JEE Main serves as an entrance test for NITs, IIITs, other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) as well as private engineering colleges and state-run technology institutes for states who have adopted the JEE system. JEE Main also serves as an eligibility test for JEE Advanced exam, which is conducted by the JEE Apex Board to select students for undergraduate engineering programs offered by the IITs and ISM Dhanbad.

            The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India (GOI) has established National Testing Agency (NTA) as an independent autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organization under Society Registration Act 1860 for conducting efficient, transparent and international standards tests in order to assess the competency of candidates for admissions to premier higher education institutions.                               

The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India has entrusted the responsibility of conducting Joint Entrance Examination JEE (Main) to the NTA from 2019 onwards.                               

Admission criteria to Undergraduate Engineering Programs at NITs, IIITs, other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTI), Institutions funded by participating State Governments, and other Institutions shall include the performance in the class 12/equivalent qualifying Examination and in the Joint Entrance Examination, JEE (Main). The (B. E. /B. Tech.) of JEE (Main) will also be an eligibility test for the JEE (Advanced), which the candidate has to take if he/she is aspiring for admission to the undergraduate programs offered by the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs).

        Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced (JEE-Advanced), formerly the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), is an academic examination held annually in India. It is conducted by one of the seven zonal IITs (IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, and IIT Guwahati) under the guidance of the Joint Admission Board (JAB). It is the sole prerequisite for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology. Other universities like the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs), and the Indian Institute of Science also use the score obtained in JEE Advanced as the basis for admission. Students already admitted to IIT cannot submit to the JEE-Advanced, but the same is not the case with IISc, IISER, RGIPT and other institutes, because these institutes only use JEE-Advanced scores as a criterion for admission