CUET UG 2026: Number of Students Scoring 100 Percentile in at Least One Subject Jumps 20%
The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the results of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate programmes on Tuesday. This year, 3,417 candidates achieved a perfect 100 percentile in at least one subject, a 20% increase over the previous year.
The top rank holder is Devina Gahlot from New Delhi, who scored 100 percentile in three of her five subjects (economics, political science, and psychology) and achieved an aggregate score of 1232.19. The second and third ranks are held by Saksham Goel (1230.82) and Udit Chaturvedi (1207.21) from Delhi and Himachal Pradesh respectively.
The examination recorded its largest-ever pool of applicants, with registrations climbing 15.8% from 13,54,699 in 2025 to 15,68,867 in 2026. The number of candidates who actually appeared increased from 10,71,735 to 11,64,098. However, the proportion of registered students who took the exam fell from 79.1% to 74.2%, a decline of 4.9 percentage points. Nearly 4.05 lakh registered candidates did not appear, compared to 2.83 lakh last year.
Devina Gahlot, who also scored 99.99 and 99.91 in English and fine arts respectively, expressed her interest in studying English (honours) at St Stephen's or Hindu College. She credited her success to a consistent study plan and thorough revision of NCERT textbooks, and thanked her parents for not putting pressure on her.
In subject-wise performance, one candidate achieved 100 percentile in four subjects, matching last year's best. The number of candidates achieving 100 percentile in three subjects rose from 17 to 22 (29.4% increase), in two subjects from 150 to 180 (20% increase), and in one subject from 2,679 to 3,214 (20% increase). Overall, about 0.3% of candidates who appeared secured 100 percentile in at least one paper, compared to 0.2% last year.
The increase in top scorers may intensify competition for popular courses across the 244 participating universities.
