4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 1, 2026 04:44 PM IST
When IIT Roorkee declared the JEE Advanced 2026 results on late Sunday, Kabeer Chhillar secured All India Rank (AIR) 2, scoring 329 out of 360 marks — just one mark behind AIR 1 holder Shubham Kumar, who scored 330. All three top rankers — Shubham Kumar, Kabeer Chhillar, and Jatin Chahar — belong to the IIT Delhi zone, which dominated the Common Rank List (CRL) this year. For Kabeer’s family, though, the number was never really the point.
JEE Advanced Results 2026 Live
“We would have been happy with any rank he got; this is just a bonus,” his father Mohit Chhillar, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, told indianexpress.com. “Our fundamentals and principles were very clear — do what you can, and do it honestly.” His mother, Priyanka Chhillar, is a private school teacher.
Kabeer himself said that he never studied for the number and focused on understanding things properly. His journey towards JEE Advanced topper does not start from the halls of the coaching centres, but when, after Class 10, he chose the Science stream, drawn by his curiosity for astronomy. His father recalls a moment from Class 2 when a teacher asked Kabeer to name the second farthest star from Earth. Instead of a single answer, young Kabeer listed the ten farthest. “He’s always been like that — once he gets curious, he goes all in,” his father said.
As Olympiads entered the picture alongside school, the family decided to send him to Kota to join Allen Coaching. The apprehension many parents feel about Kota’s intense environment gradually gave way as his performance improved and frequent family visits kept him emotionally grounded.
A defining principle, as suggested by his father, shaped how Kabeer attempted the exam: “Do it and forget about it.” Move forward, never dwell. “That mindset helped me stay grounded,” Kabeer admits. In an interview with the news agency, PTI, he said himself “mentally very strong” and said he needed to read a text only once to have enough comprehension to recall it when required.
His preparation was disciplined but not mechanical. “During self-study, I prioritise both my attention span and the quality of learning. After every test, I conducted a self-analysis and focused most intensely on the specific areas where I identified shortcomings. I fine-tuned my study strategy before every examination,” he said. Chemistry emerged as his strongest subject, and on most days, he devoted close to eight hours to studying.
Read | JEE Main 2026 top scorer, represented Haryana in soccer, eyes MIT for higher studies
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The journey of Kabeer Chhillar is incomplete without football. A passionate fan of the English Premier League, he has represented Haryana in several soccer competitions — a part of his life that took a back seat during the past year of intensive JEE preparation. “Football helps me reset. I definitely want it to be part of my college life again,” he said. Guitar, chess, and YouTube filled the smaller gaps.
His sights are now set firmly on CSE at IIT Bombay for his undergraduate degree. Beyond that, he has his eyes on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for higher studies.
A total of 1,79,694 candidates appeared for both papers of JEE Advanced 2026, held on May 17, with 56,880 qualifying for admission to the IITs and other participating institutions. Kabeer finished second among all of them. For a boy who says he never studied for the number, the number turned out to be rather extraordinary.