Enter your details below to get an academy-wise CDS eligibility check for IMA, INA, AFA and OTA, along with an estimate of your remaining age-based CDS opportunities. This tool applies the age, education, gender and marital-status conditions commonly specified in UPSC CDS notifications — always confirm against the notification you are applying under.
Your CDS Eligibility Summary
—
Academy-wise Eligibility
Age & Opportunity Timeline
This calculator provides an estimated CDS eligibility and opportunity calculation based on the rules and session data configured in the tool. UPSC eligibility can vary by examination notification, academy, course and candidate conditions. Always verify the latest official UPSC CDS notification before applying.
How this CDS Attempt Calculator works
This tool checks your entered details against a configurable rule set for each academy and compares your date of birth against the age window that would apply on each upcoming CDS examination cycle. Specifically, it looks at:
- Your date of birth and calendar-accurate current age
- Academy-specific minimum and maximum age limits (IMA, INA, AFA, OTA)
- Your highest qualification and, where relevant, your degree stream
- Gender and marital-status conditions that apply to each academy
- Whether you are in your final year of graduation
- Any previous CDS attempts you have told the tool about
- The CDS I / CDS II examination session schedule
Eligibility is ultimately determined by the official UPSC CDS notification applicable to the examination for which you are applying. Age limits, qualification requirements and session dates shown here are configured centrally in this tool and should be checked against the current notification, since UPSC can revise them from one cycle to the next.
The Combined Defence Services Examination (CDS) has no fixed cap on the number of attempts. UPSC does not impose a specific limit on how many times you can appear – you can keep applying as long as you remain within the prescribed age limit for your chosen academy. Since the exam runs twice a year, your real constraint isn’t a countdown of “attempts” – it’s a countdown of birthdays against an academy-specific age ceiling. Once you know your date of birth, your qualification, and your target academy, you can work out precisely how many sittings remain. (You can plug your own details into the CDS Attempt Calculator on this page to get that number instantly.)
What Is the CDS Exam?
The Combined Defence Services Examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission twice a year — commonly called CDS I and CDS II — to recruit officers into four training academies of the Indian Armed Forces:
- IMA (Indian Military Academy) — Army, Permanent Commission
- INA (Indian Naval Academy) — Navy, Permanent Commission
- AFA (Air Force Academy) — Air Force, Flying Branch
- OTA (Officers’ Training Academy) — Short Service Commission, open to both men and women
A single CDS application lets you list preferences across these academies, but—and this is the part most explainers skip—each academy runs its own age bracket and education requirements. A candidate can be comfortably within range for OTA and already overage for INA on the very same date of birth. That’s the whole reason a one-size-fits-all “CDS age limit” answer is almost always misleading.
CDS Eligibility Criteria: Age Limit at a Glance
| Academy | Age Limit | Who Can Apply | Core Education Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMA | 19–24 years | Unmarried men | Bachelor’s degree, any stream |
| INA | 19–22 years | Unmarried men | B.E./B.Tech (Engineering) degree |
| AFA | 20–24 years (up to 26 with a valid DGCA Commercial Pilot Licence) | Unmarried men | Engineering degree, or a degree with Physics & Maths at Class 12 |
| OTA | 19–25 years | Unmarried men; women (unmarried, or issueless widows/divorcees) | Bachelor’s degree, any stream |
These are the age brackets most consistently reflected across recent UPSC CDS notifications, and they’re also the exact figures used inside the calculator on this page. That said, UPSC restates the precise cut-off dates in every fresh notification, and figures can shift by a year in either direction between cycles — so treat this table as your starting map, not your final word. Always cross-check against the notification you’re actually applying under before you submit your form.
One more thing worth knowing up front: unlike most other UPSC examinations, CDS gives no age relaxation to reserved categories — the same age bracket applies to General, OBC, SC and ST candidates alike. There’s no 3-year or 5-year cushion to fall back on here.
Academy-Wise Eligibility
IMA (Indian Military Academy) Eligibility
IMA is the broadest of the three male-only academies in terms of education — it accepts a degree in any discipline. Where candidates usually trip up is the age window: 19 to 24 years, reckoned against the cut-off date fixed in that cycle’s notification (not the exam date itself). If you’re 23 today, you’re not automatically “almost out” — you likely still have two to three sittings left, since CDS runs twice yearly. If you’re 24 and a half, you may already be past the line for the next cycle, even though you’d have sailed through it a year earlier.
Marital status matters too: IMA candidates must be unmarried, and this is checked at the time of joining the academy, not just at the time of applying.
INA (Indian Naval Academy) Eligibility
INA has the tightest age bracket of the four — 19 to 22 years — and it’s the one candidates most often discover too late that they’ve missed, because the window closes a full two years earlier than IMA’s. It also has the strictest education filter: a general B.A., B.Com, or B.Sc. degree will not satisfy INA’s requirement. You need a B.E. or B.Tech (or an equivalent recognised engineering degree). A commerce or arts graduate who is perfectly within the age bracket will still be marked ineligible for INA on education grounds alone — which is exactly the kind of “eligible for one academy, not another” scenario a combined age calculator tends to hide.
AFA (Air Force Academy) Eligibility
AFA sits in the middle at 20 to 24 years, with one useful carve-out: if you hold a valid Commercial Pilot Licence from the DGCA, the upper limit typically relaxes up to 26 years. On education, AFA is more flexible than INA — it accepts either an engineering degree or a non-engineering degree as long as you studied Physics and Mathematics at the Class 12 level. This is the detail most generic “CDS eligibility” articles miss entirely: a B.Sc. graduate with PCM in Class 12 can be eligible for AFA even without an engineering degree, while a B.A. graduate without PCM cannot.
OTA (Officers’ Training Academy) Eligibility
OTA is the most accessible academy on paper: the widest age band (19–25), any-stream graduation accepted, and it’s the only one of the four currently open to women through CDS. Male candidates must be unmarried; women can apply if they’re unmarried, or if they’re issueless widows or issueless divorcees who haven’t remarried. Because the age ceiling runs a full year past IMA/INA/AFA, OTA is often where candidates who’ve aged out of the other three academies still have two to four sittings left.
Educational Qualification for CDS
- Final-year students can apply. If you’re in your last year of graduation, you can apply provisionally, provided you can furnish proof of having passed before the specified stage of the recruitment process (typically before the SSB interview or course commencement, depending on the notification).
- Stream matters for INA and AFA, not IMA or OTA. IMA and OTA accept a degree in any discipline. INA insists on an engineering degree. AFA accepts either an engineering degree or a PCM-at-12th-plus-any-degree combination.
- Diploma holders are usually not eligible. A polytechnic diploma, on its own, does not satisfy the “bachelor’s degree” requirement for any of the four academies.
- No minimum percentage is prescribed. There’s no cut-off percentage in graduation for CDS eligibility — a pass is a pass.
Marital Status and Gender
- IMA, INA, and AFA are currently open only to unmarried men.
- OTA is open to unmarried men and to women (unmarried, or issueless widows/divorcees who have not remarried).
- Marital status is generally verified at the time of joining the academy, so a candidate who is unmarried at the time of applying but gets married before joining can run into trouble — this is worth planning around, not discovering at the SSB stage.
Nationality and Citizenship Conditions
Most CDS applicants are Indian citizens, and that’s the simplest path through the eligibility check. UPSC’s notifications also list a small set of additional categories that remain eligible under specific conditions — subjects of Nepal, subjects of Bhutan, Tibetan refugees who settled in India before 1 January 1962 with the intention of permanently residing here, and people of Indian origin who migrated from certain countries with the same intention. If you fall into one of these categories, the age and education rules above still apply to you, but you’ll need to produce the specific certificates listed in the notification — so budget extra time for document verification.
How Many Attempts Can You Give for CDS?
This is probably the single most searched question on this topic, and the honest answer disappoints people looking for a number: CDS has no official cap on the number of attempts. You can appear as many times as you like, as long as you continue to meet the age, education, and other eligibility conditions for the academy you’re applying to.
What this means practically:
- Your “attempts remaining” is really a function of (your upper age limit − your current age) × 2, since CDS runs twice a year — not a fixed number UPSC hands out.
- Different academies give you a different number of remaining sittings from the same date of birth, because their age ceilings differ (as shown in the table above).
- Attempts you’ve already used count against this window even though UPSC doesn’t track a formal “attempt number” against your name the way, say, the Civil Services Examination does for General category candidates. If you’re 22 and have already sat for CDS three times, your honest remaining count for INA (ceiling 22) may already be zero, even though nothing on your UPSC profile says “3 attempts used.”
A rough real-world illustration: a candidate who enters the CDS window at 19 with an IMA/INA/AFA ceiling of 24 gets somewhere in the range of 8 to 10 written-exam sittings across those years, while the same candidate aiming at OTA’s 25-year ceiling gets two to four sittings beyond that. Your own number depends entirely on your date of birth and which academy you’re comparing against — which is exactly what a proper age-based calculator needs to compute per academy, not as one blended figure.
How to Calculate Your Remaining CDS Attempts (Step by Step)
- Fix your exact date of birth from your Class 10 certificate — this is the document UPSC accepts for age proof, and even a day’s discrepancy against your other records can cause rejection at the verification stage.
- Identify your target academy or academies. Don’t calculate one generic “CDS age limit” — check IMA, INA, AFA and OTA separately if you’re open to more than one.
- Check the reckoning date convention. Age is generally computed against a fixed cut-off date specified in each notification, not the day you sit the exam.
- Count forward in six-month cycles (CDS I and CDS II) from your current age to the academy’s upper limit.
- Subtract attempts you’ve already used, since your remaining opportunities shrink even though UPSC doesn’t publish this as a running tally.
If you’d rather not do this arithmetic by hand across four academies and a dozen exam cycles, that’s exactly what the CDS Attempt Calculator above is built to do — enter your date of birth, education, and previous attempts once, and it works out the academy-wise breakdown automatically.
The CDS Selection Process:
Clearing the age and education checks only gets you to the starting line. The full CDS journey runs through:
- Written examination — objective-type papers in English and General Knowledge for all academies, plus Elementary Mathematics for IMA, INA and AFA.
- SSB Interview — a multi-day process covering psychological tests, group tasks, and a personal interview.
- Medical examination — height, weight, vision, and general fitness standards, which differ slightly for men and women.
Meeting the eligibility criteria on paper is necessary but not sufficient — plan your preparation for all three stages, not just the written exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a fixed number of CDS attempts allowed?
No. CDS has no official attempt limit. You can apply as many times as you meet the age and eligibility criteria for your chosen academy.
What is the CDS age limit for IMA, INA, AFA, and OTA?
Broadly: IMA 19–24 years, INA 19–22 years, AFA 20–24 years (up to 26 with a valid DGCA CPL), and OTA 19–25 years — always confirm the exact cut-off dates against the current notification.
Can a final-year graduation student apply for CDS?
Yes. Final-year students can apply provisionally, subject to furnishing proof of having passed their degree by the stage specified in that cycle’s notification.
Do I need an engineering degree for CDS?
Only for INA, which requires a B.E./B.Tech degree. AFA accepts an engineering degree or a non-engineering degree with Physics and Maths at Class 12. IMA and OTA accept any bachelor’s degree.
Is CDS eligibility different for women?
Yes. Women can currently apply only for OTA through CDS. IMA, INA, and AFA induct only male candidates through this exam.
Is there age relaxation for SC/ST/OBC candidates in CDS?
No. Unlike many other UPSC examinations, CDS applies the same age bracket to every category, with no reserved-category relaxation.
How is age calculated for CDS — exam date or a fixed cut-off?
Age is reckoned against a specific cut-off date fixed in each notification, not the date you actually sit the exam. Always read this date carefully in the notification you’re applying under.
How many times is CDS conducted in a year?
Twice — CDS I and CDS II — giving eligible candidates two opportunities per year within their applicable age window.
Final Word
The reason “how many CDS attempts do I have left” doesn’t have one clean answer is that the question is really four questions in disguise — one for IMA, one for INA, one for AFA, one for OTA — each with its own age ceiling and its own education filter. Once you separate them, the arithmetic is simple: it’s your date of birth against a fixed academy-specific cut-off, run twice a year, minus whatever you’ve already used. Use the CDS Attempt Calculator on this page to get your own academy-wise breakdown in a few seconds, and always cross-verify the final figures against the official UPSC CDS notification before you submit your application.