KCET 2026 dates announced: Application begins January 17, exams on April 23 and 24

Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2026 will be held on April 23 and 24. The online application submission process will begin from January 17.

On April 23, Physics will be held in the morning session (10.30am to 11.50am) and Chemistry in the afternoon session (2.30pm to 3.50pm). On April 24, Maths will be held in the morning and Biology in the afternoon. Kannada examination for Horanadu and Gadinadu Kannada candidates will be held on April 22, between 10.30am and 11.30am.

Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) released the date sheet for the KCET 2026 on Friday . Dates of other examinations like PGCET, DCET, KSET have also been released.

On Friday, KEA also published a CET Guide, a comprehensive, step by step guide for students to fill in their CET application form. The guide, which is available both in Kannada and English, will have details like seats available, fee structure, eligibility criteria, exam centres, process to fill application form, documents required etc. The guide will be delivered to all students in PU colleges, CBSE and ICSE schools of the state through their colleges. There are around 3,112 PU colleges with 2,92,733 students in II PU. Additionally 83,000 students are in the other boards, taking the total eligible number of students to 3,75,507.

“Selected lecturers of each PU science college will be given online training on filling application. These lecturers will in turn train other staff of their college and supervise the filling of the application of the students. This can reduce the mistakes that are made during application filling and the dependence on cyber centers,” said minister for higher education M C Sudhakar.

KEA will also open help desks in government and aided engineering colleges and government polytechnic colleges during the Options Entry time. The computer labs of these colleges can be used for option entry.

KEA will also enhance the use of X, chatbot and its Youtube channel to reach out to students. KEABOT can answer around 18.5 lakh questions.

This year, KEA will open a candidate portal, from where they can download copies of exam related documents like application form, admission ticket, verification slip by logging on to the portal.

OTP based application filling will continue for CET 2026. After registration and login, candidates will be able to proceed to entry of application details only after verifying the login through OTP or face identification. Name, date of birth and address, etc. of each candidate will be verified through Aadhaar or Digi Locker to avoid mistakes

CET syllabus will continue to have the practical component of the PU curriculum. The minister said: "We have introduced practical based questions in KCET from 2025 and it will continue for this year. This is to ensure that students concentrate even on practical classes."

A link to the college will be added during option entry for students to verify the college and the facilities they officer in the institute they have selected.