What Is CEED?

The Common Entrance Examination for Design, or CEED, assesses visual perception, drawing, logical reasoning, creativity, communication and problem solving. IIT Bombay conducts it under the UCEED-CEED Implementation Committee.

CEED is for postgraduate design routes. It is different from UCEED, which is used for undergraduate B.Des. admission. A Class 12 qualification alone does not meet the standard CEED degree requirement.

The exam has two compulsory parts. Part A screens candidates for Part-B evaluation, and the final score combines the two assessed marks.

CEED 2027 Important Dates

The result date and scorecard download date are different. Save your Part-A responses before result declaration; response downloads close when the result is announced.

CEED 2027 Eligibility

CEED does not require every applicant to hold a design degree. A qualifying programme can meet the exam's duration requirement without being a B.Des. However, the M.Des. programme you later apply to may accept a narrower set of degrees.

Final-year students can use the prescribed Principal/Head of Department certificate when registering. Completing CEED registration does not remove the need to finish the qualifying programme and meet the admitting institute's conditions.

CEED Application Fee and Registration

The late charge is INR 500 for every group. Bank processing or service charges are extra. The registration fee is non-refundable and non-transferable.

• Register online through the CEED 2027 application portal.
• Enter your qualification and category details, and select three exam cities in preference order.
• Upload the photograph, signature and applicable certificates.
• Pay through the available online payment option and submit the form.

City-change requests are not accepted after submission. Choose all three preferences carefully: if there are too few applicants for a city, another preference or a city outside your choices may be allotted.

Documents Required for CEED Registration

The category in the application is used to prepare the category-wise merit list. OBC-NCL and EWS certificates for the examination must be issued on or after 1 April 2026. Institute admission may involve a later, separate certificate check.

The photograph and signature are used on the admit card and scorecard. The required uploads are electronic; sending paper certificates to the CEED office does not replace them.

CEED 2027 Exam Pattern and Marking Scheme

Part A is a one hour computer-based test with 44 questions for 150 marks. Part B lasts two hours and has five compulsory tasks for 100 marks.

MSQ questions can have more than one correct option. Their full and partial marking rules are:

Part-B questions appear on the screen, but answers are written or drawn in the supplied booklet. Each task carries 20 marks.

Part B allows partial credit and has no negative marking. It is assessed against the criteria in each question, not a single model drawing.

CEED Syllabus and Preparation

For spatial reasoning, practise moving between an object's front, side and top views. For product questions, connect material and shape to how the object works. In drawing, check viewpoint and proportion before spending time on surface details.

For a design brief, identify the user, the problem and the constraints. Your sketch and labels should show how the idea answers the brief; a polished drawing with no usable solution may miss what the question asks.

The CEED 2026 question paper provides recent objective and design tasks. Use the rules printed on that paper when scoring it. For the current syllabus, the CEED syllabus guide separates topic coverage from the confirmed marks assigned to question types.

IIT Bombay does not prescribe a specific textbook or guide. The syllabus does not assign fixed chapter-wise percentages, so a topic count from one paper should not be treated as a guaranteed distribution for 2027.

Admit Card, Exam Cities and Exam-Day Rules

Admit cards will be available from 1 January 2027, 1 pm. Report discrepancies by 8 January, 5 pm. The allotted venue appears on the card; the exam offers 30 city choices.

Reporting begins at 7 am. Entry after 9 am is not permitted. Carry the printed admit card and an original valid photo ID: college-issued ID, passport, driving licence, PAN card, Voter ID, Aadhaar or a printout of e-Aadhaar.

Bring your own pens, pencils, sketch pens, colours and a clean, unmarked drawing board. Watercolours and your own drawing sheets are not allowed. Stationery cannot be exchanged. Phones, calculators, watches and smart glasses are prohibited.

An approved scribe can assist only in Part A, not the drawing responses in Part B. Scribes are arranged through the CEED office's panel; candidates cannot bring their own. Approved compensatory time is 20 minutes per hour, giving 20 extra minutes for Part A and 40 for Part B.

CEED Answer Key and Responses

The draft Part-A answer key and responses are due on 19 January 2027. Submit comments through candidate login by 21 January, 5 pm. The final key is scheduled for 26 January, 5 pm.

Question order may differ between candidates. Use the Master Question Paper sequence when identifying a disputed question. For an MSQ, compare the whole selected option set, not just one correct choice.

Part-B design tasks are subjective and do not have a single model solution. Their evaluated answer booklets are not shared with candidates.

CEED Cutoff, Result and Scorecard

The GEN Part-A cutoff is the mean mark plus half the standard deviation. The mean and standard deviation are rounded to two decimal places. OBC-NCL/EWS use 0.9 times that cutoff, and SC/ST/PwD use 0.5 times it.

Only candidates shortlisted through Part A have Part B evaluated. The final-score formula is 0.25 × Part-A marks + 0.75 × Part-B marks. All shortlisted candidates receive a rank.

The result will be declared on 3 March 2027. Download the scorecard between 10 March and 31 July 2027. It is valid for one year from result declaration, not from download.

There is no re-evaluation or re-totalling provision. Clearing the exam-level cutoff is also different from meeting an institute's admission shortlist.

M.Des Admission Through CEED

Apply separately to the institutes offering your chosen programmes. Each checks its own qualifying-degree requirements and may conduct a further test or interview. CEED registration does not automatically submit those admission applications.

The CEED scorecard cannot serve as proof of date of birth, category or disability. Retain the documents supporting those claims for the institute's verification stage. An offer depends on its selection process and available seats, not CEED qualification alone.

1. Dates
2. Eligibility
3. Fees and documents

1. Paper structure
2. Syllabus
3. Exam-day essentials

1. Result and admission stages
2. Key and scorecard dates