, study blocks or a coaching enrolment around a published ACC date. Plan instead around a standing readiness: keep the academic subjects warm year-round so that a notification with a six-week runway is survivable, and ask your unit to flag the order the day it arrives.
Common questions
When is the next ACC entry exam in 2026?
No date for the next ACC course was publicly announced as of 22 September 2026. The last sitting documented in the public record is the combined ACC-134 and SCO-59 written examination on 5 January 2026, reported by PhysicsWallah. Coaching trackers such as Prepp still list the next notification, application dates, admit card and examination date as pending. The reliable route is the notification circulated through Army headquarters to units and formations, not a website.
Can a civilian apply for the Army Cadet College entry?
No. Every source we checked describes ACC as an in-service entry restricted to serving personnel of the Regular Army, the Territorial Army, the Navy and the Air Force. PhysicsWallah states a minimum of two years of service from enrolment, with three years embodied or four years unembodied service for Territorial Army personnel. Applications are forwarded through the chain of command after screening by the Commanding Officer, so there is no route for someone outside the services to apply directly.
How many seats does each ACC course have?
Centurion Defence Academy and Prepp both put the figure at about 75 vacancies per course. Prepp describes those seats as spanning the land, naval and air arms, since personnel from all three services are eligible for the entry. The number is small relative to the candidate pool, which is why the unit-level screening and the Services Selection Board stage both matter as much as the written paper. Confirm the figure for your cycle from the notification itself.
Is there negative marking in the ACC written exam?
Trishul Defence Academy and Major Kalshi Classes both describe a deduction of 0.5 marks for each wrong answer on a 150-question, 300-mark paper where each correct answer earns two marks. PhysicsWallah, which describes a different five-paper structure, provides no negative marking information at all. Because the published accounts of the paper pattern disagree with each other, the marking scheme should be confirmed from the notification your unit receives rather than assumed from any coaching page.
What degree do ACC cadets get and how long is the training?
Trishul Defence Academy describes three years at the ACC Wing in Dehradun, structured as six semesters of six months, leading to a B.A. or B.Sc. awarded by Jawaharlal Nehru University, followed by one year of pre-commission training at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. Cadets are commissioned as Lieutenants in the Indian Army on completion. PhysicsWallah gives the same three plus one year structure. That is four years of training in total from joining the ACC Wing.
Where do I find the authoritative ACC notification?
The notification reaches serving personnel through Army headquarters and unit and formation channels rather than a public application portal. The Join Indian Army site at joinindianarmy.nic.in is the Army's official careers portal, though we were unable to read it when preparing this page. Ask your unit clerk or Subedar Major whether the order for the next course has been received, and take the eligibility, pattern, dates and application format from that document rather than from any secondary summary, including this one.
