Candidates unable to complete CUET-UG due to glitch to get another chance

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday announced that candidates who were unable to complete their Common University Entrance Test for Undergraduate programmes (CUET-UG) due to a technical disruption would be given another opportunity to appear for the examination.

The assurance came after a technical issue during the morning shift of the nationwide entrance test caused delays and disrupted examinations at several centres.

In a statement issued on social media platform X, the NTA said candidates who had completed biometric registration and were present at their designated examination centres on 30 May but could not finish their papers because of the technical problem would be offered a fresh opportunity to take the examination.

The agency acknowledged the inconvenience caused to students and said it was committed to ensuring that no candidate suffered academic disadvantage because of the disruption.

The announcement followed an admission by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the technology service provider engaged by the NTA, that a brief technical issue on its systems had delayed the commencement of the morning session by nearly two hours.

TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director K. Krithivasan said the problem had been identified and resolved promptly by the company's technical teams. He maintained that the integrity of the examination remained unaffected and expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to candidates.

Following the disruption, the NTA revised examination timings and provided compensatory time to candidates who were able to continue with the test. The agency stated that students in the morning session were being allowed the full duration of their papers and would be permitted to leave only after completing the examination.

Earlier, the NTA had publicly attributed the delay to a technical glitch reported by TCS. It said the issue had since been resolved and that examination operations had resumed normally across affected centres.

CUET-UG serves as a common entrance examination for admission to undergraduate programmes in universities across India. The test is aimed at creating a uniform platform for students from diverse educational backgrounds, including those from rural and remote regions.

Registration for CUET-UG 2026 commenced in April. More than 13.5 lakh candidates had registered for the previous edition of the examination in 2025, underlining the growing importance of the test in the country's higher education admission process.