Age Calculator of NDA

NDA Age Limit – Current Notification (NDA 2 2026)

These figures have been taken directly from the official UPSC notification for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (II), 2026. This exam is for the 158th NDA Course and the 120th Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC), which will start from 1 July 2027.

Candidates must be between 16.5 and 19.5 years of age. Age is fixed according to the course start date, so there is a different date-of-birth range for every exam cycle. A candidate will be eligible only if their date of birth falls between the two dates shown below or on either of those dates.

The dates for NDA 2 2026 given above have been taken from the official notification. The dates for NDA 1 2026 have been taken from the earlier NDA 1 notification; since the wording can differ by even one day in different cycles, always confirm the exact range from the official notification PDF for the cycle you are applying for.

NDA Important Dates (NDA 2 2026)

Vacancies (NDA 2 2026)

The notification announced 394 vacancies in total, split across the wings as below.

The vacancies are currently provisional and may change according to training capacity. Vacancies for men and women are notified as separate entries, and according to the vacancies that are notified, their merit lists are also prepared separately.

Why Is It Important to Carefully Check NDA Age Eligibility?

The National Defence Academy (NDA) exam is conducted twice a year by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). It is the main route for school students to join the Army, Navy and Air Force wings as officers.

NDA age eligibility is decided by your exact date of birth, not by your rounded-off age. UPSC publishes a fixed date-of-birth range for each exam cycle. And you have to check it using your original date of birth itself. This tool helps you check your eligibility, that too for free and easily on CalculatorFlows. If your date of birth falls within that range, you are eligible. If it is even one day outside the range, you are not eligible – no relaxation is provided. This is why simply looking at your age in years is not enough, and the calculator given above matches your exact date of birth with the official age window.

How Is NDA Age Calculated?

The age rule does not work on the basis of the age you calculate yourself, but through a date-of-birth range. Understand it simply as follows:

1. Check your date of birth exactly as it is printed on your Class 10 certificate.
2. Select the exam cycle for which you want to apply (NDA 1 or NDA 2).
3. Check whether your date of birth falls between the two boundary dates of that cycle or on either of those dates (see the current notification section above).
4. If yes, then you meet the age criteria. If your date of birth is even one day before the earliest date or one day after the latest date, you do not meet the age criteria. The calculator given above automatically performs this check for you.

For this, the best calculator for you is the Age Calculator of NDA.

NDA Educational Qualification

Many students are confused about what the Educational Qualification should be. The minimum educational qualification depends on the wing you choose. Students studying in Class 12 can also apply, but students studying in Class 11 are not eligible. These requirements generally remain the same across different cycles.

Nationality is also a condition: the candidate should be a citizen of India, a subject of Nepal, or an eligible person of Indian origin who has migrated from the specified countries.

How Many NDA Attempts Can You Get?

There is no maximum number of attempts set for the UPSC NDA exam. Only your age is the actual limit. Since the exam is conducted twice a year and the eligible age window is from 16.5 to 19.5 years, most aspirants get approximately 4 to 5 chances in total.

This is why students who are born in the starting months of the eligible age should plan carefully. For them, a particular cycle may be one of their last valid attempts, so it is better to confirm eligibility in advance with the help of the calculator and the official notification.

Important Age Rules for the NDA Exam

Different rules apply to every candidate, regardless of which category or wing they belong to. These rules generally remain the same across different cycles, but you should still confirm them according to the latest notification.