UCEED Application Date:01 Oct' 25 - 31 Oct' 25
The national-level design exam is the Undergraduate Common Entrance Exam for Design (UCEED). Candidates planning to obtain design admission through UCEED need to understand the marking scheme also. IIT Bombay conducts the UCEED entrance exam. Students appearing for UCEED 2026, mainly check if "Is there negative marking in UCEED 2026?”. Read the full information to know if UCEED negative marking is applicable or not.
UCEED 2026 is divided into two parts - A & B. UCEED total marks are 300 where part-A is for 200 marks, with duration of 2 hours and part-B is for 100 marks for 1 hour duration. According to the UCEED 2026 exam pattern, Part-A is a computer based test whereas part-B is a subjective test. UCEED part-A has 3 sections - NAT, MSQ and MCQ. Part-B has sketching and design aptitude. Candidates can go through the UCEED syllabus to prepare for all these pattern of questions.
Provided below is the detailed information about the UCEED 2026 negative marking according to each section.
Section 1: NAT (Numerical Answer Type)
The total number of questions in NAT is 14. Each question will be given 4 marks for a correct answer. This section has no negative marking either for incorrect answers or for the unattempted questions.
Section 2: MSQ (Multiple Select Question)
The total number of questions in MSQ are 15. Each question will be given partial marks for correct answer. The negative marking for MSQ is applicable as -1 for an incorrect answer. There is no negative marking for unanswered questions.
Section 3: MCQ (Multiple Choice Question)
There are a total of 28 questions in the MCQ section. Each question will be given 3 marks for correct answer. The negative marking for MCQ is applicable as -0.71 for an incorrect answer. There is no negative marking for unanswered questions.
Candidates in part-B of UCEED are evaluated based on their drawing and creativity skills. Hence the concept of UCEED negative marking is not applicable for this part-B section.
UCEED Negative Marking - Summary Table
In UCEED 2026, negative marking is applicable for Part-A which is only in MSQ and MCQ. For the NAT section, the negative marking is not applicable. As the part-B section is subjective, hence the negative marking concept is not applicable.
Aspirants can refer to the below table that provides a detailed description of breakup about UCEED marking scheme and the negative marking.
PART-A
Section | Question types | No. of questions | Marks for correct answer | Marks for wrong answer | Marks for unattempted questions | Total marks allotted for the section |
A | NAT | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 56 |
B | MSQ | 15 | Partial marking | -1 | 0 | 60 |
C | MCQ | 28 | 3 | -0.71 | 0 | 84 |
Total | 57 | 200 |
PART-B
Question types | No. of questions | Total marks |
Sketching | 1 | 50 |
Design aptitude | 1 | 50 |
Total | 2 | 100 |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
As the official brochure for UCEED 2026 is yet to be released, candidates meanwhile can check the marking scheme provided in the article above as per the previous year.
MSQ and MCQ are the two sections in part-A of UCEED 2026 that comprise negative marking.
No, the negative marking is applicable only to specific sections of part-A. And moreover, as part-B is of drawing, hence negative marking is not applicable.
On Question asked by student community
Hello,
NIFT 2026 admission - Applications release around November–December 2025.
UCEED 2026- Registrations open around September–October 2025.
Pearl Academy - They have multiple admission cycles (Jan, April, June). Applications usually open by October 2025 for Jan cycle.
Keep checking official sites regularly since dates shift slightly every year.
Thank you!
Hello!
UCEED is a competitive exam for design aspirants, testing design aptitude, logical thinking, creativity, and visualisation skills. To improve your score out of 300, start by understanding the exam pattern—Part A (objective) and Part B (subjective). For Part A, practice reasoning, numerical aptitude, and environmental & social awareness questions. For Part B, focus on drawing, sketching, and presenting your ideas clearly. Solve past year UCEED papers and join online mock test series. Spend at least 2–3 hours daily practising creative problem-solving and sketching. Also, work on time management because the exam requires quick thinking.
Thank you for reading, and I wish you the best
Hello Akanksha,
For NID DAT 2026, your eligibility is established based on your born date as you are born on or after July 1st 2005. For UCEED 2026, your eligibility is dependent on your born date by category. You are eligible if you are OPEN/EWS/OBC-NCL category and born on or after October 1, 2001. If you are SC/ST/PwD category you must be born on or after October 1, 1996 in order to be eligible. Based on your born date of December 20th, 2006 for both NID DAT 2026 and UCEED 2026; you will be eligible.
The UCEED exam is conducted by IIT Bombay, and the previous year’s question papers you can download the papers along with answer keys directly from the link given below :
https://design.careers360.com/articles/uceed-previous-year-question-papers
Thank you and all the best!
Currently, NSUT does not offer a B.Des. program. However, other institutes like IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IIITDM Jabalpur offer B.Des. through UCEED.
Expected UCEED Cutoffs (General Category):
IIT Bombay: Around Rank 14
IIT Delhi: Around Rank 35
IIITDM Jabalpur: Around Rank 165
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