CET-2026 to be held on April 23, 24

The Common Entrance Test (CET-2026), which is the gateway to professional courses, including engineering, in the State will be held on April 23 and 24. The online application submission process will begin from January 17.

Kannada language examination for Horanadu and Gadinadu Kannada candidates will be held on April 22.

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) released the schedule for CET-2026 on Friday, and this year, the timetable of all other examinations, including PGCET, DCET, KSET, have been released along with CET.

On April 23, the Physics exams will be held from 10.30 am to 11.50 a.m., and the Chemistry exam from 2.30 p.m. to 3.50 p.m.

On April 24, the Mathematics exam will be held from 10.30 a.m. to 11.50 a.m., and the Biology exam from 2.30 p.m. to 3.50 p.m.

On April 22, from 10.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., Class 4th level Kannada exam for Horanadu/Gadinadu Kannada candidates will be held at Bengaluru, Belagavi, Mangaluru, and Vijayapura centers.

Addressing the media at KEA head office, M.C. Sudhakar, Minister for Higher Education said, “For the first time, we published a ‘CET Guide’ available both in Kannada and English to help students fill the application forms without errors. The same guide has been supplied to all Pre-University (PU) colleges, including those affiliated to other boards.”

The CET Guide had stepwise information on application filling and the documents needed, verification process and seat allotment. This year, KEA would open a Candidate Portal and candidates could download copies of the application form, admission ticket, verification slip, etc., by logging on to the portal.

“This time, the name, date of birth, address, etc., of each candidate have been verified through Aadhaar or DigiLocker. This will avoid mistakes in writing the name,” he added.

This year is also a ‘One Time Password (OTP)’ -based application and after the successful registration and login, candidates may proceed with entry of application details only after verifying the login plus OTP or live photo. The real candidate must provide his/her face identification at each subsequent stage.

Questions from practical exams

Speaking about the decision to continue with the questions from the practical exams of the II PU curriculum, Dr. Sudhakar said, “We have introduced practical exam questions in CET from 2025 and it will continue even for this year. This is basically to ensure that students concentrate even on practical classes, along with theory.”