NDA Cut-off 2023–2025: Written and Final Marks from UPSC’s PDFs

UPSC publishes two numbers for each NDA cycle once the final result is out: the minimum written score (out of 900) needed to be called to the SSB, and the total of the last candidate recommended (out of 1,800). We collected both from UPSC’s own PDFs for the six cycles from (I) 2023 to (II) 2025, together with the number who qualified and the marks levels of the recommended candidates. The figures replace a good deal of guesswork found online — including the idea that 400 out of 900 is a “safe” written score.

UPSC cut-off PDFs and written results; our count of the (I) 2026 roll list.

Three things stand out. The written cut-off has moved within a band of about 45 marks (291–334); (I) 2025 was the highest. The final bar has moved less, from 654 to 699 out of 1,800. And (II) 2025 is the first cut-off PDF to publish separate figures for men and women (the notifications have always said written results and merit lists are prepared separately): women needed 358.84 in the written and 737.40 overall — about 54 and 71 marks more than men. (II) 2025 had 25 women’s seats out of 406; with a similarly small number (24 of 394) in each 2026 cycle, a separate and higher women’s bar is likely to continue.

Unlike most UPSC exams, NDA publishes no SC, ST, OBC or EWS cut-offs: none of the six cut-off PDFs contains one. The written minimum and the final figure apply to everyone on the list (separately for men and women from (II) 2025). Any website table showing category-wise NDA cut-offs is not from UPSC.

About 20 candidates are called to the SSB for every vacancy, and roughly 1.8 are recommended per vacancy. The surplus exists because the final list is prepared before the medical examination — “the results of Medical Examination have not been taken into account in preparing these lists” — and some recommended candidates are later found medically unfit or do not join.

The median written score of candidates who were finally recommended was 351–389 — so half of them scored below 390 in the written exam. A strong SSB makes up a lot: see our SSB guide. The honest target is therefore not a “safe” written score but a written score comfortably above the recent cut-offs (say 340–380), followed by the best possible SSB.

The two figures measure different things. The written minimum decides who is called to the SSB — about 8,000 candidates a cycle — and it is set by UPSC after the exam. The last recommended total is the written score plus the SSB score of the last candidate on the final merit list. A candidate can clear the written cut-off comfortably and still miss the final list with a weak SSB, and a candidate just over the written line can finish well up the list with a strong SSB. In (II) 2025, for example, the lowest written score among recommended men was 304.97 and the highest 572.97; their totals ranged from 666.01 to 1096.52.

UPSC publishes a cycle’s cut-off and the marks of recommended candidates only after the final result. The (I) 2025 final result came on 10 October 2025 (exam 13 April) and the (II) 2025 final result on 8 April 2026 (exam 14 September) — about six months after each exam. By that pattern the (I) 2026 final result and cut-off would be due around October 2026, and the (II) 2026 figures around March–April 2027; neither date is announced. The (II) 2026 written result is expected “in the month of October, 2026”, according to the notification.