NDA Exam Date 2027: Two Cycles, Notification Windows and Apply Steps

The NDA exam date 2027 is two dates, not one. UPSC has printed NDA and NA (I) 2027 for Sunday 11 April 2027 and NDA and NA (II) 2027 for Sunday 19 September 2027, in the Calendar Year 2027 issued on 20 May 2026. Those dates can still move if the Commission says so.

Most people mix the next NDA Sunday with the last one. NDA II 2026 already ran on 13 September 2026. That paper is over. NDA I 2027 is the next written date on this calendar. A second mix-up is treating NDA and CDS as one form because they share a calendar row. They share a date. They do not share an application.

Those two Sundays are not interchangeable.

NDA Exam Date 2027 at a Glance

The NDA exam date 2027 is the pair of Sundays below. The UPSC Calendar Year 2027 is the date authority until a later notice or press note changes a row. It is not the notification, it is not the admit card and it does not print vacancies.

Before you open the form, check age, education and medicals on the NDA age limit note. This page does not repeat those rules.

NDA I 2027 and NDA II 2027 Are Separate Cycles

UPSC runs NDA twice a year, and each cycle is its own exam. You file a fresh application, you get a fresh Application Number and you write a fresh pair of papers. Clearing or missing NDA I 2027 does not carry a form forward into NDA II 2027.

The 2027 pattern is the same shape as 2026, just shifted onto new Sundays.

Read that table as a pattern, not as a promise that 2027 will copy every 2026 clock time.

The NDA II 2026 notice closed applications at 6:00 pm on 9 June 2026. The Commission’s exam page later listed 11 June 2026, 6:00 pm. That is the useful warning. A last date on the annual calendar can move once the notice, or a later edit on the exam page, is out.

NDA I 2026 fed the 157th NDA Course and the 119th Indian Naval Academy Course from 1 January 2027. NDA II 2026 feeds the 158th Course and the 120th INAC from 1 July 2027. The 2027 notices will print the next course numbers. Do not guess them from a blog.

The academy behind the abbreviation is the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla, with a naval 10+2 stream through the Indian Naval Academy. The NDA full form note is the place for that map. This page stays with dates.

How NDA and CDS Share One Calendar Row

In the 2027 calendar, NDA I sits on the same row as CDS I, and NDA II sits on the same row as CDS II. Same notification date. Same last date. Same Sunday. That is a timetable convenience. It is not a combined exam.

NDA is a 10+2 entry. CDS is a graduate entry. The papers, the fee line, the centres and the SSB call-up are separate. If you are eligible for only one of them, you apply for only one of them. If you somehow sit in both windows across a career, you still file two forms.

For CDS eligibility and papers, use the live CDS age limit and CDS syllabus notes, and the CDS full form explainer. A CDS exam date 2027 page in this wave is not live yet, so the two Sundays above are the dated fact you can use today.

The same 2027 PDF also lists other UPSC Sundays, including CAPF (ACs) 2027 on 4 July 2027. That is a different force and a different form. Do not treat a shared calendar file as a shared career. The CAPF syllabus note is the sibling if that is the exam you actually want.

How to Apply for NDA 2027

You apply only on that same upsconline.nic.in portal. The NDA II 2026 notice is blunt: no other mode is allowed. Until the 2027 notices say otherwise, treat that as the process.

The portal has four modules. Three of them can be filled any day. The fourth opens only inside the notification window.

1. Create the account. Use a valid, active email and mobile. UPSC may mail you only on that ID.
2. Finish Universal Registration. This produces a lifetime URN. You register it once. It stays constant across UPSC exams.
3. Fill the Common Application Form. Upload a photograph, capture a live photograph and upload a signature sheet: sign three times, one below the other, on plain white paper in black ink.
4. Open the Examination Specific Module when the NDA 2027 notice is live. This is where you pick the exam, the centre and the fee. Submit it. You then get an Application Number that belongs to that cycle only. Keep the URN and that Application Number together for any later mail to the Commission.

Aadhaar is the ID the Commission asks you to prefer, because it makes verification less painful. You still have to name one photo ID in the URN profile (Aadhaar, Voter Card, PAN, passport, driving licence, school photo ID, or another State or Central photo ID) and carry that same card to the written exam and to SSB.

Fee in the NDA II 2026 notice was Rs 100, by net banking, Visa/Master/RuPay card or UPI. SC and ST candidates, female candidates and specified wards of JCOs/NCOs/ORs studying in Military Schools or Sainik Schools were exempt. OBC and EWS candidates paid the full fee. Fee once paid was not refunded and could not be parked for another exam. Wait for the 2027 notice before you treat Rs 100 as locked.

A few rules from that notice are easy to miss and expensive to learn later.

• There is a one-time edit for the URN profile. Changes do not flow into forms you have already submitted. They apply only after you re-lock the profile and file a new form.
• You cannot withdraw an application after submission, and you cannot correct fields later.
• Centre allotment is first-apply-first-allot, with a ceiling at most centres. Chennai, Dispur, Kolkata and Nagpur were the exceptions with no ceiling in that notice. If your first centre freezes, you pick from what is left. No centre-change request is entertained.
• Failure to upload the documents the CAF asks for can cancel the candidature.

It is wise to finish URN and CAF before 2 December 2026, then spend the live window only on the NDA I 2027 module. Three weeks is enough if the profile is ready. It is tight if you start from a blank account on the last afternoon.

Board certificates are checked at SSB, not by posting originals to UPSC. If you already keep those PDFs in DigiLocker, that helps your own file. It does not replace the originals the Board will ask to see.

Watch the notice itself on the Commission’s examination notifications page. Coaching infographics are not the document the form is built from.

After You Apply: Admit Card, Written Day and SSB

The e-Admit Card comes from the same portal. In the latest NDA notice it is issued on the last working day of the preceding week of the exam. It is not posted. It is not emailed. NDA I 2026 put the card up on 2 April 2026 for a 12 April paper. NDA II 2026 put it up on 3 September 2026 for a 13 September paper. Use those as a feel for the gap, not as a 2027 upload date.

On the written day you sit two objective papers, both on the same Sunday.

That scheme is Appendix-I of the NDA II 2026 notice. Mathematics and Part B of GAT are bilingual. There is negative marking of one third of the marks for a wrong answer. A blank answer carries no penalty. Calculators and log tables stay outside. You mark the OMR with a black ball pen only. Entry closes 30 minutes before each session. Face authentication at the venue is mandatory.

The syllabus and the five-day SSB sit on the NDA exam guide. Do not try to learn GAT from a date page.

After the written result, the 2026 process sent candidates to joinindianarmy.nic.in within two weeks, including those whose first choice was Air Force, and to joinindiannavy.gov.in for Navy or Naval Academy. Originals of age and education go to the SSB, not to UPSC. Marks and cut-offs for NDA I 2026 were withheld until the entire process ended. Expect the 2027 notices to reprint that pipeline. Do not invent a result Sunday from the calendar, because the calendar does not print one.

NDA I 2026’s written result came on 8 May 2026, 26 days after the 12 April paper. That is one data point. It is not a formula.

What the 2027 Calendar Does Not Freeze

The 20 May 2026 PDF is a programme of examinations. It is not a vacancy circular.

It does not print 2027 vacancies, the 2027 fee line, the 2027 last-date clock time, the 2027 course numbers, the joining month, the SSB months, or the written-result date. Each of those waits for the cycle’s notice or a later press note. This page will not invent a 2027 vacancy count to look complete.

It also does not replace the eligibility chapter. Age, marital status, education by wing and the medicals are in the notice and on the age-limit note already linked above.

If you are in Class 11 or 12 and the window fits, the next useful action is mechanical. Finish URN and CAF now. Watch 2 December 2026 for NDA I 2027. File in the first few days if you care about centre choice. Then keep the Application Number and wait for the e-Admit Card on the portal, not in your post box.

Whoever treats a May 2026 PDF as a locked admit-card date must be having more faith in calendars than the Commission asks for. The calendar is the plan. The notice is the rule.

Frequently Asked Questions

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