IIT Exam Pattern: What You Need to Know About JEE Advanced and Admission Rules

When you hear IIT exam pattern, the structured process used to select students for India’s top engineering institutes through the JEE Advanced exam. It’s not just a test—it’s a gatekeeper for 18,000 seats across 23 IITs, with cutoffs that change every year based on difficulty, applicant numbers, and reservation policies. This system doesn’t reward cramming. It rewards consistent problem-solving, time management, and deep understanding of physics, chemistry, and math at a level most high schoolers never touch.

The JEE Advanced, the second-stage entrance exam required to enter any IIT after clearing JEE Main. Also known as the IIT-JEE Advanced, it’s the real filter—only the top 2.5 lakh JEE Main scorers even get to sit for it. And once you’re in, the exam itself has two papers, both mandatory, both tough, and both scored separately. Your final rank? It’s not an average. It’s a combined score that determines if you get into IIT Bombay’s Computer Science or a smaller branch at a less competitive IIT. The IIT seats, the total number of undergraduate engineering positions available across all IITs each year. In 2025, that number is 18,000—and it’s split by branch, by home state, and by category. If you’re from Maharashtra, you’re competing for fewer seats in IIT Bombay than someone from a state with lower applicant density. That’s not bias. That’s policy. And here’s the thing: IIT exam pattern doesn’t change often, but what gets tested does. Last year, a question on thermodynamics in Paper 2 had a trick that only 12% of students caught. It wasn’t about memorizing formulas. It was about applying logic under pressure.

What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t a list of tips or shortcuts. It’s real data. You’ll see which IIT has the highest cutoffs, how many seats are left for general category students after reservations, and why some coaching centers in Kota churn out rankers while others don’t. You’ll also find why being good at math isn’t the same as being good at JEE, and how your rank means more than your score. This isn’t about guessing the paper. It’s about understanding the game.