The IIT JEE commonly known as JEE Advanced, UPSC Exam, GATE are in the list of top 8 toughest exams in the world, as per a report by Erudera, an online education search platform. The JEE Advanced has been ranked as the second toughest exams in the world and the toughest in India, UPSC exam is listed at third spot and GATE is the third most and eighth toughest exams in the world.
As per the report, the success rate for IIT JEE is one per cent, UPSC exam is between 0.1 per cent to 0.3 per cent, GATE has a success rate of around 18 per cent.
Here's the list of top 8 toughest exams in the world
Gaokao Exam (China)- Gaokao is the toughest exam in the world, as per the Erudera report. Every year, over 10 million students appeared for Gaokao; 13.35 million sat for the Gaokao 2025 while 13.42 million students took the test in 2024.
Gaokao, the China's national college entrance exam assess candidate's knowledge across multiple subjects- Chinese, Maths, English, plus subjects of choice among three streams- Humanities, Science and Commerce.
To check malpractices, stringent measures such as AI-powered cameras are being installed in exam centres, drones and other high-tech tools are being used to watch over the process.
IIT JEE- IIT JEE exam is the second toughest exam in the world which is conducted for taking admission in BTech courses in IITs. Over 10 lakh students appeared for JEE Advanced exam yearly, the success rate for IIT JEE exam is around one per cent
UPSC exam- The UPSC exam is the third toughest exam in the world, the success rate in UPSC is between 0.1 per cent to 0.3 per cent. The UPSC civil service exam is being conducted to select candidates for the post of IFS, IAS, IPS, IRS, other reputed government service.
Mensa- England's Mensa test is the fourth toughest exam in the world. The IQ challenge involves trying to solve 35 puzzles within 25 minutes.
GRE- Graduate Record Examination is the fifth toughest exam in the world, and it is used to evaluate students who choose to pursue further education abroad.
CFA- The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam is regarded as the most demanding and challenging in the field of Finance. Every year, over a lakh people from more than 100 countries attempt to pass CFA. The success rate of CFA is around 43 per cent, as per the report.
CCIE: The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) is a advanced networking certifications exam that require candidates to pass both written exam and lab exam. The success rate of CCIE is around 26 per cent.
GATE exam: GATE is the eighth most toughest entrance exams in the world held for admission to post graduate degree programmes in engineering/ tech/ architecture streams.
