February 17, 2026. The NTA just hit the “publish” button on the Session 1 results, and the numbers are staggering. We’re talking about 13.04 lakh candidates competing for a handful of seats, and only 12 students managed to touch the 100 percentile mark. The thing is, while the celebrations are on, there’s a massive conversation starting about the “missing” 100 percentile female candidates this session. Let’s be real—the competition has never been this cut-throat.
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Field Notes: The Session 1 Breakdown
The Rajasthan Sweep: Three out of the twelve 100-percentilers are from Rajasthan (Kabeer, Chiranjib, and Arnav). It’s officially the “Topper Factory” once again.
The Perfect Dozen: These 12 kids are essentially the “god-tier” of this session. They come from Delhi, Andhra, Bihar, Odisha, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Telangana.
Zero Female Perfect Scores: For the first time in a while, no female candidate hit the 100 mark in Session 1. The top female score is expected to be in the 99.99 range, but that perfect 100 remains elusive for now.
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Category Dominance: Narendrababu Gari Mahith from Andhra Pradesh pulled a 100 percentile in the OBC-NCL category—the only non-General student to do so in the perfect scorers’ list.
The “Drop” Bonus: Don’t forget, 9 questions were dropped in the final key. That +4 mark bonus definitely helped some of these borderline 99.9s jump into the 100 percentile bracket.
The April Pivot: Registration for Session 2 is open until February 25. If you’re at 98 or 99, you’re already eyeing that April 1–9 window.
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JEE Mains 2026: The 100 Percentile Club
| Name | State | Category |
| Kabeer Chhillar | Rajasthan | General |
| Chiranjib Kar | Rajasthan | General |
| Arnav Gautam | Rajasthan | General |
| N. Gari Mahith | Andhra Pradesh | OBC-NCL |
| Pasala Mohith | Andhra Pradesh | General |
| Shreyas Mishra | Delhi-NCT | General |
| Shubham Kumar | Bihar | General |
| Bhavesh Patra | Odisha | General |
| Anay Jain | Haryana | General |
| Madhav Viradiya | Maharashtra | General |
| Purohit Nimay | Gujarat | General |
| Vivan S. Mahiswari | Telangana | General |
And Here’s the Kicker…
Percentiles are a weird game. The thing is, a 100 percentile doesn’t mean you got full marks; it just means no one in your specific shift scored higher than you. With 13 lakh students in the mix, the “bunching effect” is real. Even at the 99 percentile, you might be looking at a rank of 13,000+, which makes getting into a top-tier CS branch at an NIT a massive struggle. And here’s the kicker: NTA calculates these scores to 7 decimal places just to break ties. If you’re dissatisfied, don’t just “vibecoding” your way through prep; the April session is usually tougher because everyone has had more time to grind. Or nothing, if you’re already happy with your NIT seat.
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