Shubham Kumar, a student from Bihar’s Gaya Ji and son of a humble hardware shop owner, topped the prestigious JEE Advanced 2026, securing All India Rank (AIR) 1 with an impressive score of 330 out of total 360 marks. He anchored a clean sweep for the IIT Delhi zone, which took all top three ranks this year.Shubham Kumar with his parents and teacher. (HT Photo)Kumar’s friend Kabir Chhillar scored 329 out of 360 marks in the exam, securing second place (AIR 2) in the country. Jatin Chahar secured All India Rank 3 with 319 marks. All three of them are from the IIT Delhi Zone.A total of 1,87,389 candidates were registered for JEE Advanced 2026, of which 1,79,694 appeared for the exam. A total of 56,880 candidates have been successful and will now appear for counselling.Earlier, Shubham had scored 100 percentiles in both sessions of JEE Main 2026 by scoring 300 out of 300 marks, becoming the only student from Bihar to figure in the national Top 10 by securing AIR 6.Elated at his success, he attributed it to his devoted preparations. “I had been preparing for JEE Advanced for the past two years, and I was hopeful that my hard work would help me secure a good rank. Now that I have secured All India Rank 1, I feel very happy,” Kumar told PTI Videos.Bihar chief minister Samrat Chaudhary, congratulated Subham on X: “Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to Shubham Kumar, the talented student who has brought glory to Bihar by securing All India Rank 1 in JEE Advanced 2026.”“Your tireless hard work, discipline, dedication, and exceptional talent have served as an inspiration to millions of young people. It is our sincere hope that this historic achievement serves as the foundation for scaling new heights in your bright future,” the CM wrote.A resident of Nadarganj locality in Gaya Ji, Subham’s father Shiv Kumar runs a small hardware shop and his mother Kanchan Devi is a homemaker. He had prepared for IIT JEE in Kota.Subham said he has long harboured the ambition of studying at an IIT and building a career in computer science, and he credited his success to his parents and teachers. He also credited his sister, an IIT Patna student, for her guidance.Belonging to the IIT Delhi zone, Shubham dreams of pursuing B. Tech in Computer Science from IIT Bombay. As for his success mantra, he believes that conceptual understanding is the key that makes all the difference in examinations like JEE Advanced.IIT Entrance ResultsAccording to the result data released by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, a total of 1,79,694 candidates appeared in both papers of JEE (Advanced) 2026 conducted on May 17. The IIT Madras zone had the highest number of qualified candidates at 14,294, followed by IIT Bombay with 12,389 and IIT Delhi with 10,697 qualified candidates.Arohi Deshpande of the IIT Delhi zone emerged as the top-ranked female candidate with an All India Rank (CRL) of 77. She scored 280 out of 360 marks.One third-gender candidate who appeared for the exam could not qualify. The exam also saw 3,052 PwD candidates register, of whom 2,864 appeared in both papers and 887 qualified.Candidates who appeared for the exam can access their results and download the final answer key through the official JEE Advanced website. To download the result, candidates can log in using their roll number, date of birth and registered mobile number.(with agency inputs)