The NDA exam is conducted by UPSC for admission to the Army, Navy and Air Force wings of the NDA. This exam is a gateway for candidates looking forward to joining Defence Forces including Army, Navy and Air Force. This is a national level exam conducted twice a year: NDA I and NDA II to help candidates make a career in Defence services.
The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the Joint Services academy of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force train together before they go on to pre-commissioning training in their respective service academies. The NDA is located in Khadakwasla near Pune, Maharashtra. It is the first tri-service academy in the world.
The training at NDA is rigorous. In addition to service training for the Army, Navy and AirForce, the cadets are also taught academics to cover the graduation level degree in Arts, Sciences or Computers. The training at NDA is broken into six terms and the total duration of training is three years. Once their training is concluded, the cadets are awarded their bachelor’s degree at the passing out parade of NDA. Thereafter the cadets go to their respective service institutes i.e. the Indian Military Academy or IMA for army cadets, Air Force Academy Hyderabad for Air force cadets and Naval Academy Cochin for Naval Cadets.