On the days when his preparation for JEE (Advanced) took a toll on him, Sikka would step away from his desk. He would play chess, head out to play sports with friends, or simply leave the books behind for a few hours.

“I tried studying 14-15 hours a day for two days,” he recalled. “It didn’t work for me. The cognitive load became too much. I couldn’t process things properly and my problem-solving ability started going down.” he told The Indian Express on Monday.

Among the 1,79,694 candidates who appeared for both papers of JEE (Advanced) 2026 on May 17, Sikka secured an All India Rank (AIR) 10 with a score of 311 out of 360 marks. The results, declared on Monday, placed him among the country’s highest-performing engineering aspirants.

All three top rankers — Shubham Kumar, Kabir Chhillar, and Jatin Chahar — belong to the IIT Delhi zone, which dominated the Common Rank List (CRL) this year.

While Kumar scored 330 out of 360 marks, Chhillar received 329 marks. Chahar secured the third place with 319 marks.

For Sikka, who lives near South Extension and studied at Delhi Public School, R.K Puram, the journey to crack one of India’s toughest examinations began much earlier, in Class 9.

Some of his friends had started preparing for competitive examinations, and he found himself drawn to the challenge. “I tried some problem-solving and liked the idea of solving difficult questions,” he said. “I wanted to take it up as a challenge. And Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is one of the most prestigious institutions, so I wanted to get into it.”

Sikka says chemistry wasn’t his strong suit. “Chemistry was my major weakness during preparation,” he said. “I kept revising repeatedly, and because of support from my teachers, I was able to improve my performance.”

“There wasn’t a 16-hour study schedule,” he said with a laugh. Instead, he generally limited himself to around 10 or 11 hours of study each day and made sleep non-negotiable.

“I tried to get seven hours of sleep every day,” he said. “My mother made sure of it. If I wasn’t getting enough sleep, she would practically force me to sleep.”

His father played a different but equally important role. When mock test scores dipped and frustration mounted, the solution was often not another practice paper. “My father would say, ‘let’s go somewhere,'” Sikka said. “Just getting out with family helped.”

The breaks, he believes, were essential. “Studying continuously for very long hours didn’t work for me. The mental load became too much to handle.”

Throughout his preparation, he maintained friendships, continued playing sports and occasionally turned to chess to clear his mind. The friendships extended to his coaching centre as well.

“My friend group was very good,” he said. “The teachers were also quite chill. There were a lot of jokes and fun interactions in class.”

Sikka expects to pursue Computer Science, choosing between IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi. At the moment, IIT Bombay appears to be the frontrunner, though he says he has not made a final decision.

“I’ll get to meet new people and make new friends. I think the peer group will be very good.” he said, adding that he is excited to step into an IIT for further studies.

However, if there is one thing he remains uncertain about, it is the future beyond college. When he was younger, Sikka developed a strong interest in web development and imagined building a career around it. But the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has forced him to rethink his options.

“I used to think web development was a great career option,” he said. “Then, a couple of years later everyone started saying that AI would build websites.”

“Right now, I want to keep an open mind,” he added. “I’ll explore different things in college and then decide what interests me the most.”

Now, with the examination behind him, Sikka is rediscovering the hobbies that had taken a back seat due to the preparation. Tennis, video games and hangouts with friends have returned to his routine. Later this month, he will visit relatives in Punjab before heading to Scotland with his family.