How many questions are in the IOE entrance exam, and is there negative marking?
The paper is computer-based, runs 2 hours, and has 100 questions worth 140 marks in total. 10% of the marks is deducted for a wrong answer.
The IOE entrance examination is a computer-based paper of 100 questions worth 140 marks, sat in two hours. Section A holds 60 questions at 1 mark each and Section B holds 40 at 2 marks each, and every question offers four options on screen. Ten per cent of a question’s marks is deducted for a wrong answer, so a wrong Section A answer costs 0.1 of a mark and a wrong Section B answer costs 0.2. Answers are given with the mouse, and the booklet states that the keyboard may not be used at all. One procedural rule decides more marks than most candidates expect: once you click any option you may change your choice, but you must then leave one of the four selected. A question can only be left blank by never clicking on it, so a provisional click cannot be undone.
- Mode
- Computer-based, answered by mouse; the keyboard may not be used
- Duration
- 2 hours
- Questions
- 100 in total: 60 worth 1 mark in Section A, 40 worth 2 marks in Section B
- Full marks
- 140
- Options
- 4 per question, shown on the monitor
- Wrong answer
- 10% of that question’s marks deducted
- Left unanswered
- Only possible if you never click an option
What does 10% negative marking cost in practice?
The deduction is a tenth of that question’s own marks rather than a whole mark, which changes the arithmetic of guessing. A wrong 1-mark answer in Section A costs 0.1, and a wrong 2-mark answer in Section B costs 0.2. The penalty therefore scales with the reward, and there is no section where guessing is systematically safer than the other.
Blind guessing across four options still has a negative expected value, but a guess narrowed to two plausible options remains worth taking. The candidates who lose most to this rule are the ones who fill every remaining blank in the last two minutes out of habit.
Can you change an answer, or leave one blank?
You can change an answer, and you can leave one blank, but not in the order most people assume. The booklet’s fourth special-notice point says that after clicking one option you may change to another, and that you must then have one of the four selected. Leaving a question unanswered is possible only by never clicking on it in the first place.
There is no published way to clear a selection once made. The common habit of marking a provisional answer and returning to it later does not work here, because that provisional click has already committed you to the 10% risk. Decide whether a question is worth answering before you touch it.
How long is there for each question?
One hundred questions in 120 minutes is an average of 72 seconds each, and that average includes the 40 two-mark items in Section B, which take longer than the one-mark items in Section A. Most candidates who know the material still lose marks to pace rather than to knowledge. The decision to move on has to be made before the click, not after it.
Pattern and negative marking read from printed page 3 of the booklet, and the four rules governing the on-screen interface from printed page 4. Section 3.2.6 on printed page 11 states the same two-hour duration and the same 10% deduction independently. Both figures were verified against rendered page images rather than extracted text, because the extraction of this booklet turns the printed “१०%” into “१०५”. The same PDF was re-downloaded and re-checked on 31 August 2026 and is unchanged. Verify the current year’s pattern in that year’s booklet, because the paper structure is set annually.
Sources
- IOE B.E./B.Arch Booklet 2083published 7 August 2026 · read 18 August 2026
Last reviewed by Ram Raj Thapa, Admissions Officer, Imperial College of Engineering. Every figure on this page is cited to the document it came from.
