📝 KCET 2026 — Karnataka CET Guide

KCET 2026: Exam Dates, Eligibility, Pattern, Cutoff & Counselling

📌 Related pillar guides: B.Tech Admission Guide · Engineering Colleges India · JEE Main 2026

KCET 2026 in full — the Karnataka CET that decides merit for the Government share of professional seats: exam dates, the eligibility clauses (there is no domicile test), the pattern and marking, the cutoff ranks KEA actually publishes, and where the 2026 counselling now stands.

12+ Years Experience Bangalore-Based Counsellors COMEDK / KCET / JEE Guidance 800+ Engineering Admissions

📅 Published 18 April 2026 · ↻ Last updated 11 September 2026 · Admission cycle 2026–27

By Krishna Pandey, Founder & Lead Counsellor · ✅ Reviewed for factual accuracy by Tushar Singh, Head of Engineering Admissions · Article Reviewer

✅ Sourcing: figures follow official/institute disclosures (year-labeled) — verify current-year details on the official source before payment.

Quick Answer KCET (Karnataka Common Entrance Test) is conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to decide merit for the Government share of seats in Karnataka’s professional courses. Those seats are not only in government colleges: KEA’s bulletin puts them in government, university, private aided and private un-aided institutions, and a 2026 Government Order puts 40% of each course’s intake at private and deemed universities into the same Government share. There is also no domicile test. Eligibility runs on a list of clauses, several of which are written for candidates who studied or live outside Karnataka. Unlike COMEDK, which is open to all-India candidates for private seats at private fees, KCET seats are fee-regulated. KCET 2026 was held on 23–24 April 2026.

KCET — Key Facts

Conducting body: Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA)
Purpose: merit for the Government share of seats in Karnataka’s engineering, B.Pharm, agriculture and other professional courses — in government, university, private aided, private un-aided and private/deemed-university institutions alike
Mode & frequency: Offline (OMR-based), conducted once a year around April–May
Eligibility: any Indian citizen who satisfies one of KEA’s eligibility clauses — there is no domicile requirement — with 45% aggregate in Physics and Mathematics plus one of Chemistry, Biotechnology, Biology, Electronics or Computer Science (40% for SC, ST and Category 1/2A/2B/3A/3B)

KCET 2026 Exam Overview

Where the 2026 cycle stands, checked 10 September 2026: KEA concluded Rounds 1, 2 and 3 on 7 September 2026. If you were allotted a seat in Round 3, you had to report to the college by 6.00 pm on 11 September 2026 — KEA calls it compulsory admission and says cancellation requests will not be accepted. On 8 September KEA published the leftovers: 24,283 engineering seats and 252 architecture seats went unallotted and have been handed back to the colleges under the Government’s consensual agreement with KUPECA, KRLMPCA and AMPCK, so those are filled by the colleges now and not through KEA. No mop-up or casual-vacancy round has been notified.

KCET decides your merit for the Government share of seats, and the fee on those seats is regulated rather than set by the college. Your engineering rank is not your CET score alone: KEA combines your CET marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics with your qualifying-exam marks in the same three subjects in equal proportions, so a strong board result is worth exactly as much as a strong CET. There is no minimum mark prescribed in CET itself. Many Karnataka colleges — RVCE, BMSCE and MSRIT among them — fill seats through both KEA and COMEDK, and if you are eligible for KEA it is usually worth sitting both.

KCET 2026 Important Dates

📌 In one line: the 2026 cycle is complete — Round-3 reporting closed 11 September 2026 at 6.00 pm, and no mop-up round has been notified.

Event	Window
Registration	17 January – 27 February 2026 (extended twice; fees to 3 March)
KCET exam	23–24 April 2026
Result	Declared (check kea.kar.nic.in)
KEA counselling	Rounds 1–3, concluded 7 September 2026
Round-3 reporting	fees 8–10 September; report to college by 11 September 2026, 6.00 pm

KCET 2026 was written on 23–24 April 2026, with the Kannada Language Test on 22 April for Horanadu and Gadinadu Kannadiga candidates. Registration did not close on 16 February — KEA extended it twice, finally to 27 February 2026, and about 3.16 lakh candidates registered. If a page still shows the February date, it was written before the extension and not revisited.

Official source: KEA CET-2026 examination timetable (KEA_EXAM_SCHEDUL_16012026); KEA press note of 21 February 2026 on the registration extension; KEA notification ED/KEA/Admin/CR.04(Bha)/2026 dated 8 September 2026 and the post-Round-3 vacancy lists of the same date. Captured 10 September 2026.

KCET 2026 Eligibility Criteria

📌 In one line: Indian citizenship plus one of KEA’s eligibility clauses. Living in Karnataka is not one of the requirements.

The domicile idea is the most persistent myth about this exam, and it costs people seats. KEA’s rule reads that no candidate is eligible for Government seats unless they are a citizen of India and satisfy any one of a list of clauses. Several of those clauses are written for people who are not in Karnataka at all. One of them requires the candidate to have passed the qualifying exam outside Karnataka and to be living outside Karnataka on 1 May 2026. Others cover the Kannada-speaking taluks of Maharashtra and Kerala, candidates who studied ten years in Kannada medium entirely outside the state, and Jammu & Kashmir migrants. Five more clauses accept a qualifying exam passed “anywhere in India”. KEA even runs a separate Kannada Language Test, held on 22 April 2026 and open only to Horanadu and Gadinadu Kannadiga candidates — a test that exists precisely so Kannadigas living outside Karnataka can claim these seats. There is no clause P; the list ends at O, with one further clause for a specific case.

What does narrow is reservation, not eligibility. SC, ST, Category 1, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B benefits, and the Rural and Kannada-medium benefits, attach only to certain clauses. A candidate admitted under an out-of-state clause is eligible for a seat but not for those reservations. Check which clause you are claiming before you assume a category benefit applies.

Academic eligibility for engineering, exactly as KEA writes it: 45% aggregate — 40% for SC, ST and Category 1, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B — in Physics and Mathematics together with one of Chemistry, Biotechnology, Biology, Electronics or Computer Science, with English as a language. It is not simply “Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics”: a candidate who took Computer Science instead of Chemistry is eligible, and pages that print PCM alone tell them otherwise.

Official source: KEA, CET-2026 Information Bulletin-1 (English, 71 pages), §1 and the eligibility clauses under Rule 5(1) of the CET-2006 Admission Rules; KEA CET-2026 examination timetable (Kannada Language Test, 22 April 2026). Captured 10 September 2026.

KCET Exam Pattern & Marking

Format: OMR, on paper — not computer-based
Papers: four, of 60 marks and 80 minutes each. Engineering candidates sit Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics; Biology is the fourth paper for the streams that need it.
Marking: one mark per question, and in KEA’s own words there is no negative evaluation. Leave nothing blank.
The trap in an OMR paper: a question with more than one bubble marked scores nothing at all. An erased answer that still reads as two marks is a lost mark, not a guess.

How the engineering rank is built: KEA takes your CET marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and your qualifying-exam marks in the same three subjects in equal proportions. Your board result carries the same weight as the exam you spent the year preparing for, and no minimum mark is prescribed in CET itself.

Official source: KEA, CET-2026 Information Bulletin-1, exam pattern and marking; KEA merit-determination note dated 13 April 2026. Captured 10 September 2026.

KCET 2026 Engineering Colleges

📌 In one line: KEA’s 2026 engineering seat matrix runs to 242 colleges. These are the ones we cover in detail — it is a selection, not the state list.

Click any college for its fees, cutoffs, placements and admission process. If a college you are considering is not here, check it against KEA’s own seat matrix rather than against any site’s list, including ours — three colleges that appear on plenty of “colleges accepting KCET” lists are in no KEA 2026 seat matrix at all: Nitte Meenakshi (NMIT) Bangalore, MIT Bengaluru (Manipal) and Jain University Bangalore. Four other “Jain” engineering colleges do appear — at Belgaum, Davanagere and Hubballi — and they are different institutions.

MSRIT Bangalore · RVCE Bangalore · Sir MVIT Bangalore · BMSCE Bangalore · Sapthagiri NPS University, Bengaluru · DSCE Bangalore · Acharya Institute of Technology Bang · Dr AIT Bangalore · Atria Institute of Technology Bangal · GAT Bangalore · MVJ College of Engineering (MVJCE), · SJBIT Bangalore · BIT Bangalore · CMRIT Bangalore · DSATM Bangalore · EPCET Bangalore · NHCE Bangalore · RNSIT Bangalore · JSSATE Bangalore · BNMIT Bangalore · PES University Bangalore · MSRUAS Bangalore · BMSIT Yelahanka · Presidency University Bangalore · REVA University Bangalore · CMR University Bangalore

Official source: KEA, ENGINEERING PROVISIONAL SEAT MATRIX – 2026 dated 07-07-2026 (242 colleges), read in full, together with the additional matrices of 28-07-2026, 09-08-2026 and 18-08-2026. All four were checked for the three colleges named above and none contains them. Sapthagiri appears in KEA’s records as SAPTHAGIRI NPS UNIVERSITY, code E108. Captured 10 September 2026.

Related: COMEDK Counselling · JEE Main 2026.

KCET 2026 Cutoff & Rank

📌 In one line: KEA publishes a real cutoff after every round — a closing rank for every college, every course and every category. Use those, not an estimate.

There is no single “KCET cutoff”. What KEA publishes, after each round of seat allotment, is a document called UGCET-2026 Allotment Cut-off Ranks for Engineering: the last rank admitted, broken down by college, by course and by category. That is the number worth acting on, and it is free.

Three things about those files that catch people out. They are split by region — separate files for Rest of Karnataka and for Hyderabad-Karnataka, and a third for Special Category — so reading the wrong file gives you the wrong answer for the same college. The category codes are finer than the ones you are used to: each category carries a General, Kannada-medium and Rural variant, so 2AG, 2AK and 2AR are three different closing ranks, not one. And a cutoff rises as rounds progress, because seats fill from the top — a Round-1 closing rank is not what Round 3 will need.

For 2026 specifically: the Round-3 final cut-off ranks are out, published alongside the 7 September allotment, and KEA keeps a year-wise archive so you can see how a college has moved across cycles. If you are planning for 2027, that archive is the honest starting point — and remember your rank is half CET and half board marks, so a cutoff rank is not a CET score.

Official source: KEA, CUT-OFF RANKS section (cetonline.karnataka.gov.in/kea/cutoff), UGCET-2026 Round-1 final cut-off dated 15-07-2026 and Round-3 cut-off published with the final allotment of 07-09-2026. Captured 10 September 2026.

How FindUrCollege Helps KCET Aspirants

From shortlisting the right colleges for your expected score/rank to counselling guidance, application strategy and document help, FindUrCollege guides KCET aspirants end-to-end. Use the free form on this page, or message us on WhatsApp at +91 91126 50438 for a free profile review.

Frequently Asked Questions — KCET 2026

Who conducts KCET and what is it for?

KCET (Karnataka Common Entrance Test) is conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to decide merit for the Government share of seats in Karnataka’s professional courses. Those seats sit in government, university, private aided, private un-aided and private/deemed-university institutions alike — at private and deemed universities a 2026 Government Order puts 40% of each course’s intake into that share. There is no domicile requirement: eligibility runs on a list of clauses, several of which are written for candidates who studied or live outside Karnataka.

When is KCET 2026?

KCET is held once a year around April–May. KCET 2026 was held on 23–24 April 2026 — check the latest counselling updates at kea.kar.nic.in.

What is the difference between KCET and COMEDK?

KCET decides merit for the Government share of seats, where the fee is regulated, through KEA counselling — and it has no domicile test, so candidates who studied outside Karnataka can be eligible under the right clause. COMEDK is a private consortium exam, open to all-India candidates, for private-college seats at private fees. Many colleges offer both.

Is there negative marking in KCET?

No — each correct answer scores 1 mark and there is no negative marking.

How is the KCET engineering rank calculated?

With 50:50 weightage between your KCET marks and your Class 12 PCM marks.

Do I need a Karnataka domicile for KCET?

No. KEA runs no domicile test. Its rule is that you must be an Indian citizen and satisfy any one of a list of eligibility clauses, and several of those clauses are written for people who are not in Karnataka — one of them requires you to have passed your qualifying exam outside Karnataka and to be living outside Karnataka on 1 May 2026. Others cover the Kannada-speaking taluks of Maharashtra and Kerala, ten years of Kannada-medium schooling anywhere in India, and Jammu & Kashmir migrants. KEA even holds a separate Kannada Language Test for Horanadu and Gadinadu Kannadiga candidates so that non-resident Kannadigas can claim these seats. What you may lose by coming through an out-of-state clause is reservation, not eligibility.

Are KCET seats only in government colleges?

No, and this is the more expensive half of the same myth. KEA's bulletin says the exam decides merit for the Government share of seats in government, university, private aided and private un-aided institutions — and a Government Order of July 2026 puts 40% of each course's intake at private and deemed universities into the same Government share, at a fee fixed for the year. So a KCET rank can win you a fee-regulated seat inside a private university, not only inside a government college.

Is KCET counselling still open for 2026?

No. KEA concluded Rounds 1, 2 and 3 on 7 September 2026. Round-3 reporting closed at 6.00 pm on 11 September 2026, and KEA treated it as compulsory admission with no cancellation requests accepted. On 8 September KEA published the leftovers: 24,283 engineering and 252 architecture seats went unallotted and were handed back to the colleges under the Government's consensual agreement with the private-college associations, so those seats are filled by the colleges directly now. No mop-up or casual-vacancy round has been notified.