CAET Exam for IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi: The Complete Non-JEE Admission Guide

Quick Overview

Key Takeaways

• CAET 2026 will be conducted in four sessions; November 23, 2025; February 8, 2026; June 7, 2026 (replacing postponed April 19 session); and July 12, 2026. There is also a possibility for a Special Drive for UAE Nationals that could be scheduled on August 12, 2026.

• The examination is 3 hours long and consists of 60 questions. Students have to answer 20 questions each in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics that are answered on an OMR sheet.

• Students must secure at least 75% marks in any two subjects, including Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and 80 percent overall in the Class 12 board exams.

• The annual tuition fees for the academic year 2026-27 are AED 77,500. However, a majority of students admitted to the CAET are international students or Indians based in the UAE and they receive a 75% discount on the fees.

• Indian nationals studying in India are not eligible for the Common Admission Test. They have to appear for JEE Advanced and then apply through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA).

• The application fee for the CAET is AED 150 (or approximately USD 41) per session for all categories except UAE Nationals.

Introduction

Two students could be sitting in the same living room in Abu Dhabi, one trying to get their IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi B.Tech and end up writing two completely different exams. One takes JEE Advanced. The other takes CAET. Neither route is a shortcut, and mixing them up costs families real time. The CAET exam IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi pathway exists specifically for UAE Nationals, international candidates, and Indian expatriates who've spent their last five years of schooling outside India, while Indian nationals still resident in India go through JEE Advanced and JoSAA. If you're an Indian expat family in Dubai or Abu Dhabi trying to figure out which door you're supposed to walk through, this guide covers the CAET route in full, plus exactly where it splits from JEE Advanced.

What Is the CAET Exam for IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi

CAET stands for Combined Admission Entrance Test, and it exists purely because JEE Advanced isn't open to everyone. IIT Delhi's Abu Dhabi campus admits its B.Tech students through two separate channels, and which one applies to you depends entirely on nationality and schooling history, not on preference.

Three groups qualify for CAET specifically:

• UAE Nationals, meaning citizens of the UAE with proof of citizenship.

• International candidates, meaning anyone who is neither an Indian citizen nor a UAE national, plus OCI/PIO cardholders who obtained their card after March 4, 2021.

• Indian expatriates, meaning Indian passport holders who've lived outside India for the last five years and completed Class 8 through 12 schooling abroad.

Indian nationals who don't fall into that expatriate category are directed to JEE Advanced instead. CAET simply isn't an option for them, full stop.

The campus offers B.Tech programmes in Computer Science and Engineering, Energy Engineering and Chemical Engineering, with Electrical Engineering commencing from the 2026-27 academic year. The course itself has the same standing as any other IIT Delhi qualification, so if parents ask you whether the equivalent Abu Dhabi degree "really counts", Study From UAE's analysis of why the qualification is valid in India goes into the legal details in simple-to-understand language. If you're considering alternatives to IIT for your engineering studies as a backup, or even in tandem with an application elsewhere, then our guide to engineering universities in the UAE has more about Khalifa University, AUS, and a couple of other worthy contenders to shortlist alongside CAET.

CAET Exam Eligibility: Marks, Age, and Attempt Limits

CAET exam eligibility is defined by six criteria, and not meeting any of the criteria makes a candidate ineligible even if they meet all the other requirements.

A candidate must secure at least 75% marks in any two of the following: Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and 80% aggregate marks in the Class XII qualifying examination. The aggregate requirement in the qualifying examination often proves to be a more stringent criterion than individual subject requirements. For example a good score in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics does not cover a total score in Class XII. 

You also need to be taking Class 12 (or equivalent) for the first time in 2025 or 2026. Repeaters whose first attempt was in 2024 or earlier are not eligible. There are no exceptions mentioned in the brochure. Age-wise, you must have been born on or after October 1, 2001, and you cannot have accepted an IIT seat before, even one you later vacated.

One detail families often miss: a candidate gets a maximum of two CAET sessions per academic year, and can apply across a maximum of two academic years total. If your first two sessions don't work out, that's your ceiling for this cycle.

CAET Exam Pattern and Syllabus for IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi

Unlike JEE, the CAET Exam IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi syllabus is purely based on the Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics of Classes 11 and 12. However, there are significant differences in the pattern of the questions asked.

CAET Exam Fees and Scholarships at IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi

CAET exam IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi fees split into two very different numbers: what it costs to sit the exam, and what it costs to actually study there.

Registering for each CAET session costs AED 150, roughly USD 41, plus bank charges, for every applicant except UAE Nationals. Sit two sessions and that's AED 300 before you've even reached results day.

The fees for IIT Abu Dhabi for the program itself are much higher. Annual tuition for AY 2026-27 is set at AED 77,500. What you actually pay depends largely on what doors you walked through:

IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi Admission Through JEE Advanced: The Other Pathway

IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi admission through JEE advanced is fundamentally different from that of the CAET and understanding this difference is critical even for those taking only CAET, as it explains why one’s pool of seats is significantly lower than the total number of seats in a given programme.

Indian Nationals, who are eligible for JEE Advanced, appear in the regular JoSAA counselling portal, the same that all other IITs use, not a separate one specific for Abu Dhabi. As per the seat matrix of JoSAA, each of the 3 current programs have 10 seats allocated for the JEE Advanced route, which comes from the same all-India merit list that students compete on to get into any other IIT branch. The split of Electrical Engineering seats for JEE Advanced has not been published as of the time of writing this article. Please check back on the seat allocation portal closer to the 2026-27 cycle to confirm.

JEE Advanced qualifiers who land an Abu Dhabi seat pay fees at IIT Delhi's Delhi-campus rate rather than the Abu Dhabi rate, which works out to roughly 90 to 100% off the AED 77,500 figure, on top of a monthly stipend, subsidised housing, and two annual round-trip flights home. It's a genuinely stronger financial deal than the CAET route offers, which is worth knowing if a family is weighing whether to chase a strong JEE Advanced rank instead of preparing separately for CAET.

If IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi is one option among several Abu Dhabi campuses on your list, our guide to universities in Abu Dhabi is a reasonable place to compare it against public and private alternatives in the same city.

IIT Abu Dhabi Seats and Cutoff Trends: What CAET Applicants Should Expect

IIT Abu Dhabi seats are limited, and they're split unevenly between the two admission routes, which is exactly why competition on the CAET side runs high despite a smaller applicant pool than JEE Advanced.

The official seat matrix confirms 10 seats per programme through JEE Advanced for the three currently running B.Tech disciplines. IIT Delhi – Abu Dhabi has stated that a separate CAET-specific seat matrix, along with allotment rules, gets published on its own seat allocation portal closer to each session's results, rather than fixed in the general information brochure. Treat any CAET seat number you see elsewhere as a working estimate, not a confirmed figure, until that portal updates for the current cycle.

Note: For the 2025 admission cycle, JoSAA's standard six counselling rounds closed CSE at rank 1,346 for the Abu Dhabi campus, with Chemical Engineering closing at 5,712 within those same standard rounds. 

For the IIT Delhi - Abu Dhabi, the institute conducted their own special rounds to fill up the remaining vacant seats. Hence, the final tally of ranks for closing rounds for CSE turned out to be 6,772 while that of Energy Engineering turned out to be 7,885. These ranks tend to vary every year and with every round, so it's best to check the opening-and-closing-rank archive of JoSAA for the current session, instead of relying on this single blog post.

One honest logistical wrinkle: CAET's own schedule isn't perfectly fixed either. IIT Delhi – Abu Dhabi postponed the session 3 date of 2026 which was scheduled to be held on April 19 to June 7, shifting it by around seven weeks. If study leave or holidays is being considered around a session date allow some slack.

CAET sessions run across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE. Also in New Delhi, Tokyo, Singapore and Muscat. The official schedule page is the place to confirm which cities apply to the session and whether the Special Drive, which is only available in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, applies to the session.

For a broader look at what studying on this specific campus actually involves day to day, beyond the exam mechanics, our IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi courses, fees and admission guide walks through campus life and programme details that this exam-focused guide doesn't cover. And if research access and lab exposure matter to your decision, our separate breakdown of IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi's research collaborations explains exactly which partnerships with Khalifa University and MBZUAI actually reach undergraduates versus which stay faculty-only.

Conclusion

CAET and JEE Advanced lead to the same B.Tech degree at the same Abu Dhabi campus, but they're not interchangeable routes, and they're not equally generous financially. If you're eligible for CAET, the real preparation work sits in the syllabus breadth and the OMR-based, negative-marking-on-MCQs format, not in outguessing a moving cutoff. Confirm your session dates directly on the official portal before you build a study calendar around them, since IIT Delhi – Abu Dhabi has already shifted its 2026 schedule once. If you're still weighing CAET against other UAE study routes for your engineering plans, Study From UAE's Find Your University Quiz matches your academic profile against a realistic shortlist, and our team can help you map out a timeline from there.